# How to DSLR?



## Harbinger (Aug 24, 2013)

So i finally got a lens, a tamron 90mm bla bla bla to go with my canon 600D. Havent managed many pictures yet, it has a very very narrow band of  focus, dont know how to fix that yet. And it takes ages to focus on  something, zooming in and out, then seemingly going in mm by mm and taking  ages to do so, only resulting in a blown up white blur. Been messing around with the apeture, the lowest goes as low as 2.8, tried changing it up and in between, but no change...
What kinda of settings would you reccomend?

Also slightly pissed that apparantly its got some amazing auto stabalising feature on it, turned it on, kept my hands braced against something and went as still as i could, still blurred...

I cant believe i've found something more stressful than gaming.


----------



## kap (Aug 24, 2013)

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like your camera's software is having issues. You will have to get the retailer or manufacturer to help you with that. I doubt it has anything to do with the aperture or the stabilizing. 

In the mean time, instead of allowing it to auto-focus, set the focus to manual mode. There should be a switch somewhere on the side of the lens that says "M...A". Switch it to M. Then, on your lens, there are two parts - one is the part with a grip on it that you use to zoom in and out. Inside that is a part that has no grips on it. If you have switched the focus to manual mode, you will be able to adjust this inner part to focus. Hopefully, that solves your focusing problem.


----------



## Kangamutt (Aug 25, 2013)

What ISO setting do you normally shoot at?


----------



## Harbinger (Aug 25, 2013)

100, i know as much as that its got to be low like that if your shooting in well lit area's.
And yeah tried setting it to manual, everything's still blurred.


----------



## powderhound (Aug 25, 2013)

I need a little more information about what you're shooting, the conditions and the subject distance. Canon has always had some issues with their autofocus compared to Nikon until recently. That particular lens I believe also is known to have some auto focus issues. The 600 D is a fine camera and should serve you well enough. There's a few things to work out on the operator end. If the lens is under warranty and you can't work it out, send it back, tell them what camera body you're using and they will specifically tune it to your body.  In my experience the lenses come back dramatically better than when you sent them in. That said I still would only recommend Canon and Nikon lenses. They really do give you much better colors, contrast, dynamic range, and focus than third party lenses. I have never been satisfied with Tamaron or Sigma and do not find the cost savings to be significant anyway.

There is huge variation in quality between Sigma and Tamron lenses. The quality control is not like Nikon or Canon. If you don't get a good copy though usually sigma or Tamron will take care of you.

Okay, I presume you're shooting macro. The aperture will control your depth of field (or how much of the subject is in focus). If you want more of the subject in focus you need to use a smaller aperture. That is, if I shoot a mantis head at F 4 only the eye may be in focus but if I shoot at f22 the entire head and body maybe in focus. How much depth you get will also depend on how close or far you are from the object. The closer you are the smaller the depth of field will be. 

For close macro work of small objects I recommend shooting at F16-22, ISO 200, Shutter speed (the fastest your camera will sync with, commonly 200), shoot manual mode and exposure on TTL. The flash will then automatically properly expose the photograph. You will need an off camera external flash to shoot with such small apertures so close. 

Depth of field with macro means small apertures so you gotta bring a lot of light with you. Do you have an external flash?

 The frog picture I posted in your last photography thread was taken with the above settings. 
http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/137015-Pet-and-wildlife-photography-thread

I need to know a little more about what you're doing and if you have an extra flash inorder to give you any meaningful recommendations.

If you're getting soft images consistently with autofocus locked then the lens needs to be adjusted. What Tamaron model lens specifically is this? You should search to find out if it has autofocus hunting issues. If it does find out if Tamaron has fixed this for others sending it back. However I wouldn't bother if it's not under warranty. 

For the type of macro you seem to like I would probably get a Canon 100 mm and sell the Tamron. In Nikon the 60mm is my favorite because it gives you much more depth of field at very close distances. That's the lens the above frog picture was taken with. It's capable of one-to-one macro. However the Canon 60mm is not. Personally I don't use my 105 mm very much because as you have noticed the depth of field is extremely shallow close up. It all depends how big and how far away. I generally recommend the 60mm for people starting out with macro as it's much more forgiving and versatile.


