Macro flower photographs

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/9...3f03483a_b.jpg

Nigella

Okay..............Now I am just plain confused..............does this go with flowers.......birds......or insects (I was setting up for bumblebees)

http://i44.tinypic.com/25811f8.jpg

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Originally Posted by Letrow

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/9...3f03483a_b.jpg

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That's really nice, Peter.

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Originally Posted by wlou

I love my 100mm macro and I am always trying to get closer. What do you think?http://i43.tinypic.com/2ept26o.jpg
Sunflower, from up-close!

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Very, very nice! I never can seem to get a good focus that close. I'm jealous.

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Originally Posted by johnbharle

Very, very nice! I never can seem to get a good focus that close. I'm jealous.

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Hello John, thank you kindly for you comment. When it comes to shooting flowers, the morning light does a great job at lighting all the littles spaces that would normaly be too dark to be seen. Of course, a good tripod and no wind helps a lot. My camera allows me to inlarged the view on the screen to fine focus before I press the shutter. The pivoting screen is easy on the eye and the back.:D

I also am working on getting good focus with very close-up images. This is the center of an Asiatic Lily which actually turned out pretty well. This is the first time I used my Nikon SB200 flash for micro. Attached it to my tripod with a small gorilla pod! I think it helped to get better depth of field to have the flash.

http://i42.tinypic.com/331lp8o.jpg

This is a cropped image of the center of the same flower, to show the elements (pistil and stamens) in more detail.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2l8ht28.jpg

Made an effort to get a flower with a bee, this one turned out the best. The DOF of the flower wasn't so good, because I was mostly interested in the bee, so I cropped it. The flower parts the bee was sitting on turned out pretty good. Flower is aptly named Bee Balm (Mondarda)!

http://i40.tinypic.com/25i7zud.jpg

If the rain will stop for a while, I would like to practice more with the macro while there are still flowers and insects to photograph. It has been pretty cool weather though, which doesn't hurt.

Susan

Susan, I enjoyed your three photos. The first two are good and sharp despite the degree of magnification especially in the second one.

Were you using a tripod for the camera or just for the flash? What focal length was your lens?

Produced from 4 shot stack taken at 1:1 ratio with 105mm macro fitted with 36mm tube. Images opened in ViewNX with -0.3 EV to each and converted to 16 bit Tiffs. Stacked in CombineZP 'Pyramid Do Stack' mode and processed in Elements 7. F11, 1/60th, ISO200

http://i40.tinypic.com/2nv9tac.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3776/9...9867ac51_b.jpg

lilium

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7448/9...0b599325_c.jpg

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Originally Posted by Cantab

Susan, I enjoyed your three photos. The first two are good and sharp despite the degree of magnification especially in the second one.

Were you using a tripod for the camera or just for the flash? What focal length was your lens?

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Bruce, thank you for the comments. Yes, I used a tripod for the camera, with the gorilla-pod attached to the tripod with the flash. My lens is a Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro (Nikon mount) - an older model without VR that I purchased pre-owned.

The first photo is pretty much the same size as I snapped it, just a little editing to bring up the exposure a bit.
The second photo is cropped from a photo that was taken much closer than the first, but I wanted to emphasize the pistil and stamens.
I know the bee picture isn't that sharp, but it was my first serious effort to get a bee. I have a few flowers with ants that aren't too bad, but ants are so much smaller, it is easier to get them in focus. But ants don't have all those interesting fuzzy parts!

Thanks again.

Susan

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5457/9...f1612908_b.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/2ut6ky8.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...72013_2514.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/80
F Number f/7.1
ISO 100

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...72013_2481.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/320
F Number f/4.5
ISO 100

A little "Surface Blur" to add that dreamy effect ..
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...72013_2576.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/200
F Number f/5.6
ISO 100

Susan we're not picking on ya, well...maybe just a little. :D
I usually don't do flowers but I was doing a bokeh comparison using this backyard flower as a subject.
RAW image in LR is kinda plain looking...

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...etty-posey.jpg

But...with a little PP, this is the results

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...posey-copy.jpg

I am not suggesting that it is up to par with the others herein...just to show what PP can do. ;)

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Originally Posted by Franci

http://i39.tinypic.com/2ut6ky8.jpg

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Francesca, I enjoyed looking at this photo. There are hard shadows on the rose but for me the image works well--perhaps because of those shadows?.

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Originally Posted by BJ Denning

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...72013_2514.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/80
F Number f/7.1
ISO 100

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...72013_2481.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/320
F Number f/4.5
ISO 100

A little "Surface Blur" to add that dreamy effect ..
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...72013_2576.jpg
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Focal Length 100mm
Exposure 1/200
F Number f/5.6
ISO 100

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Bryan, I particularly liked the first picture. It's elegant, and there are no signs of bugs or black spot on the leaves (unlike some of my roses).

Chauncey, nice PP. That structure of the leaves comes out good. Still, you could probably do this in colour too. The material is already there, just need to bring it out.

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Originally Posted by Cantab

Bryan, I particularly liked the first picture. It's elegant, and there are no signs of bugs or black spot on the leaves (unlike some of my roses).

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I am quite fond of the third rose Bryan, nice detail in there.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7346/9...fee8f182_o.png

Clicked at my place ......

EXIF Details:
Camera : Sony A57
Focal Length : 90mm
ISO : 100
Aperture : F8
Shutter : 1/30

http://imageshack.us/a/img195/1742/f...ncheetrose.jpg