Welcome to the Wildlife Photo Tips Forum

[biigblueyes]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

Not trying to insult you but do you know what the little flower button on the left hand side of the camera body does for you and how to press it long enough for your camera to enter the macro mode?

My camera has a little flower button. What am I supposed to be looking for once it enters macro mode?

[Sage]

Originally Posted by biigblueyes

My camera has a little flower button. What am I supposed to be looking for once it enters macro mode?

Use it only to get real close. Depending on the camera, having it in macro mode when photographing at a distance can cause the camera not to focus. Check your manual!

Here are examples of macro photography for flowers

[TheLorax]

I can answer that question. Hold the little flower down and you will see a flower appear in your screen and then it moves up toward the top of the frame with other pictures of things. Once it is in the flower mode, you are able to get better detail like Sage's photos above me.

[suunto]

With the Nikon Coolpix camera I use for closeups, it often helps to use the zoom control after selecting the flower symbol - the symbol will turn green when you have proper focus. I found this out after a succession of blurry closeups. The camera also has a vibration damping mode, which also helps with hand-held close-ups.

[biigblueyes]

Originally Posted by Sage

Check your manual!

I knew you'd say that. All of the other manuals I file away in a "warranty drawer", but that one I keep out, knowing I should, oh I don't know, maybe read it?!?!?

[TheLorax]

I didn't find anything on my camera having a vibration damping mode. You probably have a better camera than me.

The type in the manuals is very small. So small I couldn't use mine. My camera has an online manual. Maybe yours does too biigblueyes?

[Sage]

Mine has anti-shake 1 and 2; for vertical and horizontal . I keep both on cuz my right arm and hand shake from an old stroke unless supported by having my arm resting on something. I need all the help I can get! Holding my camera up high trying to get bird shots is challenging for me and Roger always gets better flying shots than I do. Grrrrrrrr!

[TheLorax]

I can be standing in the exact same location as friends photographing the exact same thing they're taking pictures of and I end up with the blurr. I'm wondering if maybe I don't have a similar problem to you with the camera shaking. I'll look for an anti-shake setting. Maybe my camera lists this feature under that instead of vibration damping. I do fine if I bend down and balance the camera on a knee to photograph a plant.

[MaggyNoLia]

I found this site to be very helpful with their photgraphy information.

http://www.tutorial9.net/category/photography/photography-basics/

I would read the
Photography Basics

at the bottom of the page first. It shows you the parts of the camera and gives you a basic understanding of what happens when you push the button to take a picture.


The
Standing Steady: Proven Ways to Reduce Shake in Photography

tutorial is a good one for helping to reduce blur and hold the camera steady.


The
Photography Troubleshooting: No More Bad Photos

is full of some good tips too.

There are quite a few more tutorials on this site and if you can find the time to browse through them I think you'll find them to be very helpful.

[TheLorax]

Finished reading your other website. I'll do these now. Man oh man I feel like a charity case.

reading about depth of field. That is something else I never get when I take pictures.