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

Yeah, we definitely need some more info. Especially about the shutter speed and aperture that you used. And what mode did you use? M, S, A or P?

Blurring can have many reasons. Usually it comes down to user error though. 
First there is camera shake which you get when the shutter speed is too slow when you are shooting handheld. The rule of thumb says shutter speed = 1/focal length. So with a 90mm lens your shutter speed should at least be 1/90th of a second (I don't think that setting exists so you should go for at least a1/100th of a second).
The next reason for blurring is the depth of field. This is especially true for macro lenses! The closer you get and the wider your aperture, the smaller your depth of field. With 90mm at f2.8 that would be ridiculously slim. So as Powder said, you have to stop down your aperture quite a bit, as he said somewhere between f16 and f22. I usually avoid stopping down all the way because that can have a negative effect on the image quality as well.
Be aware that stopping down the aperture decreases the amount of light that you get on your sensor! Every full stop halves the amount of light so your shutter speed needs to be twice as long to get the same exposure or you need to increase the ISO.
For example, if you are shooting at 1/100, ISO 100, f2.8 and you stop down your aperture by one full stop, which is f4, to get the same exposure you either have to use
1/50, ISO 100, f4
or
1/100, ISO 200, f4.

This is the exposure triangle. Understanding how ISO, aperture and shutter speed work together and what else they affect is pretty much the most important thing to learn about photography.

I am not much of a macro shooter but I would probably set it to 1/100th of a second, ISO 200 or 400 and the aperture somewhere around f16. It heavily depends on the available light so I can't tell you anything specific.
If the subject doesn't move a tripod is very useful in this situation. Because with a tripod you don't have to worry about the shutter speed and you can keep it at ISO 100!
You also have to keep the minimum object distance in mind. On your lens it should be around 29cm, I don't know for sure. It says on the lens how close you can get.  If you go closer than this minimum distance your image can't be sharp because the lens can't focus that closely!

Photography isn't stressful. It just takes a lot of patience to learn the basics.
I recommend a normal 35mm or 50mm prime lens for the learning process.  Prime lenses are sharp, fast and inexpensive and the fixed focal length makes you think about your shot.


----------



## Harbinger (Aug 25, 2013)

Thanks for all the help guys, you're explained it better to me than a year of college, they gave us a DSLR very rarely, then gave us an hour or less to come back with a movie. The lens im using is a Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro VS USD, i was going to get the Canon 100mm, but several people said i might aswell get the Tamron for 50 quid more as it supposidely does the same with more features. Looked online and the reviews said the same. And no i dont have an external flash yet, before i only really took photo's in daylight as it showed the colours of my invertebrates better so didnt think i had to, but by the sounds of it guessing i should then.

Had the camera on the AV setting, aperture priority i think.

And yeah i dont have enough patience, with anything, been playing with the camera most of the morning. Its an overcast day so had the ISO at 400, aperture was 2.8 to 7 i think, here's the best of what i managed earlier.

These first two were on 2.8 i think, then i remembered and tried turning it up.
















I know this one is a lil dark, kept hiding in the shadow.






And one of the few images i thought was alright.


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

Haha, dude! Those are great shots!  They are sharp, the exposure is correct and I like the composition as well!
Sure, you could have stopped the aperture down a little but these still work really well because in every file the eyes are still completely in focus.

Do you shoot RAW or JPG?


----------



## Harbinger (Aug 25, 2013)

JPG for the moment, and thanks 
Yeah i was just completely messing around with it, dialing it up and down because i didnt notice a difference straight away. I was taking them free hand whilst they were perched on a branch and as i said its pretty cloudy today, hopefully they might look better in the sun. Deffiniatly better than what i took yesterday, was just white, or black, maybe with a different coloured blur in the corner.


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

Harbinger said:


> JPG for the moment, and thanks
> Yeah i was just completely messing around with it, dialing it up and down because i didnt notice a difference straight away. I was taking them free hand whilst they were perched on a branch and as i said its pretty cloudy today, hopefully they might look better in the sun. Deffiniatly better than what i took yesterday, was just white, or black, maybe with a different coloured blur in the corner.



