photo experts is this a decent led macro shot

its of a old luxeon i have.i love macro shots but i can never perfect em.i have a el cheapo camera

It is interesting. From a technical standpoint, my eye isn't drawn to a specific point but instead looks for a sharp feature to settle on, there isn't really one. I'd say an even closer or cropped view of the LED would be nice.

i stink at keeping my hand still .it was hard because i had to hold a 35mm slr lens backwards on my digital camera lens so it was so hard to hold it all still

RA40 said:

It is interesting. From a technical standpoint, my eye isn't drawn to a specific point but instead looks for a sharp feature to settle on, there isn't really one. I'd say an even closer or cropped view of the LED would be nice.

Click to expand...

I agree but don't want to apprear a train spotter! The image could be sharper but suspect that is a limit of the camera.

In this sort of shot though sharpness is far less important than the composition. The die of the LED appears to be your intended focal point - play around with shots where you get and interesting foreground or background but your eye is still drawn to the die.

Looking up the rule of thirds on the internet might help as a guide but it's my view you should never make this your sole guide.

Being able to play around with defocused areas (by messing with large apertures (small f numbers) is also liekly to add a bit more interest by putting the foreground or background into blur.

Mess around and have fun!

Sorry

Train spotter

i love the advice.thats how we learn.this camera is a canon a570is.

For a good macro shot you really need a manual focus macro lense on a camera that allows you to play with exposure settings, that being said for what you are working with that is excellent, but the depth focused mostly on the outer epoxy surface rather than the die itself.

my dream is to own a dslr with true manual focus.not the kind that ya turn the ring and a motor turns the insides

I found that if you use manual focus it's better than the macro setting for really close. Of course you need good light and a still camera that isn't held by hand.

That's a luxeonIII red/orange, red, or amber LED.

The A570is is a nice camera (I almost got it, but chose the A720is instead)...

It has manual focus--so you can adjust that--or even move the camera up and down. You have CHDK, so you can look into the DOF calculator and set your focus point where you want to (and control if you want the die or die+wire in focus, etc.). Right now, it appears that the focus may be favoring the bonding wires above the surface of the die.

Force the ISO down to 100 or lower (80?). Above that, you will get more noise in the picture--especially as you digitally blow it up. Your ISO appears to be 250--and all small format cameras will be fuzzier at those settings. Of course, with a lower ISO, you will have to hold the shutter open longer--but if the camera is firmly on a tripod, it should look much better. (this will get your dark areas cleaner looking).

Don't hand hold the camera, but use a fixed mount of some sort. You can try and use the 2 second delay so that everything is still after you press the button.

If you have the camera fixed (instead of hand held), turn off the IS (image stabilization). IS can blur the image when the camera is firmly mounted.

Play with lighting, and possibly even with polarizers--you may get ride of some of the reflections that you don't want on the dome.

Also, look at your White Balance settings... If you are using a filament lamp (or florescent), setting it to the Tungsten or florescent settings will make things look better (Auto WB tends to make Tungsten lighting look very, very warm).

Lastly, play with your RGB and Y graphics from CHDK... Make sure that nothing is clipped from over or under exposure (you can also try zebra mode too). This will allow you to up the contrast if you want (with 0 or 255 pixels, there is nothing you can do to make them more or less contrasty).

If you photo as it comes of the camera looks kind of "flat"--you can take it into an image editor and make it more contrasty.

-Bill