Experimenting with macro

[asp]

I don't own a macro lens but I enjoy taking pictures of small things so I bought a set of Kenko extension tubes. They allow full function of metering and AF with my Nikon D60 and any of my lenses. For the pictures of the coins, I ended up with 68mm of extension tubes behind my 70-300mm VR pointed straight down and the flash diffusing and bouncing off the ceiling. It seemed to give the softest light. Settings were ISO 400, f/11, 1/200, MF (not enough light for AF to work). I stopped down to f/11 to increase sharpness and DOF. These are all 100% crops - not bad for a hacked together macro setup.

Everything was hand held, no tripods. I might try again on the coins tonight using a tripod on the coins. It should let me focus more sharply.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/4991756265_9ef3122040_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4991755461_c1562246fa_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/4992360224_51eaca05da_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/4991753313_b3a0958672_b.jpg

I think this last one is my favorite because it's the sharpest and you can see Lincoln sitting in the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to how close to the edge of the lid that these coins were on and the bottom left of the picture shows the edge of the lid :doh:

Pictures of the bees were taken in Girdwood, AK with a 36mm extension tube behind the 70-300mm and natural lighting. I also have only hosted them on facebook and not flickr yet, so please excuse the small resolution. Thankfully, they remain sharp at hi-res.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs678.snc4/61828_861876166182_9120626_46813829_8096431_n.jpg


http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs680.snc4/62005_861876201112_9120626_46813832_1391880_n.jpg


http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs303.ash2/58382_861876315882_9120626_46813839_1647991_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs626.snc4/58645_861876270972_9120626_46813837_2282773_n.jpg

[XJLI]

i was gonna ask you in the nac thread if that was a macro lens.. that extension tube jam works pretty damn well.

[asp]

The tubes were about $90. Not bad, considering what they let you do. I think I might order a 2X teleconverter. I've been doing a ton of reading and it seems like it would fit the bill for getting more macro as well as more function from the same lens for distance (but only when there's enough light)

[kf_chris]

I like using the kit lens with a screw on macro adapter. Nice exposures.
Was the object the bees or the flower in the first of that set? It looks like you were going for the bees but got the flower instead, I could be wrong

[asp]

Thanks and you have a valid question. I was originally aiming for both but didn't expect my DOF to be quite as shallow as it is. That photo is sort of the odd-ball of the set...

[asp]

Here are tonight's results. I switched to the 18-55mm VR f/3.5-5.6 and got surprisingly good results. All but 1 were taken with my 18-55mm in front of the 68mm ext tubes.

This is my attempt at my stacking idea
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/4994663499_92ccb6104f_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/4994669171_13994b508b_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/4995270002_9a66e32682_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4995269126_e1b803b7cb_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/4994661121_4de09d1960_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4994660143_ce2aa2dfbd_b.jpg

A friend suggested fruit as a macro subject. Not quite a true fruit, but here's a strawberry.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4994669665_0d11e90973_b.jpg

I wasn't quite ready to quit shooting for the night so I went in the garage in search of creepy crawly things and found this fellow.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/4995268410_96f280bfe3_b.jpg

[POSJ]

Just an FYI only one of those is a Bee lol. I wish I had you skills though, my wife is into photography but I don't have the talent for it. I like the spider...

[asp]

Haha, yeah, someone on another forum told me that the bee-looking things are in fact hoverflies.

Thanks for your kind words.

[GrimmJeeper]

Digging the DOF on the stacked coins, looks pretty three dimensional. :thumbup: gotta love the macro shots.

[asp]

Thanks!

[asp]

Well, I bought myself this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140451548659&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

Looking forward to playing around with it.

[asp]

Here are some of my good shots with the macro lens that I got a little while ago.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs972.snc4/76535_893875673912_9120626_47588921_6088969_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs950.snc4/74374_893875738782_9120626_47588926_6963284_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs947.snc4/74065_893880549142_9120626_47589060_1813322_n.jpg

[asp]

Some more:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs485.ash2/75878_893952754442_9120626_47590477_7599731_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1136.snc4/149806_893952809332_9120626_47590480_8290718_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs998.snc4/77154_893952854242_9120626_47590483_925517_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs493.ash2/76656_893952919112_9120626_47590486_271427_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1171.snc4/154296_893952964022_9120626_47590489_2594961_n.jpg

This lens is manual focus and manual metering. It's tricky, but fun to use. All of these shots have the help of my SB-600.

[Letterman]

You get a lot of cool bugs to come over!

Very cool stuff, got me wanting to shoot more macro . . .

[DrMoab]

You get a lot of cool bugs to come over!

Very cool stuff, got me wanting to shoot more macro . . .

X2!