It takes a while to get used to DSLRs but once you get the hang of it you start to improve rather rapidly.
What other lenses and equipment do you have for it right now?

I also highly recommend using the RAW format. It just gives you so many more possibilities in terms of editing! As long as the exposure is at least somewhat ok you can save almost any foto by editing the RAW material. That's just yet another thing to learn and the proper software to edit them can be expensive.


----------



## Harbinger (Aug 25, 2013)

Yeah i dont have photoshop 
My PC's so crap it cant run it.
It came with 2 lenses, a 50mm canon one and another one which i cant remember.


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

Harbinger said:


> Yeah i dont have photoshop
> My PC's so crap it cant run it.
> It came with 2 lenses, a 50mm canon one and another one which i cant remember.



Photoshop alone doesn't handle RAW files :3 For that you need a special software like Adobe Lightroom (which is bloody amazing).
50mm sounds good! Is it the 50mm f1.8? I am not a Canon user but that thing sounds like a very fun lens^^
So now you have three lenses, correct? The 50mm, the one you don't remember and the 90mm Tamron, right? The 50mm alone is a good way to start! :3


----------



## AshleyAshes (Aug 25, 2013)

Photoshop itself can handle RAW files, it has it's own importing tool.    Look, there's even a page for it, listing when it's updated and what cameras are supported: http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/extend.html


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

AshleyAshes said:


> Photoshop itself can handle RAW files, it has it's own importing tool.    Look, there's even a page for it, listing when it's updated and what cameras are supported: http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/extend.html



Older versions couldn't use RAW files without a plugin. Please do excuse that I didn't take a look at the newer versions yet :T
Lightroom, or a dedicated RAW tool in generel, still is the better solution for handling RAW files though in my opinion.


----------



## powderhound (Aug 25, 2013)

That lens is known to have autofocus hunting issues. However for them to be as severe as you originally described I suspect given the tiny things you're taking pictures of that your focus distance was just too close. 

I quite like your first picture. The shallow depth of field actually adds to the photograph. A flash would have given you very saturated colors and added contrast to your image.

Your limited by light at the moment.  Macro photography is all about light. Light let's you stop down for more DOF. It lets you use a faster shutter speed (important because your camera has a 1.6 crop factor making that lens 140mm so it magnifies even small motions and robs your sharpness. Light will saturate your colors and make the pictures pop. You need to be using your flash. Your on camera flash will work but you will find if you get too close the lens itself will create a shadow and block the flash. You need to be able to use a handheld flash. When you handhold the flash you can light from whatever angle you want and adjust the shadows. Lighting from above, side or below will give different results. At small apertures you can use with the flash you will also find that your background is black which provides a very cool effect focusing on things this small. 

Don't buy a non-canon flash or it won't communicate with your cameras metering software as well.

Extension tubes are cheap and will also allow you to get closer blowing these little guys up larger however your depth of field will also decrease and lighting will be more problematic so close.

Forget shooting raw for right now. If you're doing a lot of postprocessing and trying to pull dynamic range from your shadows fine, shoot raw. Since you don't even have editing software or the inclination to use it I would instead shoot JPEG and allow the cameras software to make adjustments for you. The in camera software is actually quite outstanding and produces very pleasing results. Canon JPEG compression is not as good as Nikons and so canon users often exclusively shoot raw wile many Nikon shooters are happier with their JPEG images.

A lot of my underwater photos are widely published. I'm the go too guy for certain critters. I've had just as many published that I shot with JPEG as raw so don't let anyone tell you that you can't get good results shooting JPEG. For research projects where I have to shoot hundreds of shots of a critter I prefer it. They look better out of the camera and processing so many individual photos is a pain. Sometimes there's a once-in-a-lifetime shot in there you wish was raw, but I've still been just fine with the JPEG. 

If you shoot JPEG you can easily take advantage of the in camera processing. Play with your picture settings and observe how they change the look of the image. For invertebrates playing with your saturation is gonna give you the biggest enhancement. 

