Practicing macro with olloclip

Venomator said:
@docsimsim - Actually Simin, the light should really be on the subject, as much as you can get it, for Macro... :rog:

There is no need, as a general rule, to have light behind you in Macro and it is only a general rule for the wider photography application as much as sticking to the thirds rule is... ;)

Because your lens will always be so close to the subject in Macro it is always best to position the light where it best suits the subject, depending on contours and other factors, but if you have the light behind you it will be nearly impossible to get enough light on your subject to bring out the detail... :D
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Yes I realise that now. I think the 'light behind me' rule defo doesn't work with olloclip use, contrary to what I read online about macro photography :).
 
docsimsim said:
Thanx Scot, you have just given me a massive boost re ideas of how to shoot with olliclip. I've been sticking to the advice I read that the light should be behind me and i should never shoot macro with the light behind the subject like this! Obviously that advice is a load of rubbish, as your beautiful photo illustrates :)
Also I found Procamera+ olloclip combo didn't work, so I used naked iPhone 4S camera. Must try again!
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Rules are made to be broken! Do what works and looks good to you. By the way, ProCamera is my go to camera app and has been for a long time--even with OlloClip. Why didn't it work with your OlloClip?
 
ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
Rules are made to be broken! Do what works and looks good to you. By the way, ProCamera is my go to camera app and has been for a long time--even with OlloClip. Why didn't it work with your OlloClip?
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For some reason I can't get it to focus properly with ProCamera! Maybe I'm not using ProCamera correctly, not totally familiar with it to be honest. It seems to work ok for me without the olliclip, but not with!! Suggestions welcome.
 
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ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
Love my Olloclip. This one backlit by the sun with leaf taped flat to window...

scott-collins-iphoneography-tender-underside1.JPG


iPhone 5, ProCamera, Olloclip close-up lens, original image (no post processing)
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How close to the leaf was your phone here? I'm impressed with the large area you've managed to get into macro focus. I find that my images are focused in a very tiny area only and all in its vicinity is blurred! Maybe I'm getting too close, or wrong angle or ..?
 
docsimsim said:
For some reason I can't get it to focus properly with ProCamera! Maybe I'm not using ProCamera correctly, not totally familiar with it to be honest. It seems to work ok for me without the olliclip, but not with!! Suggestions welcome.
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It's a iPhone so focusing is not a strong feature. Anyway, maybe I should try other camera apps to see if macro focus works better. I do have issues getting the macro to focus. It takes patience and I often have to touch the focus frame to have it seek again. Using a tripod helps but it still is often slow and many times not spot on. Sure glad it is digital and instant so I can take as many as I need. Sure beats the old film days...
 
docsimsim said:
How close to the leaf was your phone here? I'm impressed with the large area you've managed to get into macro focus. I find that my images are focused in a very tiny area only and all in its vicinity is blurred! Maybe I'm getting too close, or wrong angle or ..?
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Agreed. Many of my OlloClip macro shots have a center focus circle and they go blurry towards the edges. I was probably only an inch or two away. I actually keep moving the camera back and forth, touching the focus frame and patiently try to find the focus sweet spot for the image. For this leaf I actually had sun streaming through the window so it was hard to see to focus. So I found what looked good and then took a lot of pictures moving ever so slightly in each time and then ever so slightly out the other way--sort of bracket focusing if you will. This one ended up in the series. Of course no one ever sees the others.
 
ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
Agreed. Many of my OlloClip macro shots have a center focus circle and they go blurry towards the edges. I was probably only an inch or two away. I actually keep moving the camera back and forth, touching the focus frame and patiently try to find the focus sweet spot for the image. For this leaf I actually had sun streaming through the window so it was hard to see to focus. So I found what looked good and then took a lot of pictures moving ever so slightly in each time and then ever so slightly out the other way--sort of bracket focusing if you will. This one ended up in the series. Of course no one ever sees the others.
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Oh I see, 1 or 2 is quite far, I reckon ally shots are half an inch away from the focus point, maybe that's where I'm going wrong? Though I find that's the optimum for getting sharpest focus. I'm sure if I moved to 2 inches it will actually be blurred? Need to try farther out and see what happens.
 
ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
It's a iPhone so focusing is not a strong feature. Anyway, maybe I should try other camera apps to see if macro focus works better. I do have issues getting the macro to focus. It takes patience and I often have to touch the focus frame to have it seek again. Using a tripod helps but it still is often slow and many times not spot on. Sure glad it is digital and instant so I can take as many as I need. Sure beats the old film days...
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I've actually found naked 4s to be quite adequate for shooting and i've started using the HDR setting on it. Though ProCamera is very good for close up shots (minus the olloclip for me). Do you do anything other than tap the screen to focus on ProCamera? It just seems a bit complex to me so all I do is put it on 'expert mode' and touch the focus and light adjust on the screen and shoot, and occasionally I use the continuos light (torch) on it. Is there a lot more to it?
 
docsimsim said:
Oh I see, 1 or 2 is quite far, I reckon ally shots are half an inch away from the focus point, maybe that's where I'm going wrong? Though I find that's the optimum for getting sharpest focus. I'm sure if I moved to 2 inches it will actually be blurred? Need to try farther out and see what happens.
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Okay, so I have no spatial sense. I put my OlloClip on and looked again (with a ruler in hand this time) and I must have only been about a half an inch from the subject too. Sorry for the misleading post.
 
docsimsim said:
I've actually found naked 4s to be quite adequate for shooting and i've started using the HDR setting on it. Though ProCamera is very good for close up shots (minus the olloclip for me). Do you do anything other than tap the screen to focus on ProCamera? It just seems a bit complex to me so all I do is put it on 'expert mode' and touch the focus and light adjust on the screen and shoot, and occasionally I use the continuos light (torch) on it. Is there a lot more to it?
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I never use the built in light on the phone for any of my photos. Just my preference. As for ProCamera I use the grid overlay for composition, love the ease of using white balance lock, separate focus and exposure points, seeing the live histogram, ISO and shutter settings and occasionally setting the shutter button to fire when I touch anywhere on the screen. I am still using version 4.2.3. I have versio 5.0 but lose the live histogram on that one so I have not fully converted yet. The real reason (all the other stuff sounds like I may even know what I am doing sometimes...) I like ProCamera is that I have used it for so long it all seems like second nature and I am usually a creature of habit--using what I know.
 
ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
I never use the built in light on the phone for any of my photos. Just my preference. As for ProCamera I use the grid overlay for composition, love the ease of using white balance lock, separate focus and exposure points, seeing the live histogram, ISO and shutter settings and occasionally setting the shutter button to fire when I touch anywhere on the screen. I am still using version 4.2.3. I have versio 5.0 but lose the live histogram on that one so I have not fully converted yet. The real reason (all the other stuff sounds like I may even know what I am doing sometimes...) I like ProCamera is that I have used it for so long it all seems like second nature and I am usually a creature of habit--using what I know.
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Yes I only stared trying to use the white balance lock yesterday, though I don't yet fully understand it. As for the histogram, I don't actually know what that signifies lol. Is the ISO on ProCamera set automatically or can it be adjusted? I shoot indoors so the ISO reading is always high which means more grainy shots. What's the ideal ISO reding for iphoneography?
 
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ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
Okay, so I have no spatial sense. I put my OlloClip on and looked again (with a ruler in hand this time) and I must have only been about a half an inch from the subject too. Sorry for the misleading post.
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Yes that's the distance it's most clear at. I'm still not sure why i'm getting such a small field of focus. I tried your trick of sticking a leaf on the window but couldn't increase the focus field. Though late afternoon London light is pretty dim and the window isn't south facing, so maybe your leaf shot has much more light, hence why it's so clearly focused in a rejativemy large area??? And I'm 'sans' tripod
 
docsimsim said:
Yes I only stared trying to use the white balance lock yesterday, though I don't yet fully understand it. As for the histogram, I don't actually know what that signifies lol. Is the ISO on ProCamera set automatically or can it be adjusted? I shoot indoors so the ISO reading is always high which means more grainy shots. What's the ideal ISO reding for iphoneography?
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ProCamera cannot adjust the ISO setting. However, knowing what it is and what the shutter speed is helps me understand what is going on. Then I can determine how the image may be affected. i.e. do I need a tripod, do I need to hand hold extra firm, how will action be captured, how much noise may be in the image, etc. Other times I just take the photos and hope for the best. Sometimes I get something worthwhile and I almost always end up with a lot of unusable images. I often learn a lot from them too though. At times I have created images in post processing that never would stand on their own as original images. It's all about the journey and often not the destination for me. I love this stuff!
 
ScottCollinsiPhoneography said:
ProCamera cannot adjust the ISO setting. However, knowing what it is and what the shutter speed is helps me understand what is going on. Then I can determine how the image may be affected. i.e. do I need a tripod, do I need to hand hold extra firm, how will action be captured, how much noise may be in the image, etc. Other times I just take the photos and hope for the best. Sometimes I get something worthwhile and I almost always end up with a lot of unusable images. I often learn a lot from them too though. At times I have created images in post processing that never would stand on their own as original images. It's all about the journey and often not the destination for me. I love this stuff!
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Yes the ISO readings feature is very useful. I did do some macros of flowers yesterday using ProCamera and olloclip and it worked perfectly as i could gauge which way to move to get a lower ISO reading. I think from now on I will use ProCamera mostly. PS Have you found a particular ISO value that works best when doing indoor macros? I was aiming for under 800 as lighting not too great here. Thanx
 
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