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I'm working with a Fuji finepix s7000

It has a nice feature, the supermacro, that allows you to get as close as 1/4" from the subject.

I'm new to anything other than point and shoot photography...and I'm having fits trying to get clarity in shooting small herps in macro, like salamanders or baby snakes.

Either the camera focuses on the background (rock, earth, etc)
or MOST of the subject is fairly clear and a small portion is blurred. I know this camera can do better.

Here is a good example. See how the rock is very clear. The snake is somewhat clear, but notice how the head is somwhat blurred?

I appreciate any advice, but please "dumb down" responses for me, I'm new to this and a lot of the termonology is foreign to me. I understand how to adjust shutter speed and aperture, but I just can't seem to get it perfect.

I seem to do better overall with outside (natural) lighting...but I played around with a salamander the other day for like an hour and just couldn't get good clarity...this is drving me nuts!

THANKS!

Dean,

I have a fuji 3500 and a nikon d70.....the fuji have 6x optical zoom with a macro function.

I had troubles useing this camera when first using it because of the way it focuses....the cross in the centre of the screen or view finder is what the camera focuses on (and also works out its light from)...so if the head of your subject is not in the cross it won't be dead on for the focus....you can however cheat a bit.

...pose your snake so the head is in the middle of the body

...pose your lizard/ salamander in the "side u" shape ( head and body running straight with the tail curl around in front of the body (this makes herp a better shape for a photo so you can get closer in) and focus on the body....if the head is same distance from the lens as the body then the head and body will be in focus (in other words your lens is parallel to the body of the subject).

...if your camera has a manual focus option use it
...Deep of Field is important....use the highest F number you can.

Hope this Helps,

Scott Eipper

Dean,

I'm not sure I understand the problem you are having will your other shots, but in the kingsnake shot, the problem is obvious (to me at least). The kingsnake's head isn't sharp because it is too close to the camera for this amount of depth of field. This could be for one of several reasons -

1. the snake's head is simply closer than the lens is capable of focusing. The rock under the snake's head is reasonably sharp, but that is because it is a tad further away from the camera.

2. It seems more likely that it is a depth of field problem. When you shoot a picture, the camera focuses sharply (generally) on the middle of the frame. How much will be sharply in focus in front of and behind this focal point is the depth of field of the image. In this picture, I see that the elevated coil of the body is sharply in focus. The head, which is a few inches in front of that is not sharp, nor is the rear of the body a few inches behind. It might be possible to increase your depth of field by increasing your f/stop. So if this picture was shot at an f/stop of f/11, you could increase this to f/16 and more of the snake would be in focus.

You can actually calculate exactly how much depth of field you will get with this nifty online depth of field calculator. You tell it what type of camera you are using, figure out what the actual focal length of the lens is (they have a chart to help you) and what f/stop you used and it will tell you how much of the area in front of and behind the focal point will be sharp. You can see what f/stop you would need to increase the DOF to incorporate the whole subject. It can be an interesting learning tool, if nothing else.

Online depth of field calculator for digital cameras

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Chris Harrison

aight, so you prolly already know this but one thing you can try is a focus lock, basically center your snakes head and press the shutter button halfway, which engages the auto focus and metering, then compose your shot how you want it, keeping the same distance from the snake, and take the shot

all in all i'd work in "normal mode" to start out, macro modes on digi cameras are hard to work with, so you shoudl prolly get the basics down first
my photography site

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my photography site:
http://tlp.zip.to
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my animals
1.0.1 leopard gecko (goliath, gebco)
0.1 hypo red bearded dragon (puff the magic dragon)
0.0.1 schnieder's skink (ghandi)
0.1 white's dumpy treefrog (un-named)
0.0.1 red eared slider (carl)
1.0 lop eared wabbit (oreo)
0.0.2 pink toed tarantula (mambo mambo, and un-named)
0.0.1 green iguana (iguanadonatello)

the rest of the animals in the hizouse
1.0 westie (gabriel)
0.1 scottie (kait)
1.0 plain ol' outdoor alley cat (joey)
0.1 indoor rag doll kitty (tinkerbell)
2.0 goulian finchs

I think I'm going to get some toy snakes and play around with various setting. The websites will really come in handy.

My the highest "f" setting on my camera appears to be f8
Does that seem right?

My the highest "f" setting on my camera appears to be f8
Does that seem right?

Yes. With these point and shoot cameras that have short focal length lenses (yours ranges from 5.8 to 35 mm - the 35-210 mm descriptions refer to the 35mm equivalent) the depth of field at a given f/stop is very high.

So, for example, your camera at a setting of f/7.1 in your super macro mode gets the same depth of field my DSLR gets at f/64 with an equivalent focal length. I figured that out using the online DOF calculator

So f/8 is plenty. In fact, you will find that many times, it isn't necessary (or a great idea) to stop down all the way to f/8 when f/5.6 will give you all the DOF you need.

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Chris Harrison