Bump your sharpness one point, bump your saturation two points. Start with that. Play around with the saturation colortone and contrast. It will dramatically change how poppy you can make the image come out of the camera in JPEG.

I have around $20k in lenses. For some underwater projects I have to use 3rd party glass because nikon or canon don't make an appropriate version for the conditions. I never ever use them above the waterline. Having a lot of lenses gives me to luxury of making comparisons between manufacturers on land. The image produced by Canon or Nikon glass is always more pleasing. Particularly with nikon. Unless the Canon lenses won't do what you want I would stick with them even if they cost more. The canon/nikon glass will always hold it's value while the camera will lose value. You can usually resell your lenses  years later for exactly what you paid for them if you buy used. 

I would consider selling the tamron and getting the Canon 100mm F2.8 IS L for general macro. It will give you better dynamic range and color, but primarily more accurate and faster autofocus.

For more serious macro work, like small bugs and spiders, I would consider the 180mm F3.5 macro from Canon. However I wouldn't start there. When it comes to popular namebrand glass like the Canon 100 mm you can buy it, use it, then sell it for what you paid and move to the 180 later.

For today. Pick something macro. Move back a little and try your onboard flash. The maximum allowable sync speed is 1/200 on your camera, use that so you don't lose as much sharpness hand holding the camera. Don't worry about losing sharpness at higher F stops, these macro lenses should be plenty sharp up to f32. Start with ISO 200 and F11. The flash will properly expose the shot, Be sure your exposure compensation is set to zero.

Take a picture, then stop down, take another picture and repeat until you get all the way to  f32. Look how your depth of field has changed. This will start to give you a feel for the settings. As your aperture gets smaller if you find the onboard flash isn't giving you enough light then you have 3 options. Increase your ISO, or dial-up the exposure compensation to make the flash put out more light or get closer. That camera should give good results anywhere between ISO 100 and 800.

FYI the onboard flash puts out light in the same plane as the lens so you will get nasty reflections off exoskeleton and eyes. A handheld flash allowing you to light from the side or above will solve this problem.

Also for macro composition you should be set for a single center focus point and non-continuous autofocus. That way you can get what ever part in focus you want then recompose the rest of the animal in the image.

Having good control of light and DOF is important when shooting in enclosures. You can make the enclosure undetectable by blurring the background with a wide aperture as you have found already. However with a high f stop you can black out the background as well. Shooting upward from below also provides good macro critter perspectives while making enclosures less detectable.


----------



## Harbinger (Aug 25, 2013)

Thanks for the tips, will give em a try tomorrow. I tried again when we had some freak sun shine this afternoon, but it was windy and i was rushing like hell before the sun went in so most of them came out horrendously shakey. Later though i think i found the point where it gets shakey from being too close and when it doesnt, been using manual focus a lot so i havent noticed the AF problems so much, thats if they were problems in the first place and not me just sticking the camera too close. So a flash would even be necessary in dayllight then?
How much would a decent canon one cost?
Might have to start watching the budget now, trying to start keeping dart frogs at the same time 

Here's the two better shots i managed this afternoon, thanks for the help again.


----------



## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2013)

The first one is great^^

Photography is all about light. That is especially true with macro shots since you have to close the aperture quite a bit for more depth of field, so you really do need all the light you can get for a decent shutter speed. A flash definitely comes in handy then, especially if you can fire it remotely.

A Canon Speedlight 430EX costs about 300 bucks.
The 100mm f2.8 L macro costs about 1000 bucks.


----------



## powderhound (Aug 25, 2013)

You are lucky. The 600 D was one of the first canon cameras where the onboard flash could be used to control certain off-camera flashes. You should buy a 430EX. They can be had on eBay for under $100. They have an infrared autofocus assist that will allow your lenses autofocus to do much better particularly in low light and they are tall enough for light to clear your macro lens up close. However what you want it for is to be able to hold it freehand above your insect and then allow the cameras onboard flash to fire, correctly assess the exposure, and communicate that information with the flash you're holding your hand. Other cameras require radio control. The slave (light controlled triggering rather than radio) systems use the cameras onboard flash on 600D and work reasonably well as long as the sensor on the handheld flash can see the pop-up flash on the camera.


