Macro

[fsm]

Picked up a 100mm f2.8 macro lens yesterday. Spent a few hours wandering around the backyard looking for little things to shoot.

[roughbarked]

Cool photos. You have a good lens there. Hope you keep finding smaller and smaller things to shoot.

[Helix]

Nice! What brand?

[nut]

Great shots fsm! I have the 100mm 2.8 Canon lens, it is a great lens.

[fsm]

It's the same Canon one that nut has.

[roughbarked]

It's the same Canon one that nut has.

enjoy. :)

[Helix]

It's the same Canon one that nut has.

Cool! I've got the Micro Nikkor 105 mm f2.8 on my shopping list. (I did have the 200 mm on the list until I checked the price!)

[nut]

Hope you share your pics here. It is a great lens, good for people shots too.

Here are two shots I took with my 100mm from yesteryear:
Tau Emerald on a fence


It has also been my fastest lens for a long time, I took this in low light at a concert. 13 images stitched together from the upper belcony. I have actually taken quite a few panoramas with it.

[Helix]

We need a like button.

[roughbarked]

We need a like button.

Saying it isn't enough?

[fsm]

Cool! I've got the Micro Nikkor 105 mm f2.8 on my shopping list.

The two lenses are pretty much equivalent. You will have much fun with it!

(I have to wrassle Ruby for lens time, this macro is now her favourite too!!)

[fsm]

Hope you share your pics here. It is a great lens, good for people shots too.

Here are two shots I took with my 100mm from yesteryear:
Tau Emerald on a fence


It has also been my fastest lens for a long time, I took this in low light at a concert. 13 images stitched together from the upper belcony. I have actually taken quite a few panoramas with it.

They are great shots, nut. I'm still getting my head around how to best use this lens.

[Helix]

Cool! I've got the Micro Nikkor 105 mm f2.8 on my shopping list.

The two lenses are pretty much equivalent. You will have much fun with it!

I've got the 60mm, which I bloody love, but the extra working distance will be helpful. Esp. if I'm using the Speedlight as well.

(I have to wrassle Ruby for lens time, this macro is now her favourite too!!)

I can see why!

[fsm]

A group of little black ants (Ochetellus) gathered on the side of the water heater in the backyard.

[fsm]

This fearsome beast is a daddy-long-legs.

[nut]

Nice. What setup have you got FSM? Coincidently I charged my camera battery for the first time in memory last night.

[fsm]

At the moment I have a 700D (that I picked up from DS a few months ago for $299 - shelf price was $999). Today I am picking up a set of macro focus rails that I ordered last week.

[fsm]

Just been out in the backyard experimenting with the macro focus rails.

[roughbarked]

Results look promising. Can you tell me about these macro rails?

Edit, http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft- ... -uzarraga/

[fsm]

Results look promising. Can you tell me about these macro rails?

The macro focus rails mount onto the tripod and the camera mounts onto the rails. The rails allow you to move the camera left/right and forward/back with very fine control to focus the macro lens.

You can also use rails to do focus stacking. Depth of field can be very small using a macro lens and it can be difficult to get all of your subject into focus at once. You take multiple shots and move the camera slightly between each, bringing a new plane into focus for each shot. Then special focus stacking software combines the focussed areas of each image to produce a picture with a much greater depth of field. The photo of the St Andrews Cross spider from yesterday is a set of 4 such shots. I used CombineZP to do the stacking.

[nut]

Diffusing your light can play a significant role in picture quality.

[fsm]

St Andrew's Cross spider in the backyard this afternoon.

[Helix]

Excellent!

[nut]

After I charged my battery last week I got sick which wasn't fun... hahaha... no truly, it wasn't.

I am 'better' now so went outside and took five shots of a moth and an ant which really did not co-operate. I have also forgotten how to drive my camera but tried to savage something. Here is a cropped image of the last shot I took:



What I like about macro is that you can see more through the camera.

[nut]

... and here is the first shot I took. Sometimes ants just stop what they are doing and pose:



MP-E65mm 1x Canon 40D with diffesed MT-24EX Flash (no crop)

[Helix]

Those are both terrific, nut!

[fsm]

Great shots, nut! How does that lens go at 5X?

[roughbarked]

... and here is the first shot I took. Sometimes ants just stop what they are doing and pose:



MP-E65mm 1x Canon 40D with diffesed MT-24EX Flash (no crop)

Lovely work. :)

[nut]

How does that lens go at 5X?

It goes well but the photographer struggles :) It generally represents different challenges. Increasing the magnification decreases the distance of the subject from the end of the lens, it decreases the available light and makes it harder to focus. The lens is manual focus only.

Bringing the subject closer to the lens makes it harder to position the camera, flash and subject. Often other stuff gets in the way since I mostly shoot active critters where they happen to be. It is harder to focus with less light and you have to frame your subject better. At five times magnification there isn't usually much you want to crop away. Also there are different challenges trying to illuminate the background, black backgrounds are less interesting.

Increasing mag. increases shake too.

I usually use the technique - and same with the 100mm macro - of taking pictures at minumum mag and get closer as the critter allows. There are other ways to do it but generally most of my shots go this way so that I end up with a sequence of increased magnification.

The weave of the chair I am sitting on at 1x


Same chair 5x


Spent nearly no time on the shots but had the same problems listed above.

[roughbarked]

getting in close. https://vimeo.com/157712307

[nut]

getting in close. https://vimeo.com/157712307

I need a new printer! haha.

Now I am expecting big things from fsm's focus stacking. *smile*

[fsm]

This little fellow was sitting on the recycle bin taking refuge from the lawn mower.

[roughbarked]

This little fellow was sitting on the recycle bin taking refuge from the lawn mower.

and what of those that didn't escape the revenge of the lawn mower?