Macro Mode Photography

[William Young]

I have a Olympus C-5000 zoom camera and it works great for everything except when I try to take a picture in a close up macro mode and it comes out a complete blur.
My old 1.3 mpxl camera took beautifull macro shots but I am not able to that with this 5 mpxl camera. I bought it a long way from home so I wont be going to where I bought it for some time to see if it is a warranty problem.
If anyone has this make and model, could you please post a walk through of how you take close up macro mode pictures with it.
W.Y.

 

[armchi]

I have a Olympus C-3030 zoom myself. I'm assuming you have the camera on Macro mode. Are you using a tripod and the remote or on the timer? My camera is very sensitive to the slight movement or shaking. You could also try manually focusing or pulling back then zoom in. The pictures I first took were also blurry due to the slight shaking. There were also caused by the flash which also gave it a very shiny reflection. Try a tripod, remote, no flash and with an external light source. Make sure the camera shows the green focus light prior to taking the shot.


Armando

 

[melchioe]

You have two macro modes on that camera (nice camera, BTW) - macro and super-macro.

Macro mode: 7.9" â€" 19.7" (20cm â€" 50cm)
Super Macro mode: 1.6" to 7.9" (4cm â€" 20cm)

The stuff above is the focal range - so for macro mode, you must be at most 19.7 inches from the subject. Any further away you may not be able to focus reliably.

For super macro, you must be even closer - 7.9 inches max.

Technically, you can take pics of things further away than the max in macro modes, but the auto-focus function might go crazy or simply take a very long time to focus. You may have better luck with manual focus in macro modes.

 

[William Young]

Ed ; (and others)
Thanks for that reply. You have no doubt figured out already that I know very little about cameras and I have been taking all my pictres in automatic mode with great results except for when I try macro mode and auto at the same time. I get lost in all the pages of info in the manual which do not explain macro hardly at all as well as the little symbol thingies but you mentioned that I should go into manual focus when using macro. It seems you are familiar with my particular camera so perhaps you could explain how I would do that. It sems to make sense that if I could focus it manually , I would get rid of the blur. I re-checked the little manual but didn't figure out how to do that. Sorry to be a PITA but photography is not one of my strong points. Up until now I have been just a point and click type of guy. I guess it's about time I started learning about the potential of my camera.
Oh yes, I am familiar with the bottom left button (next to the view finder) on the back which puts it into macro (blur) mode . I am also familiar with the different things the flash can do under certain lighting situations so I sometimes take pictures both with and without flash to see which are the most acceptable.
W.Y.

 

[melchioe]

it should be on page 73 or so of your manual.
1. Hold down the OK button (the center button inside the arrrow buttons) for more than one second.
2. When the focus distance selection screen appears on the monitor, press the left arrow to select MF.
3. Press up and down arrows to set the focus distance.
4. Hold down OK for more than 1 second to save the setting.
• MF is displayed in red on the monitor.
5 Take the picture.
• The focus is locked at the distance you have set.

<b> To cancel manual focus</b>
1. Hold down OK for more than 1
second to display the focus
distance selection screen.
2 Press the right arrow to select AF, then press OK.
• Manual focus is canceled.

 

[William Young]

Ed ;
Thanks for the attemt to help me but holding down the button for any length of time just brings up 4 choices that I am fairly familiar with and the left button brings up the resoloution changes screen..
My manual only has 43 pages in english before it changes to other languages and the description about using macro is not understandable to me.
I'll wait and see if you or anyone else has more ideas on this one and if not , I will probably have to take it to a camera shop.
Your efforts are appreciated.

I just went back to my manual. The index says for macro mode go to page 8 . I go to page 8 and there is absoloutly nothing about macro or Manual focus. Searched the rest of the index and whole manual. Still nothing on those two items.
Aaarrrggg ! !
W.Y.

