Crab

Just got back from my trip to Croatia, which divingwise was highly disappointing. This picture, one of the best ones I got was actually taken snorkeling. Depth~0.3 meters. Crab is about 5 cm between claws.

F 10, 1/125 sec, ISO 100

Thankful for comments, as this is my first try with external strobe and macro lens (well it's only my second trip with a camera).

Pretty nice shot of the hermit crab! It looks like the eyes are fairly sharp, but the rest of the photo is a bit soft. The depth-of-field is very limited in macro, so I would recommend stopping down to f18-f20 or so if you can. It depends on how much light your strobe can pump out, but the smaller aperture (higher f numbers) will increase the depth-of-field and sharpen the image.

I don't know if you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but applying the Unsharp Mask may help a little.

And I wouldn't dare show you the results of my second dive trip with a camera! It wasn't in the same league with yours.

Thanks for the feedback. I can honestly say, that without the info I've found and the help and feedback I've recievedon this forum, my pictures would have been absolute crap.

Like you say, the eyes are sharp but the claws are blurry. Unfortunately, F10 is as far as the oly 4040 will go. Maybe I should've zoomed in a bit more to only get the head. I do use Photoshop, on this pic I think I did a bit of auto levels/colours, but I didn't try the Unsharp mask.

Hi Paste,

Pretty good shot for your second dive!

As a former 4040 user, and very experienced in blurred images, my "guess" is that the claws are inside the focus range. In other words, inside of 3" or too close to the lens.

Hi randapex!

Thats sounds highly likely! Never even thought of that. I thought it was depth of field or maybe even motion blur, or the lens. But your explanation is more probable.

Paste

Your crab looks very much like the squat lobsters that we get here in the UK.

They are usually seen at night, upside down, sticking out from the underside of rocks.

If this was your experience then you have done very well!

PauP

Hi Paste,

Pretty good shot for your second dive!

As a former 4040 user, and very experienced in blurred images, my "guess" is that the claws are inside the focus range. In other words, inside of 3" or too close to the lens.

It's also possible that the macro lens is soft around the corners. The WA adapter I used with a 4040 some time ago was like that. Not sure what the quality of the current crop is like.

I still believe it was due to the claws being within the minimal focal distance. From what I understand the UN macro lens does not suffer from blurring in the periphery, and the pictures I've taken of flowers, my dog, food (YES, I DON'T GET TO DIVE MUCH, I LIVE IN SWEDEN), were fine in the corners.

Just ordered a trip to Sharm el Sheik for X-mas, hope to post some pictures here after that...strictly for glory!

I still believe it was due to the claws being within the minimal focal distance. From what I understand the UN macro lens does not suffer from blurring in the periphery, and the pictures I've taken of flowers, my dog, food (YES, I DON'T GET TO DIVE MUCH, I LIVE IN SWEDEN), were fine in the corners.

Do you have an example of sharpness on photos taken of your dog? I'm just curious, because I haven't seen a WA or macro adapter that is sharp all the way through yet (for these housings, I mean...).

Look in the upper left and upper right corners -- it looks soft. The top of the frame is sharper than the corner, and they look roughly the same distance away...

I'll look for a picture of my dog or some flower, or maybe even an underwater one that is sharp. I may be wrong but i dont remember seeing that kind of blur on other pictures. Will post another picture soon.

Due to popular demand, may I present....my dog! Or a small part of him. I had to compress the original image pretty hard, but I couldn't see any blurry corners in the original. Eric, if you'd like I could email you the big file.

Btw, my dog is absolutely delighted to finally be on the internet.