Ant Tips Please

I saw a beautifull photograph of a garden taken through a Gazing Ball ,as i have one I thought id have a go, I must of took about 100 pics and come up with one Ok pic, I wonder if any of you Great Photographers have any tips to get a clearer image :thumb:

Gazing Ball as they call it in America :D




I had no problem gett'n a good pic through my TLight Holder:thmb:

 

Thanks Woo, I will move it around the garden, thing is the pic was took from my bathroom window Zoomed in as to not get me in the pic, when i took some from ground Level you could see me hiding behind the plants or you could see the camera, And i dont take your advice as criticism Woo im gratefull for your Input..Love Dee..

 

Thats an interesting scenario. Not tried that myself. How about a close up with yourself and camera behind a hide of some sort. Maybe a bushy plant just big enough to cover you and camera.
The perspective the globe presents should make it very small
robert.

 

It thought this was about ant nests :(

 

Hahaha Newbiegreen, I tried to change the title (should be Any) but I couldn't :( Thanks Robert ill Try that, Wear darker clothes next time, had bright Aqua top on and Bright Orange Next day

 

How about setting up your camera on a support/tripod, setting the self timer for 10 secs and doing a runner...:gnthb:

 

Hahaha, yeah i could try the timer, forgot about that DUH

 

It might be interesting to try a night shot with the candle floating. Don't know if it would work, but I'd give it a try.

 

Great Idea DaveW, ill try it tonight..

 

I think it is because you are focusing on the ball.
The ball is only a few inches away, but you are looking at something several feet away.

 

In theory yes, but the image is the 'virtual' (rather than 'real') image that is reflected in the ball so that is the one that has to be focused on. I think the problem with getting a sharp image is that the ball is for a start an imperfect reflector, and also being a curved surface the distance from the lens of the camera varies sufficiently across the surface enough to make a wide depth of field sharp close-up difficult. Reducing the aperture on the camera might help.

Edit -
Just had a shuftie at the EXIF data attached to the pic. The aperture was f4.5 which is wide open and gives a very, very small depth of field. The ISO was 65 which is very 'slow' or very insensitive to light which is why the camera set the aperture so wide. My suggestions YDD are - If you can, increase the ISO to 200 or 400 and/or switch to manual rather than automatic and try some shots with aperture at at f8 to f16.