I have to confess I didn't read your title to start with and couldn't figure what this was! All has become clear now :-). Really cool image & focus. (I do hope that's not my manual you've waded through)
very nice capture Peter in macro, of capturing this spiral, looks really good in black and white, really shows the shine on the metal. is it hard to get the soft focus effect, as not mastered how to do this yet? fav
@lovingandsharing Kay, thanks for your nice comments. It is not hard to get the soft focus effect (called a "shallow depth of field") - you'll need to get to grips with the aperture priority mode on your camera. You may have found it already (the "A" position on your camera dial), then adjust the aperture to a low number (say, round 3 or 4). Focus on the area you want to be sharp, and the camera does the rest!
@peadar Morning Peter, Thank you so much in your time in replying. I am very keen to learn and Guess what I have a new camera to learn to use now....ummm exciting but a little Daunting I have only an entry Level cam a Nikon D3100 18-55 VR kit. I understand so far the settings you talk about above in your reply, once I have set the aperture do I the stay in A mode or go to manual mode to take the shot? :)
@lovingandsharing Well done, and welcome to the world of DSLRs. To answer your question: once in A mode, and selecting a wide aperture (your lens can manage down to f/3.5 to f/5.6, depending on the amount of zoom you use), you can then just shoot your image. This then leads to thinking about "focus points" i.e. where in the image do you want the focus to be? You'll need to investigate your camera's focus points - look initially at AF-S. This allows you to lock the focus by depressing the shutter half-way down. Keeping the shutter half depressed, you can then move the camera but your focus point stays where it is. There are other ways to achieve the same focus function but I would say start with this AF-S setting and have a play around. Best of luck!
@peadar me again , and thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction, some home work to practice on :) you explain things very well Peter in a way a new starter can understand, thank you. hopefully I can learn this.
