Catching all the details of an agate with a Micro-Nikkor lens 105mm

kellykellykelly

Hi everybody!

I just bought a AF-S VR Micro lens to catch all the details of the agates I love taking pictures of. I am pretty new to photography, but I'm trying to learn all I can. I have very minimal knowledge of f stops and shutter speed - that is how wet behind the ears I am at photography. Previous to this camera I had a crappy point and shoot camera (to be nice I won't say what brand) that was better suited to taking pictures of people. The D3200 is fun to learn but I was wondering (one of many questions) what are the best DVD's and/or books that could educate me better on how to use this camera to its full advantage? Any good tutorials?

Next question: For taking pictures of small, still subjects with lots of detail (like agates), what is the best way to capture the subject in full detail?

Thank you for your time.
Kelly

PBked

Hi,
Learning your way round the camera is the easy part and the manual will help you with that. Learning photography - well I have been at it for over 50 years and I'm still learning.
However, if you want to make the most of your hobby of shooting agates then I would suggest 2 extra pieces of equipment:
1) A quality tripod
2) A home product studio. These can be bought fairly cheap or homemade. Basically you have a box with a couple of studio lights attached in which you place your product, in this case agates. The lights can be adjusted to make the most of the product details.
Mounting your camera on a sturdy tripod will eliminate any worries about shutter speed and blurring.
Large F stops (small numbers eg. f/1.8, f/2) produce a small depth of field which enables you to blur backgrounds and make your product stand out. As the aperture gets smaller (bigger numbers eg. f/8, f/11, f/16) the depth of field increases, but less light gets onto the sensor, so you have to adjust either your shutter speed or ISO to increase the sensitivity of the sensor.
Using the correct white balance is important too. Most modern DSLRs enable you to create a custom white balance which you should learn to do if you are using a product studio.
When starting out, don't be afraid to rely on Auto, but as you learn more, try to move to aperture priority especially for product pictures. This gives you control over how your pictures will look.
As for books and tutorials, there are plenty, but this forum is a good place to start. You can type in a question and hopefully the subject will pop up. You will find that most of the advice here is jargon free and in plain English. Even if your question doesn't pop up, ask it anyway and somebody will respond.
Welcome to the world of serious photography and happy shooting.
Best regards,
PBked

bruto

I agree with the above. I would add that for deep macro work you may find you have to use manual focus, as AF may not be precise enough, and may not hit the exact point you need. You may also find that VR is unnecessary and get ever so slightly better sharpness without it. You would generally turn VR off on a tripod anyway.

I have used the older 105mm f/2.8 AFD lens (with manual focus only available on our D3200's) and it's mighty nice. Unfortunately, it belongs to my wife, and I can only borrow it because it has long been her favorite lens.

ohyeahar

I agree with @PBked, but you may want to experiment with small aperture versus large aperture.

Small depth of field is great if you have a distracting background. You can blur it to keep the focus on your subject.
It’s also good if you want viewers to focus on just a tiny portion of your subject by blurring everything else.

If you use a home product studio or you shoot against a white background you’ve already eliminated all distractions, so it may be a good idea to maximize sharpness and get the entirety of your subject into focus.

In short:
Tripod mounted
VR off
ISO 100
Aperture priority
Aperture stopped down (perhaps to f/8)
Manual focus (use LiveView and magnify to assist)
Remote or timer shutter release