Ladybirds

Spring is on it's way and the bugs are starting to appear. This is my

first attempt at macro in the garden and any advice will be welcome.

Thanks for a larger viewing.

Hi Gareth,

Certainly a nice scene from the garden.

One word of advise: FOCUS.

The other settings are fine, but the focus has to be spot on to develop the full potential of the micro Nikkor 60mm F/2.8 lens. It is possible that you still moved the camera when the shutter was depressed, but at 1/1250 second, that is less likely to reduce the definition from what I see here.

I trust that you did not use Auto Focus. Manual focus is the way to go.

You might find that Live View can better assist you in obtaining the best plane of focus, too.

Best Regards, Mike

Best regards Gareth!

PDE

Very nice colours and light. Strong composition.

And I (also) think that you would have to use a higher F number to catch "all scene" in focus. Too bad because such an opportunity is quite rare... So, further success in the "hunting" of the ladybugs.....

Regards,

DanS

Thank you all for the comments.

I should add I knew at the time I would not get all 3 bugs in focus, yes I could have stopped down or moved back a bit then cropped. My aim of focus was the left edge of the leaf and the left legs of the bug as they appeared to be in the same plane of focus. I should have made my intentions clear.

The ladybirds/bugs love this bush, I think my daughter counted 35 on this occasion so hopefully I will get more chances of another shot.

I will put this in my 'could do better' folder!

Gareth.

Hi Gareth,

You are fortunate to have such a nice garden where the ladybirds come and group together.

You might want to consider different perspectives when shooting them as they rest upon the leaves.

The main point to a macro is to identify what you want to be your best plane of focus to highlight what you are showing. If the ladybirds are not the main subject, then focusing on other areas accomplishes what you set out to achieve.

The fact that you have a very densely populated sensor in the Nikon D7000 does allow you to precisely image more than the edge of a leaf in focus at F/2.8, provided that you relocate of re-position your angle to the subject. Then the crop and enlarge process will be successful.

The micro Nikkor 60mm also works well with little compromise at F/5.6, and this does allow a bit more room to maintain focus across the main subject matter.

As for vibration or hand motion, I understand that you do use Live View and a tripod with a cable release. Do not forget to use the  Mirror Lock Up function and wait a few seconds after fringe the trigger the first time to move the mirror out of the way.

Now, what is left ? use a magnifier on the Live View screen to be certain of sharp focus. The are many times that the focus is NOT as precise as you think until your really examine it closely. Magnifying the image helps, but a magnifier is best. Now, if focus is correct, there remains a couple of other issues to address.

Be certain that there is no lens creep due to the camera circuit providing current to the lens connections. Be certain that the camera is set for manual focus mode.

Then there is the exposure itself. Any motion due to a breeze or the bug itself can result in image sharpness loss. If the ISO needs to be very high, especially when shooting at F/2.8 to F/5.6, then a flash is advised. Shot at 1/200 second with the flash.

Best Regards,  Mike

Excellent, provocative contrast. Congratulations.