Making field corrections

In the field I find it difficult to really get an idea of my shot looking at the small review screen. There often isnt a dark place to do on the spot corrections. What do you guys do to get your shots right without having to correct them with software?

here is an example:



Here is what I was hoping it was going to look closer to which is how it looks in nature.


Another issue is macro focus. When you guys are taking macro shots what is your focus secret? I really like 1:1 macro but when I try to use it I very seldome get a good focus. Do you usually take the shots further away so you get increased depth of focus then crop away all the extra?

Example: This shot looked good until I got zoomed up to full photo size then the eyes became fuzzy. A fart smeller ah hem I mean smart feller told me to get focused on the eyes, which I agree makes macros 100% better. The problem is depth of focus it seems like 1:1 only gives you about 1/4" of slop in your range. If I stand back 5 feet I get better DOF but I have to crop a lot.

Stop your lens down.

That's what your focus issue is, I believe.

What is your fnumber for your macro shots when you are noticing that your depth of focus is out of whack?

When I have this issue, I simply stop my lens down (go with a higher fnumber).

I am too used to the old time cameras, I forget that you can stop down from the camera body since there is no aperature ring on the lens Doh! If it stopped raining Ill go out and re try it...Thanks!

you're welcome!
Let me know if it helps at all.
You might have to stop it down quite a bit.
But the outside light should be enough that you won't have to sacrifice too much exposure.

I went out to try it out but I may have to find a brighter day. I have been using shutter priority auto because I usually get sharper shot >60 shutter speed since I am not using a tripod. With this lens I am getting an F stop of 8 at best. I tried adjusting the Fstop using manual to 32, 27 and 22 but there just wasnt enough light to give me a fast shutter speed. Not to mention Bumble Bees dont sit still very long.

Hey Buckshot

Getting the shot vibrant strait out of the camera would involve setting your in-camera image parameters to increase saturation, contrast and a bit of sharpening

Typically, I'll have sharpness set to +1, contrast is usually about +1, but it all depends on the scene I'm shooting and Saturation is set to +1 or +2 - again, depending on the scene.

To avoid all post-processing, skip RAW and shoot jpegs and be prepared to tinker with your camera settings on each shot you take. If I'm aiming to make a reference shot, I may adjust the settings a couple of times before I have what I'm after. I think the only setting I don't continually adjust is the sharpness.

Overall, I'd say get used to doing the post processing though. You'll get much better results in front of a computer than you could settle on playing around with in-camera settings. Even iPhoto has more control than my camera does for adjusting images.

As for your macro shots and their depth-of-field, because I don't have a macro lens, I don't know if I'm getting 1:1, but with the extension tubes I still end up doing some cropping in most cases. I also generally hover at around f/16 to f/32 to get enough depth of field. If light is an issue, trying moving up to ISO 400 or ISO 800. A little noise is better than motion blur.

I took a shot of a jumping spider 2 or 3 years ago with a 43mm lens and a full set of extension tubes. The thing was absolutely tiny, so even with what must have been close to a 1:1 ration and an f/11 (or something like that) aperture, I had to crop 3/4 of the photo and my depth of field was something around 1 or 2 mm. In spite of all that, I was still able to blow it up to an 8x10, so don't hesitate to do some severe chopping. (that was with a 6mp camera). I still have that shot hanging on the wall outside the bathroom door. **Lorri hates spiders **

For reference, here's Herman, a very young Zebra Jumping Spider (about 3 or 4 mm long and I think I've posted this before):

Thanks for the info Andrew, I will give that a shot. One thing I havent messed with is my ISO settings and they are at 100. To get that Fstop down I need to make a sacrifice somewhere. That would be the best place to do it. The lens I am using is a sigma 180mm macro f3.5-32

Great capture on the spider. How can anyone not think spiders are the coolest thing? I suppose that I am glad they arent 2 feet across with proportional athleticism to how they are at tiny dimensions. But they just fascinate me to no end. The world they live in is so brutal.