Sunday, July 13, 2008

Experimenting

I've been trying to figure out the close-up facet of my camera. Here are a couple that I think made it, though I forgot to turn off the flash on St. Frank and he would have been better with natural light.



I think the secret is not to look through the viewfinder but to turn on the screen and use it to frame up the photo.

To be continued.

6 comments:

  1. Yup, you're right. I learned the technical name for it in my photography class...parallax error. Unless you use an SLR, framing a close up through your viewfinder instead of your LCD could result in things not being framed as you thought they would.

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  2. So far so good. :)

    Yeah the viewfinders on point-and-shoot cameras are a joke. They are never accurate. On my G9 I only capture about 85% of what I see through the viewfinder. The screen however shows the truth of the matter.

    The biggest things I found to help when doing close-ups on a camera are:
    1. Keep it still - the more zoomed in you are the more any little camera shake shows up.
    2. Know what your focus range is for both normal and Macro mode (the manual will give you this info). I've had cameras where the macro mode meant you had to be within 1-5 inches of something to get it to focus correctly. On others I can be within a foot or two before it has issues.

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  3. Y'know Tombo the wisest thing you said was the manual will give you this info. One of these days I'm gonna have to find that thing and actually read it!

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  4. :) That is the first thing I always do before even turning on a new camera. Go through the old manual.

    If yours is lost, you can always download one from the manufacturer's website. That has the added advantage of allowing you to search through it without reading the whole thing. :P

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  5. Oh, not enough patience for that. Reading the manual is usually the last thing I do. I still have it here though so now will consult it.

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