The 430ex II has some additional features.
Tutorial:
http://youtu.be/UqOhJ0EUiP8


I have to preface this by saying that I know nothing about Canon flash systems. The Nikon creative lighting system is far superior to canons therefore when I do flash photography I use my Nikons. I don't even own a Canon flash. I really only use Canon for super telephoto photography because I'm invested in the lenses there.


----------



## Harbinger (Sep 21, 2013)

I was sure i already replied to this, anyway thanks both again, i got my dart frogs in the end so thats all sorted, can finally start looking into getting that flash now. Havent had much chance to use the camera ever since, but yeah freehand without anything to prop up against almost all of the shots werent sharp or in focus. I did remember to play around with it today and messed around with exposure, like the result with this one.






Other than that i've just been changing white balance, ISO and the f stop every time i've used it.

But again thanks both, i should have just signed up and spent a year on here instead of that college course, informative and a lot easier to grasp


----------



## Harbinger (Nov 7, 2013)

My 21st today, just got 430ex II 
Now to try and process how to work it all <_<


----------



## CaptainCool (Nov 7, 2013)

Sweet! 
Some additional stuff for the flash may be helpful though. Like a diffuser so that the light isn't as harsh or a reflector.
They both make a huge difference in image quality! The light is a lot less harsh.


----------



## Harbinger (Nov 30, 2013)

Its got a lil flippy down thing over the flash, havent played around with it too much yet but i tried it out a lot the other week, here's the best results so far, its proving a bit tricky to get my head around after just barely figuring the default camera out.


----------



## powderhound (Dec 1, 2013)

Happy 21st Harbinger!

Ahhh. A flash, finaly! I can already see a difference in the pics. Set it up as an off camera flash that you will hand hold and will be triggered by the main flash on the camera. If you set it up right the camera will calculate the exposure and turn both flashes off when the correct exposure is reached. Set your shutter speed for the fastest your camera can sync the flash at (1/200). The only thing you will adjust is the f-stop. 

You can now increase your f-stop to give you sharper pictures with more depth of field or decrease it to blur things out. 

Even in bright light if you increase the F-stop enough you will black out the background entirely as you did above. However hand holding the flash you will not have lighting problems. 

This was shot at f22 to black out the background but hand holding the flash the lens will not cast a shadows. 

Flip the flash diffuser down for macro work. You may even wish to soften it further with by making a light box for it. 

Also I'd bump your saturation +1. [Pic]

In contrast, leaving the settings the same and decreasing the f-stop to f8, only the tip of the nose is in focus... However the exposure is still correct as the flash does the work for you. It makes it so easy to play around and get artistic while not having to worry about exposure.
[Pic]


----------



## Harbinger (Jan 12, 2014)

I'll try that next, didnt see your post untill now 
Had a lenghy go with it the other day, has the camera wedged between the window and up against my arm keeping it practically motionless with the flash on yet every single photo came out blured with hairs being thick blurry lines and shit. Will try those settings next though. My old digital camera still seems to have gotten better pics easier :/


----------



## powderhound (Jan 12, 2014)

Sorry Harbinger those pics of the above post arn't on the web anymore. I'll try to get'em back up for you. I just got a Canon 7D in the mail today. It'll be interesting to compare to my Nikon.


----------



## Harbinger (Mar 30, 2014)

Schweet, does that come before or after the 5D?
I have no idea how their numbering system works.
I really need to get my flash on again, i havent properly tried out your suggestions yet. Took the flash off soon after, couldnt work it and i need to photograph something for documents sake, and since then i havent used it much and its just been for quick snaps here and there, a little late i know but when i get time off i'll sit down with it and give it all a try.
Here's a couple i've taken without it since then though.

















I think i have kinda got used to the whole aperture and shutter speed settings now a lil bit.