 

[William Young]

Ah Ha ! !
After a few more hours of trial and error fooling around with it I found what I was doing wrong. The multi function dial on the top has to be set at the A/S/M position. I previously had it at the Auto position and that is why your instructions above did not work then but now do. Thank you for that . I dont know yet what the A and S stand for but I presume the M stands for manual.
My little manual is called basic manual which makes me think that the more detailed manual did not come with the camera even though I bought it brand new when I was visiting in USA last year. I went into Olympus's site hopeing to find a downloadable complete manual but I didn't run across it .
Oh well , such is life. I am living and learning but too much knowledge all at once could be dangerous so I'll take it a step at a time. ;-)
W.Y.

 

[melchioe]

A/S/M: A=Aperture Priority, S=Shutter Priority, and M=Manual

<b>Aperture</b> is how wide the iris is set (the iris controls how much light gets in to the lens) - aperture can affect color balance and how much of the picture is in focus (depth of field). One would use aperture priority when doing portrait shots, landscapes, and the like. You set the aperture (also called the f-stop), and the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed.

<b>Shutter priority</b> means that you set the shutter speed, and the camera automatically picks the aperture. You'd do this when you are taking action shots, for example. Let's say you want to take pictures of your son in action on the football field, or of bicycles rushing by in a race. You'd set the shutter speed to as fast as the light conditions can handle, and the camera atuomatically lets in the appropriate amount of light. (the camera display has an indicator that tells you if you've passed advisable boundaries - let's say that there is not enought light for you to snap a picture with a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second - a common speed for fast-moving or distant subjects. On this camera, if you set a shutter speed that does not fit the conditions, the shutter speed turns red in the display).

<b>Manual</b> means that you set both the shutter speed and aperture yourself, and the camera will not step in and change anything for you. I find this can give me both ultimate control of the picture and many headaches if my light meter is not working right...[B)]

The full manual that I've been cribbing from[] for these answers can be found by going to http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_support_manuals.asp?product=934&p=16&subcat=C%2DSeries . Under the "Manuals for Download" section, it's the second one, "C-5000 Zoom Reference Manual (7.1 MB)" So it's not small, but it would be very helpful to have. If you have any difficulty finding it, let me know and we can figure out a way for me to send it to you.

 

[melchioe]

In my zeal to ferret out the instructions, I lost sight of the original goal. Did the manual focus do the trick? Can you take pictures in macro mode now without them getting fuzzy?

 

[William Young]

Ed;
Thank you,... Thank you,... Thank you
I downloaded all 215 pages of the manual and I am sure it will be a huge help. I have saved it in several areas of my computer just in case it accidentally gets deleted in one and I wont have to go through that huge download again on dial up service.
Yes , I did get the focus problem cleared up last night in macro but didn't have much luck with super macro but I am sure that I will now by following the instructions in my new complete manual.
Thanks again,

Oh , ... did I mention that I said thank you ? ? ? ;-) ;-)
W.Y.

 

[Daniel]

William,
I have been reading this conversation but not responding as Ed is doing quite a fine job of leading you through the features of your camera. and He is obviously more familiar with your particular camera than I am.
What I would like to ad is a note of incouragment. You do have a camera that will take an extremely good picture of your pens. Do take your time getting profecient with it. the more time you spend just setting things up differently and looking at the differences it makes the more you will be able to get the picture you want with it. Don't worry so much about getting a good picture when experimenting. simply focus on the difference the various setting make. then take note of the ones that you do like. As ou have found many features only work if other settings are set right. but getting the macro working is important. and stay away from the flash. try using lights instead.
I'm excited to see you making progress. It really is not easy to get the hang of a camera.

 

[Charlie in Garfield]

Hi Bill & Ed,
I also have been a lurker in this thread.Ed you seem to be a perty good photographer ? I have a quistion for you that you may be able to clear up. I put in a pictuer of White Tail Deer Antler pens & penciles
they are white like ivory ith a smatering of gray.Now why would they turn pink in the picture,it sure amazed me and I just do not know what happened.
Just Charlie

 

[melchioe]

There are three main ways I can think of that colors would change from what you see to what you get:
1 - light sources during the picture taking - this could be the flash, the particular lightbulb lighting your "studio" area (mine is a kitchen table most of the time)
2 - idiosyncracies in the display system - LCD monitor, CRT (normal computer monitor)
3 - film character (obviously only applicable when using a traditional film camera, not digital).
4 - (OK, i said three, but I thought of another something in the structure of what you are photographing has "hidden" colors or is refracting/reflecting in such a way that a colored tinge (pink in this case) can become apparent.

for 1): most flashes are fairly balanced in terms of color - they should not introduce much color variation (see item 4 for an additional guess). Room light is potentially more of a culprit here, as is some other item nearby that the flash or room light coule be reflecting off. I had a blue bottle on the kitchen table once and it took me 1/2 hour to figure out where that blue tint on a white pen was coming from.

