Macrophotography primers.

Discuss cameras, settings, composition, or anything related to photography - cactus or other subjects.
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DaveW
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Macrophotography primers.

Post by DaveW »

A few links to articles on the subject:-

http://www.scottmurphyphotography.org/m ... graphy.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.macro-photography.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/385243 ... hotography" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
peterb
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by peterb »

Interesting! Quasi-macros are possible these days with point and shoot basic digital cameras, such as the Sony Cybershot series. The technique involves getting as close as possible (best results for me are with a tripod and timer) and then cropping much closer in a photo editing program such as Picasa. Technically these are just extreme close ups, but with higher megapixel point and shoots, the resolution stays pretty good even with aggressive cropping.

peterb
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George
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by George »

I dragged my camera out yesterday and snapped a few quick pictures. I reversed a Canon 35-80 1:4-5.6 lens on some extention tubes and presto. The wind was blowing quite hard but I needed the sun for the light so I could see what I was doing. :) Certainly not the best pics ever (quick and dirty)...

This is the tip of an S. grandiflorus seedling, about 2" long. I had to crop the image and it has been shrunk by 50%
S. grandiflorus.jpg
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This is a closeup of a F. gracilis seedling the whole plants is about 8mm once again a crop reduced by 50% with only sunlight
F gracilis.jpg
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The photos were taken with my Canon 350D, with about 100mm of extention with my ebay cheapy 35-80 1:4-5.6 lens set to f16 and reversed. I used the timer as I didn't have my remote shutter release on me. I also have a flash on a lead so you can hold the flash where you want for better light. I didn't bother white balancing or tidying the image at all. Normaly I would use my 18-55 kit lens (it works great reversed) and spent time getting the white balance, flash angles right etc. This shows what you can do in 5 min with an old camera and a few cheap ebay accessories

For in the field I had an old Canon a620 that I used to blutack a lens from a jewlers eye piece onto, this gave some amazing results, I think the FOV was about 7mm wide :) I had a mini tripod and used with the timer it gave some amazing results.

Cheers
George
Ron43
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by Ron43 »

Excellent posts and info. Thanks much. About 40 years ago I had a bellows setup with my Konica film camera and then things change an I drifted away from photography. Now being retired I'm getting more interested in doing more closeup photos of flowers. My current camera is a Panasonic FZ200 and will give it a try before getting back in to DSLR cameras again.
Ron
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SnowFella
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by SnowFella »

Funny to think I acctually picked up a 30+ year old bellows set today that I'm planning to use for macro, mainly the attached focusing rail for more accurate focusing but I'm also planning on getting an adapter so I can attach my DSLR to the bellows. Just got to figure out what kinda lens I have to get for the front.
DaveW
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by DaveW »

Depends what sort of magnifications you want, but enlarger lenses work well on bellows if reversed for higher magnification. They are in fact better optically than the normal macro lenses that go from infinity to 1:1 when used above 1:1 and are almost equal at the lower magnification region. They are a lot cheaper too, but you will probably need a lens reversal ring plus a step up adapter to fit one. (why a step up rather than step down adapter? Simply because if the lens is reversed the male and female threads would be wrong way round with a step down adapter - you have to think in reverse from the lens filter threads back towards the bellows, not the bellows to the lens).

http://ocaphotoyop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... -lens.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://savazzi.freehostia.com/photograp ... nsespm.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can get special adapters, but by using combinations of standard reversal rings and step up adapters most combinations are available on EBAY, including cheap enlarger lenses now darkrooms are closing.

http://www.customphototools.com/macro/e ... e-adapters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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SnowFella
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by SnowFella »

Well, the sky's the limit really! I'm already set for 1.7:1 just using one of my older lenses and 64mm worth of extension tubes but with a throw of 15 some cm on the bellows rail I suspect I could go alot higher than that using the "right" lens.
According to the manual that came with the set I could get as high as 4.4:1 using a 35mm lens, and that's at full extension with an old film camera body. In order to get my DSLR to work with the bellows I have to add an extra cm or 2 of tubes at the back in order to get the camera to clear the mount so magnification would be even greater.
It's just a matter of finding the "right" lens at an affordable cost.
DaveW
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by DaveW »

You will probably need to focus stack for other than flat objects at higher magnifications though since depth of field can often be only a couple of millimetres, plus you cannot stop the lens right down at higher magnifications due to diffraction degrading the image. Remember also the aperture marked on the lens (Relative Aperture) is only correct at infinity and decreases the closer you focus and at higher magnification, so the aperture you are actually working at (Effective Aperture) is often much smaller than that marked on the lens.

Nikon DSLR's are one of the few cameras that shows the effective aperture the lens is working at and not just what is marked on the lens. I have had my Micro Nikkor set to it's smallest aperture f32 (Relative Aperture) for macro work yet the camera showed it was actually working at an effective aperture of f64 at that extension. In the days before TTL metering, when using a hand held meter at higher magnifications you had to apply an exposure increase factor since the effective aperture the lens was working at was different to that marked on it. Now TTL metering takes care of the light loss, but not diffraction effects.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutor ... tion.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaGJjf_qO9M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With focus stacking you actually open up the lens to it's sharpest aperture, but now with minimal depth of field take a series of shots and combine their sharp parts on your computer using stacking software. There is both free (Combine ZP) and paid for software downloadable from the web and you can often download a free limited free trial for paid for software too.

http://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/do ... utorial001" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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SnowFella
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by SnowFella »

Thanks for the info Dave, still lots to learn here that's for sure.
Still waiting for my adapter and old manual 50mm lens to arrive, since I'm a Sony guy I stuck with Minolta gear and went for a Minolta MC 50mm f1.4. Also got a 50mm enlarger lens that I'm bidding on but I'd have to get another adapter in order to mount it to the bellows.

Played around alittle with just the focusing rail the other day and realised one thing pretty quick....my tripod is woefully inadequate! With just camera, rail, tubes and lens I had so much wobble that I had to resort to 10 second shutter delay in order to get the vibrations to die out. New stable tripod is in the cards I think. :lol:

Just one out of a few test shots using my for now largest magnification of just around 1.7:1. No crop used.
Image
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Andy_CT
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by Andy_CT »

DaveW wrote: There is both free (Combine ZP)
Not for mac :(
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SnowFella
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by SnowFella »

Well, adapter and old Minolta MC 50mm lens arrived today so I've been testing it out some. Dang the depth of field gets thin when you are approaching 3:1 magnification, can acctually go slightly beyond if I extend the bellows fully....could potentially push it even further with extension tubes on the camera side for even higher magnification....not that it's needed!

The setup as it currently look.
Image
Image

And a quick and dirty test, Mammillaria stigma with no crop and .jpg straight out of the camera.
Image
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majcka
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by majcka »

Do you have a professional weapons license for this. I think you should have one. :lol:
Maja

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DaveW
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Re: Macrophotography primers.

Post by DaveW »

With regard to what difference focus stacking can make to depth of field at high magnification and using wide apertures to avoid diffraction makes to resolution (often less than 1mm depth of field per frame) plus properly diffused lighting to avoid hot spots, this image by Charles Krebs a master of the discipline should be what we are all aiming for, but very few ever achieve:-

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... .php?t=243" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Yellow Jackets" are called wasps in the UK.
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