----------



## CaptainCool (Mar 31, 2014)

Yes, I think you did :3
That last shot seems to be just a tiny bit blurry though. But it's hard to tell whether the cause is missed focus or motion blur... I think it may be the latter.
There is a rule of thumb to avoide camera shake: Shutter speed = 1/(focal length*crop factor)
So if you use a 105mm macro lens on a Canon crop sensor DSLR your shutter speed should be at least 1/(105*1.6) = 168, so at least 1/160s or 1/200s. But less is always better when it comes to shutter speed.

But anyway, those are lovely shots :3 Did they come straight out of the camera like this or did you edit them?


----------



## Harbinger (Mar 31, 2014)

When im using my camera next and my brains processed that math i'll give it a try 
And thanks 
Yeah i dont have photoshop or anything so i just bung them online straight from the camera. 
About that last one, that mantis must be the smallest one i ever photographed, little bastard doesnt keep still either and their antennae naturally flickers constantly


----------



## CaptainCool (Mar 31, 2014)

Harbinger said:


> When im using my camera next and my brains processed that math i'll give it a try
> And thanks
> Yeah i dont have photoshop or anything so i just bung them online straight from the camera.
> About that last one, that mantis must be the smallest one i ever photographed, little bastard doesnt keep still either and their antennae naturally flickers constantly



You really just have to remember it for each lens, there isn't a whole lot of maths involved X3 Like when you shoot with a 200mm lens on a crop camera you might want to keep it at 1/300s as a minimum. Or even shorter if you use a very heavy lens like my 1.5 kilo 80-200mm f2.8 :3 When I shoot that thing handhelt I try to keep it at at least 1/500s when I am not using my monopod.

As for editing, you might want to invest in Adobe Lightroom. I VERY highly recommend that. Not only is it a great too for editing photos in general, it's mainly used for editing RAW files. Since you said you are getting these files straight from the camera I take it you are shooting JPG. And whole your images do look absolutely awesome you could bring them to the next level if you were to start shooting RAW :3 It has SO many advantages!
You messed up the white balance? Just change it later! Want to precisely change the exposure a little? No problem! It also let's you play with the colors very accurately and it makes editing large amounts of files easy as well because you can apply your changes to other photos.

If you are not sure about buying it just pirate it to test it... I'm not encouraging piracy, just buy it if you like it afterwards X3 There is no trial version as far as I know and it costs around 80 bucks. That is a lot of money to spend on something that you might not like!

I just edited the photo of the spider a little, if you want to see what I did I could upload it and show you.


----------



## Harbinger (Oct 25, 2014)

Guess you still dont have that edited pic after all this time?
Forgot to check back on this thread >_<
I did get an adobe photoshop trial but it expired before i tried anything with it. Since i got this camera i've basically just been stuck in a loop of just hurrying up and getting a quick photo of whatever animal im looking at before it either dies or the sun goes in so i never really experiment. Today is the first day i've actually managed to get the flash working as a slave.
But have a new problem now, the flash turns itself of within seconds and the evaluative metering fucked up, only the top right dot is working, and yeah i've looked at the setting and its definitely set on all of them, even tried the other settings and its still just that one dot <_<
Gonna take some pics with this slave set up in a bit at last.


----------



## Harbinger (Oct 25, 2014)

Well i just went upstair and now it just fucked.
It either stays on and wont find the camera or 9/10 just turns instantly off.
I give up.


----------



## CaptainCool (Oct 25, 2014)

Maybe its the batteries? Flashes are very picky with the remaining juice their batteries.
But unfortunately I can't really help you with that, I have no experience with Canon flash setups :T

And I think I do still have it! I'll check when I'm back home.


----------



## Harbinger (Oct 25, 2014)

Yep, my dad had a battery tester handy, all of them are above 75%, was using it in the exact same set up as when i first got it working aswell.


----------



## CaptainCool (Oct 25, 2014)

The flash might be broken then. I suppose it's still under warranty? Can you take it to a camera shop? They would be more than happy to help you with it^^
As I said, I can't give you any advice in this case since I have absolutely no idea how Canon flashes work. It did work with the slave setup before, right?

Here is the edited shot:
http://abload.de/img/13199132653_c791c0cb14tjb2.jpg

I mainly just made it a little brighter and played with the colors just a little bit. I could do more with a RAW file :3


----------