2): there's a longish post on this elsewhere in this topic - take a peek at it, if that doesn't answer all of the questions, ask some more .

3): are u using a film camera or digital?

4): Some things with crystalline (or crystalline-like) structures can reflect/refract different components of the source color. Ever see a good diamond appear to be other colors when you know darned well it's clear? What you're seeing in that case is the sourece light being broken into component colors and reflected back. Same kind of thing happens with a rainbow. The best way to deal with this would probably be to avoid a flash, and make sure you have indirect lighting (an article called "John's Photo Booth" has a nice discussion on this off of the front page of Penturners.org). I think antlers have some kind of crystalline structure, so this is my current favorite hypothesis.

So let's end with questions:
- what kind of camera? Film? if digital, what brand/model? if film, what film being used?
- flash? kind of room light? (frosted bulb, 100 watt 2 feet away, clear bulb, flourescent, etc)
- any color filters on your camera? (they are usually little lightly colored glass or platic circles mounted on the lens - I bought a lens from a guy once that had one one on it and had the devils time figuring out why my pictures were all too dark with that lens - I almost threw it out!

 

[Charlie in Garfield]

Hi Ed;
Thanks so much for the reply.Now to answer some ??.The camera is digital, a Intel, no flash. Lighting id floresent with 2 refelcted lights pointed at the celing.No Filters either.I'm inclined to agree with you on the crystalline structure, but I hane no idea why it ould be there. Thease deer were killed in my old neighborhood when I was a kid, nothing there out of the ordenarry that I know,and I use to rome all over the woods there.
Thanks again and bset to you & yours.
Just Charlie

 

[melchioe]

Technically, antler is bone (dead when used, but still biologically bone.) Bone is a stiff skeletal material made principally of the fibrous protein collagen, impregnated with a mineral closely resembling calcium phosphate, formed into crystals. Horn is different - horn, such as is found in cattle, is a completely different material, usually unmineralized, though the horn core, which supports the horn, is made of bone. (Curry, J.D., 2002)

So there are actually crystals in antler, as a major component in the structure.

I've seen flourescent lights have a kind of pinkish tinge, especially if they are the "warm" (not temperature, but color) kind of tube. You might try incandescent lighting instead.

Maybe take the pen outside on a cloudy day and see if that changes the color - it's one of the best lighting situations around.

 

[wayneis]

William if you go to www.shortcourses.com you will find a book titled "A short course in Using Your Digital Camera". They do not yet have a book out on the C-5000 but if this is a new camera they probably will have one out eventually. But the book the I mentioned above is a good generic book on using a digital camera. These people put out great books ( I do not have anything to do with the company, just a satisfied costumer). I have the one for the Nikon 880 and without it I was lost with just the owners manual that came with the camera. They also have several books that may be of interest to the people here, such as the one titled "Digital Desktop Studio Phography", I bought this one also and have been more than pleased with it. I bought it before I got into turning because I like to take macro shots of flowers and this book was a huge help on taking macro and close up shots. It tell how to build a very inexpensive Desktop Studio that is really pretty easy to make.

Anyway check this site out, I think their books would help you and many others out with taking pics of their pens and others stuff too.

Wayne

 

[William Young]

Thanks Wayne, I have bookmarked that site and I will keep checking back for when they have one for the C-5000.
Actually, that camera takes pretty decent pictures of small items at 3 or 4 feet away and then zooming in on it just on the default "auto" mode .
It might be scary to see how good it works on macro mode when used properly.
I have been so busy this time of year thet I just haven't even had much time to spend in the manual that I downloaded.
W.Y.