A macro journey begins...

[IzzieK]

I watched two videos of Aaron Nace on focus stacking and put the references on my folder with my focus stacking shots of yesterday and the other day. It is a bit political so I am not submitting my experiment. I'll find something better to photograph...and submit. It is about time I do anyway...

[ionian]

That's very sensitive of you Izzie - and I look forward to seeing your pictures when they are ready.

I'm going to find some time to do some close-ups with my guitars this weekend; although I won't need 1:1 it will be good to capture some of the details. My Les Paul is covered in dust at the mo so needs some TLC before I get the photography going!

[Wavelength]

All images are very fine....please keep this thread up

[ionian]

I haven't forgotten the macro experiments - but I haven't had much time for it in recent weeks. Still, here is my first bug shot from the garden, with natural light, f16, iso1600 and 1/200:

[JBW]

if I used those setting ir would have been a disaster. Your shot looks good

[ionian]

if I used those setting ir would have been a disaster. Your shot looks good

Thanks Brian. In what way would it be a disaster with these settings, and what would you do differently? I'm using m43 so that may affect light gathering and depth of field.

[ionian]

Busy busy background, but the detail has come out well. Do snails suit headshot portraits?

[Geoff F]

With your Araneus diadematus spider, I would selectively tone down the background highlights a little. I usually do this in Luminosity mode so the saturation doesn't also fade into a greyish colour.

Snails, and slugs, are surprisingly difficult to photograph well, so you have done well with that shot.

[ionian]

Not really macro as taken with a tele, and fairly unsatisfactory processing, but here's the first dragonfly I've seen in my garden this year, sitting on my washing line:

[JBW]

ISO 1600 would give me a very noisy shot. I try to stay at 100 with a maximum of 400. I tend to shoot at F/14 or lower but s you say cameras are different and if the rain stops I will give F/16 a go.

[Cantab]

Busy busy background, but the detail has come out well. Do snails suit headshot portraits?

Simon, an interesting and colourful slug. Have you seen the slug thread that ran for awhile a few years ago, Post Your Slugs ?

[IzzieK]

Simon...doing better.......there goes my breakfast, Bruce!

[James G]

Izzie, clarification please are you having snails for breakfast? if so very FFFFrench. (They are rather nice with a bit of garlic and sour cream.)

Simon, Geoff is right, photographing slugs and snails can be a real challenge, their movements can be quite deceptive and the surface slime can create problems with reflections in bright conditions. Also if you are using a macro lens you need a bit of distance if you want to keep the eye stalks in reasonable focus along with the rest of the head.

[billtils]

Simon

Yes, these are great portrait lenses and the B&W is a superb image. As far as the flower goes, there appear to be (at least) two "schools" in the macro community, one can be described as "sharp as a tack" and the other as "creative use of DoF". I intuitively was a would-be-member of the former until recent participation in a macro workshop where the tutor was firmly in the latter camp - and had an impressive portfolio to support her view.

I suppose it's just another example of taste and intent: if the ethereal DoF look makes what you feel is a good image - and best of all if you did it deliberately, then good on you.

For what it's worth, I like your rose ...

[ionian]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - life has come along and given us a bit of a kicking in recent weeks. Life eh? Can't live with it, can't live without it...

Still, my macro journey isn't forgotten! I'm still very much learning but I've changed my in-field set-up a little bit and I'm having reasonable results. I'm still without a PC so these are jpg files and not stacked - I've therefore gone for the creative use of DoF that Bill mentioned above.

All are shot on my Olympus EM-1 with the Vivitar macro, and a camera mounted flash with 6" softbox above and in front of the subject at a 45 degree angle. ISO200, 1/200, f14-16, and TTL flash.

Comments welcome.

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[Minerva]

Wonderful efforts Izzie. Well done.

[xpatUSA]

Nice job, Simon! Love the texture in the second bug-shot and that text-book DOF area on the leaf.

[ionian]

Thanks both, I'm quite pleased with the lighting in particular - although I'm still learning how the relationship between the flash and ambient light works at this magnification (I'm sure there is simple maths behind it but I like to get a feel for it so I can judge by eye when composing). This soft box feels like it produces nicer light than my cheap ring flash. I'm still working on handheld manual focus but the faster shutter speed used with the flash and the magic of Olympus in-body stabilisation really helps.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Simon,

I like the fly with red eyes especially, not sure I have seen one quite like that before.

Given the computer circumstances, I won't suggest artistic cropping - besides, they're more like practice aren't they.

Glad to see you're still shooting - I owe you a thread, don't I?

Cheers, Dave