Hey Laura,

Sony R1, very nice. Got me beat megapixel wise . You're right, Nikon's point and shoot lines (new and old) have incredible macro capabilities right out of the box. Although, As I'm sure you know, far better can be achieved when using real macro lenses with a dslr.

If I were you, I would seriously consider getting a white balance card. It is just about the single most important tool in my "camera arsenal". It is especially important for boas, when color accuracy is so critical. Check out www.whibal.com for more info, there are some video guides there that explain the concept much better than I can. My general shooting scenario is: Take a bunch of pictures, which end up looking horrible initially because white balance is so off (generally just for indoor shots)... that turn into incredible photos once white balance is applied.

There are a few factors that determine how much of the shot is in focus. You said that you are having trouble getting the entire shot in clear. The primary issue there is likely lack of light. Im assuming you are shooting in a macro mode, which automaticly selects aperature/shutter speed for you. Generally these modes "open" the lens up, ie get as much of the shot in clear focus as possible, as much as the available light will allow them.

The first thing I would reccomend is to wean yourself off of shooting in these full auto modes. Aperature priority and shutter priority are pretty much all that is needed. For real fancy stuff full manual mode... but dont worry about that now. Aperature priority is likely labeled on your camera with an A. It is a halfway auto mode. You choose the aperature and the camera automaticly selects the appropriate shutter speed to expose the picture right. As you move the aperature to a higher number, the shutter speed will fall. If there is not enough light and you raise the aperature number too high the shutter speed will fall too low, and you will get motion blur, aka hand shake. Therein lies the trick, learning how low you can go in regards to shutter speed. Individuals with very steady hands and good camera holding technique do better than others. The general rule is this: Shutter speed number should be equal to your zoom, or even higher. Meaning, if I am zoomed in at 50mm, I want a shutter speed of 1/50th or higher. At those numbers I should be able to hold the camera steady enough to avoid motion blur.

There is also something called ISO to help with low light problems. That's where dslrs really shine. Read up on that if you are interested. There will be info in your camera manual on it. Learning to shoot in aperature priority is more important at this point.

If you need any additional help, feel free to ask!












>>cameras are some of the best I've seen, but since I can't afford the new D200...and since I am not a very good photographer and know next to nothing about cameras, I went with something a little more point and shoot when I got my new camera. I figured I'd work myself up to a Nikon D200...
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>>However, my old camera was far more forgiving than my new one.
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>>The camera I had for a couple of years prior is the Nikon Coolpix 4800, which is 4mp & 8.3 zoom. It was pretty nice and I'm sure in the hands of a better photographer, pics could have been far better. Here are a couple using that camera. It allows macro shots down to 1cm. It's a nice little camera, pics seem to be a bit on the cool side colorwise. When I played with the white balance, it seemed that the pics ended up either a bit too cool or a bit too warm, but the shots were very clear.
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>>I've had my new camera a couple of months, a Sony Cybershot DSC-R1, which has 10.3mp and allows for manual or auto zoom/focus, but I have only scratched the surface and really know next to nothing about using it. I set it on macro (this camera requires 14", but the zoom makes up for it) and use the manuaul zoom, and hope for the best. Ca't seem to get the entire shot in focus, it looks more like portrait mode, with part in focus, the background blurry. I would prefer it all to be in focus, like my previous camera, but it is a learning experience. I hope to someday use it to its full potential. Now...if I just had a difuser to prevent flash wash-out. This camera sees too much and offers little forgiveness. For example, with my past camera, taking pics of puppies on the carpet showed dingy blue carpet, with a stain here or there (it was stained up when we moved in and our kids and dogs haven't been easy on it), but with this camera, it sees far better than the human eye, every tiny color difference stands out clearly...I will not be able to take pics of our dogs with this camera, unless they are outside.
>>Please know...Until I can figure out the focus, I do NO justice to this camera!
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>>Delusions of Grandeur feed the EGO...
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Take Care,

-Ryan Homsey

www.topnotchboas.com

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