Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S6000

[minousbijoux]

So the good news - I successfully got the pics I took to transfer to my laptop! Yippee! The bad news - it was a beautiful, sparkly little green blue blur! So I have questions - do I need really bright light? How far away from the stone must I be? Can you use the zoom, or is that what prevents the focusing? If its in focus, do you end up with this vast expanse of background, with a small stone in the middle of the pic which must be cropped dramatically?

While I know I will need lots of practice to make it work, any guidance you provide would save me from hours of my own trial and error...

Thanks!

 

[T L]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

So the good news - I successfully got the pics I took to transfer to my laptop! Yippee! The bad news - it was a beautiful, sparkly little green blue blur! So I have questions - do I need really bright light? How far away from the stone must I be? Can you use the zoom, or is that what prevents the focusing? If its in focus, do you end up with this vast expanse of background, with a small stone in the middle of the pic which must be cropped dramatically?

While I know I will need lots of practice to make it work, any guidance you provide would save me from hours of my own trial and error...

Thanks!

I find sunlight or bright incandescent light, is best for focusing. I find sunlight is by far the best though. Use the double flower icon on the various settings to get it in macro mode. I think I explained how to do this in ooo~shiney's thread on how to use this camera.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

Hi MB !!!
I LOVE this camera !!!

Interestingly, I find that my pictures seem to look best in what I call "bright shade"
That's either under a tree on a sunny day (not always though) or bright sunlight but my camera or body is still somehow shading my stone ( that really annoys me though )
I put the camera on Macro, then find the "Double Macro" setting, then do this: (This is TL response in my Camera thread): .....
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"I find that the auto macro doesn't focus as well as the macro in the settings. Make sure you first have macro mode on (the little flower button on the bottom of the round dial). Then click the Scene button. On your screen, go down to the second icon, and look for the double flower icon in the list of icons. Try that and see if it focuses better. Thanks for the kind words on my shots.

Oh yes, the focus is much better in sunlight or when you have ample amount of light. If you don't, then forget about focusing. "

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This is what I have been using, I call it the Double Macro"

After that, it is just trial and error.
I notice that when the camera has a focus on my stone, a little green box surrounds it.
That is when the eye of the camera is focusing on the stone.
You can move the camera away from the stone, see the little box, then slowly move it forward.
When it loses focus, the box turns (red) I think.
So I have just been playing around with that.

DON'T use the zoom !!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a "sweet spot" beyond which you will definitely lose focus if you do that....
Just slowly inch forward with your camera until it is close, in focus, and you see what you like.

I take 20 to 40 pics, then plug it in to the computer and see what I have.
I may actually delete half or more

I take my pictures in various places around my yard, that seems to work best for me.
Inside pictures ~ I don't seem to have the hang of it yet.

But it is fun to practice !!!!
Anyway, sorry to be so wordy.....
I stilll can't get pictures as close and detailed as TL, LD, cellentani and others here, but sooner or later I will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

Oh, and you might not want to do a lot of outdoor shooting if you have loose stones and are fumble fingers, like me
There have been a few adventures where stones have dropped and I have gone on the magical "easter egg hunt".....

Here, you can practice on just regular stuff first !
A Gumball, and a Gerber Daisy in my yard....

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

Hopefully not threadjack, but I have to get to work
TL, HOW did you set your camera for that Emerald shot?????

 

[KarenFe]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

I don't have a Nikon S6000, but to get a great shot of a ring or stone, macro is a good way to go.

If your camera has a "manual" mode, it would be good to experiment with that and choose your own settings. After all, you know more of what you want than your camera does. But shooting in manual mode can be difficult so there are other options to consider if shooting in automatic.

Often when shooting in automatic your camera will make choices for you. It will meter for any bright area in your photo (usually a bright background) and you will find your ring darker than you wanted. You will want your ring/stone to be the brightest object in the frame, not the background.

Bright, direct sunlight will wash out color rather than enhance it. A bright shade is best. Also, it looks best and the color is most reliable if you turn out all indoor lights. Shooting by a window inside would make for some nice color.

When shooting, the longer the lens (or the farther away from your object) the better. This will give you some nice bokeh (the fuzzy/soft/blurry part of a picture) in your image and will make your ring pop. Zoom out as far as your camera will let you and then walk towards your ring until it fills the frame as much as you want it too.

I hope this helps a little.

 

[T L]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

Hopefully not threadjack, but I have to get to work
TL, HOW did you set your camera for that Emerald shot?????

That emerald shot isn't anywhere as good as IRL, but it's better than my last camera. I took it in incandescent lighting because it's the one stone in my collection that actually photographs with this camera better in incandescent light. I just held my breath to make sure the camera didn't rock, and I used the auto setting with macro mode, and I used auto white balance. You kind of have to move your hand around with the auto white balance to make sure the camera isn't making it look yellow, pink, or corpse colored. Once you see your skin is somewhat normal color, then you focus and shoot. It's kind of tricky with auto mode in incandescent, and you have a lot more wobble factor and less focus. I rarely use it, except for shots like these. Unfortunately, the horrid incandescent lighting in my house (which is yellowish and dim) is not beneficial to the double flower macro mode.

Here's the shot so that people know what Shiney is talking about.

 

[T L]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

Oh, and you might not want to do a lot of outdoor shooting if you have loose stones and are fumble fingers, like me
There have been a few adventures where stones have dropped and I have gone on the magical "easter egg hunt".....

Here, you can practice on just regular stuff first !
A Gumball, and a Gerber Daisy in my yard....

WOW, really pretty photos. It takes nice portrait photos too, clear and in focus.

That second dried up flower shot you took kind of reminds me of Superman's little spacecraft when it finally came through the Earth's atmosphere and shriveled up ("Superman, the Movie" with Christopher Reeve). Cool!

 

[T L]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

I forgot to mention this, as KarenFe brought up a very good point in her photography thread.

I never ever ever use the flash, even for portrait shots, or other shots. It isn't needed and makes things look washed out.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

That second dried up flower shot you took kind of reminds me of Superman's little spacecraft when it finally came through the Earth's atmosphere and shriveled up ("Superman, the Movie" with Christopher Reeve). Cool![/quote]

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Yep, second the comment about the flash, I never use it !!!

 

[cellentani]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

shiney, your photos are terrific, and are at least as good as mine, if not better. Frankly, I think the photos on CS have vastly improved in the time I've been here. Funny that you call the seed pod a gumball - we had those trees growing up, and we called them sweetgums, lol.

I'm not familiar with the Nikon models - can you adjust the aperature, and do they have an exposure compensation feature? I use those a fair amount.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Re: Calling Ooo-Shiney, Tourmaline_Lover & others w/ Nikon S

shiney, your photos are terrific, and are at least as good as mine, if not better. Frankly, I think the photos on CS have vastly improved in the time I've been here. Funny that you call the seed pod a gumball - we had those trees growing up, and we called them sweetgums, lol.

I'm not familiar with the Nikon models - can you adjust the aperature, and do they have an exposure compensation feature? I use those a fair amount.

Ummmmmm......uhhhhh......I'll have to get back to you on that

Thanks for the kind words, I am really trying, but nothing beats the level of detail of yours and some of the others' photos