Blue Damselfly

All the other creepy crawlies and animals that interact with your garden and the countryside
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johnd83
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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by johnd83 » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:29 pm

I keep trying mate.

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Kev
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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by Kev » Wed Jul 02, 2014 8:44 pm

The key is not to try and keep it in focus while you move about. Even breathing in and out will push it in and out of focus and it's hard to keep up with that manually. Set the focus roughly right and leave it, then take several pictures and you move back and forth a little (less than an inch). One of them should be in the right place.

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Placido
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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by Placido » Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:52 pm

That "moving about slightly" and taking half a dozen snaps is how I've managed to get my modern equivalent of the Kodak Brownie to take half-decent pix (well, in focus anyway), Kev.
The hold your breath thing is something I'll have to work on ........

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Kev
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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by Kev » Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:25 pm

Depending on the subject, lens and distance to the object, your depth of focus can be literally paper thin so you don't have to move by much to go from perfect focus on the eyes to missing it. The eyes are really key to a good insect photo. It's hard to do. It's even harder to do in one shot without a tripod while you're breathing and you'll wobble very slightly back and forth and the wind will move your subject a tiny bit too. Modern cameras allow you to take as many pictures as you like because they're free, so you might as well try some techniques to minimise your chances of missing focus and maximise your chances of a good picture. So I take between 4 and 10 of pretty much every insect I shoot because they're hard to get dead on, even with auto focus, because the subject is very small and focus is hard to get exactly right.

I can go out for an hour and take nearly 200 pictures and end up posting as few as 10 on here. Lots of others are no good because the focus is out by less than a millimetre and that 'ruins' the shot for me.

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Placido
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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by Placido » Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:26 pm

God bless modern cameras !!!
It was 8 pix to a roll of film when I had my first Kodak and each shot was precious. Action shots were impossible and most were of static groups of rellies grinning inanely at the camera :laugh: (in black 'n' white of course) and no way of focusing !!

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Re: Blue Damselfly

Post by Jacksparrow » Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:59 pm

Placido wrote:God bless modern cameras !!!
It was 8 pix to a roll of film when I had my first Kodak and each shot was precious. Action shots were impossible and most were of static groups of rellies grinning inanely at the camera :laugh: (in black 'n' white of course) and no way of focusing !!
The first camera I had was a box Brownie. You got the image through a series of mirrors in the camera and thought you'd done well to get all of everyone in the photo. In focus was a bonus. :)

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