[asp]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Haha, I suppose I should tell you where I took these pictures. Right now in New England almost all the leaves are down and the average high temps are 45-50*F in my area(today happens to be 60*F at 6:30am :huh:) Besides that, there are no bugs that look anything like the colorful ones up here. I'm pretty sure they are exotic breeds not native to New England.

I went out to UMass Amherst over the weekend to see some old friends. During the day on Sunday a buddy of mine, who is a super-sr. (read: 1 year younger than me) and I went here (http://www.magicwings.com/). I had been once before, about 8 months ago, but I didn't have as good of equipment and I wasn't as good at using it.

Either way, I'm glad I could get you guys liked them :thumbup:

Some more info:
The shots were taken with my Nikon D60, Panagor PMC 90mm f/2.8 macro 1:1, SB-600 with white diffuser, and for some of them I put a 36mm ext tube behind the lens too. Depending on how close I knew I'd be getting to the subject, I took the flash off and put it on a cord so that the lens didn't block the light. All shots were taken at 1/200 - the fastest sync speed of my flash. The last picture of my first post from this set was taken at f/22 (deeper DOF) and was not focus stacked. In fact - I was stopped down for almost all of the shots.

[Letterman]

I know this is not shots of cool bugs, but this was kind of a theropy for me, find a way to get more use out of a busted axle that I don't have the money to be breaking . . .

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0765.jpg

Just the room lights on:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0772.jpg

Flashlight only:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0773.jpg

Closed it down, you can see how dirty my glass is:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0778.jpg

Coin for size:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0780.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0795.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/Stub2010_0796.jpg

Something like this:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dlddesign/Wrenching/breaks/111710_20051.jpg

A old Nikon D1 with a Nikon AFNikkor 24-85mm 1:2.8-4 D lens, some color correction in photoshop only to cut down on the house light yellows. Not that great of shots but at least I am still getting use of my axle . . . :jester:

[asp]

Pretty neat. I remember looking at some broken axle shafts when I took my material science class. Looks like your axle shaft had a pretty serious crack before it actually sh*t the bed. I like the 3rd and 4th shots the most. It's nice and sharp. What settings were you using? I think I'd be inclined to put it on aperature priority and stop down to f/11 or so. Put the 2s timer on so that way you're not moving the camera during the image capture, or use a remote. I've actually had the weight of the mirror give me blur in really long exposure, close up shots.

[Letterman]

Yeah, you just about said it all, the 3rd was f/7.1, the 4th was f/22, and the fifth was f/11. Shoot with the timer on the camera and step back to not shake the table. Almost everything I shoot is aperture priority mode, let the camera think speed and I try and work with the DOF.

[asp]

Nice. You could make a diffuser/extender for your flash out of a cereal box and a paper towel.

I usually shoot in raw; I get many more 'good' shots that way. You can adjust the exposure afterward in photoshop with much less loss than the curves tool. If I'm shooting sports I put it on shutter speed priority and deal with a little bit of darkness later.

[XJEEPER]

Nice!

[Handlebars]

I hate to admit it but I have had better luck doing macro with my pocket cam than with my D700/105mm Micro combo. My problem is with the short depth of field at close distances. A smaller sensor gives a greater dof than a larger one and I hate having my macro subjects blurry. Check out this broken valve spring, it is 1 inch in diameter, my LX-3 was set to 1/30 @ f/4.5:
http://www.fototime.com/529454582D7AFC8/orig.jpg

This toad was done with my 105mm at f/36.
http://www.fototime.com/4363A6BECE7D6D3/orig.jpg
The dof is barely sufficient for my tastes, luckily my little amphibious buddy posed in a position that didn't demand more from me. If you like doing macro I would suggest a pocket cam with a hotshoe. They will give more depth of field than a DSLR. The ability to hold the camera at an arm's length helps with composition when your subject won't come to you and a hotshoe will let you add enough of your own light to maximize your dof. The valve spring was lit by a 1500 watt halogen work light from one side and a speedlight with a 1/4 CTO gel on an off camera sync cord from the other.

[asp]

Cool shots (I especially like the frog) and neat shooting technique.

For shooting the frog, I would have been tempted to use my 70-300mm VR stopped down to f/8ish and a maybe a 36mm extension tube. Not sure how I would have done the valve spring...

Shallow DOF is something I think everyone that shoots macro fights. I find, a lot of macro subjects are small enough to effectively be 2D so a shallow DOF can work. Your picture of the frog and mine of the butterflies are examples of situations that are definitively not 2D, though.

[XJEEPER]

Here's a couple that I shot last year. Both are in natural lighting, post sundown.
Camera was tripod mounted and I used a timed shutter release to minimize movement.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w52/XJEEPER1/Autos/IMG_3497.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w52/XJEEPER1/Autos/IMG_3502.jpg