Okay, so I have a Nikon D40 model. Bare bones with no extras... right now. I am trying to get better results with the macro pics that I'm trying to take, but to no avail. I am NOT, I repeat, I am NOT a photographer in the slightest, but need some advice if there's any available out there.

I just got in some killer new pieces at the gallery from Paul Kaiju and I am trying to get better pix than I'm getting. I'm not trying to be Ansel Adams or anything, just wanna start getting some better pix.

H E L P

Tanx

So i'll asume you have the standard kit lens, 18-55mm?

If so that's not going to do macro, it doesn't close enough. But it depends what you mean by 'macro' as shooting toys doesn't really need macro.

The best way to get close is to flip the lens to manual from auto and focus the lens by hand using the second element. That will require a steady hand/hard surface to avoid any shake for a crystal clear image. This basically tricks the camera sensor to take closer shots than it would on auto.

Lighting is probably the biggest thing....grab a cheap lightbox for about $40 and it will make a massive difference.

Here's a pic I took of a Medicom Flores Mickey using manual lens setting on my D40x - can't imagine you'd want to get much closer than this:



If you do want to get closer you'll need a new macro lens that will set you back approx $500, maybe more.

I also own this camera with the basic lens. I'm pretty impressed with it.

I don't know much about cameras myself, and gforce's suggestions are a lot better than anything I can offer. But one simple thing that I learned (and you may already know this, but if not, its very helpful) is that the camera takes better pictures at a distance while zooming more than moving it close to the target and zooming less. Again, not a huge revelation, but something I was not aware of until someone more knowledgeable in the matter pointed it out to me, and it makes a big difference.

Thanks Gforce, this helped a lot. I'm gonna give that a whirl. And yes, this is the camera and basic package I have. I plan to upgrade, but I figured there had to be some tricks to getting better toy pix. Any recommendations on a light box? I was perusing somewhere that gave some prety good ideas/specs on how to build a very efficient one, but I can't seem to find it anymore.

Thanks Kingboy as well. I too noticed that.

Here's a cheap lightbox for you. It's great and I've made a small one and a large one. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/ho ... tudio.html

As gforce said, it's better to shoot in manual mode. And zooming in on a subject tends to yield better results. My advice, play in manual mode and experiment. That's how I learned and I'm still learning. Also, I try to shoot just about everything in 100 ISO. Jumping up to a higher ISO is great for when you're in a dark environment, but for normal day-to-day, a lower ISO will reduce "noise".

Here are some settings that have worked for me.


Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 32 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 36 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Exposure: 10
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 30 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100

^ Wow, those are great shots!

WOW, thanks Zinc (thanks everyone else too). This is very useful indeed and those are great pix!