Macro shots

[Buskanaka]

if you want to see some amazing photos, check out this site, the photographer was on CF but I haven't seen him around for awhile. Some of his stuff is pretty incredible though.

here's the link

 

[BassLine]

Taken in July, 2003, with a Pentax MX, Tamron 75-300mm TeleMacro lens and 1A skylight filter, on Kodak Max ASA 400 film, and scanned with a HP ScanJet 6200. No editing

L

 

[VWPETE]

a new one i took yesturday.

 

[Sonifo]

Very nice shots, folks!

I would love to take pictures of butterflies. The ones here are so shy and move so fast. I captured one the other day and felt bad so I let him go.

I did take some pictures of a bumble bee that buzzed by me while I was taking pictures of some yellow flowers.

I also got some pictures of these black ants that we seen up in the mountains. Scarey little boogers.

 

[michabo]

Sonifo,

Those are cool pics. What's going on with the ant in the first one? It looks like it has its head in a spider. And the second ant looks downright mean. I'm impressed that you were able to get good focus on moving targets. I spent about thirty minutes taking a picture of a spider yesterday morning and I don't have a single shot where it is properly focused. In this pic, the thorn and legs at the bottom of the picture are out of focus when the legs at the top are sharp.

I also took another picture of a fiddlehead which was perfectly stationary but even that, I had a hard time focusing. At f/4, the background blur would look very nice but I wouldn't be able to get all of the subject properly focused. This is at f/9 and the right side of the fiddlehead is out of focus though it is parallel to the film plane (I thought). Even still, the background is getting distracting.

I never knew macro photography would be so hard! So many things to pay attention to. Does anyone have any tips or tricks of the trade?

(These were with my 90mm f/2.8 Tamron, BTW)

 

[Sonifo]

It is really hard to shoot a macro with all the bug in focus. You have to have one awesome lens to do that. I know a guy who can get so close to a sponge that it looks like something held under a microscope.

I hope to achieve what he does someday. That really isn't a bad shot. I like it. Maybe a bit more lighting. Not sure what to tell you about the f-stop. Did you use your flash? I had to on mine or it would have been way to dark. They have macro lights you can buy that are a ring shaped.

You talk about hard, try taking a picture of a water drop in this up close. It is hard.

 

[Sonifo]

ooops. I forgot to answer your question about the ant and spider. Yes the spider is having a feast. I was lucky to catch this. The spider was only a 1/4 inch long. Pretty small. Those 2 first pictures are straight from the camera. No cropping.

 

[michabo]

Did you use your flash? I had to on mine or it would have been way to dark. They have macro lights you can buy that are a ring shaped.

I've been looking at the ring flashes and some off-camera flashes too. I think that might be the answer - at least it gives enough light to use f/11 or something decent. Then there's the problem with too much background, but you can't have everything

Do you use the on-board flash, an external (but still mounted) flash, an off-camera flash, or a ring flash?

 

[Sonifo]

I have used the onboard flash for the ones I took. I also have an external flash I use for portraits. I would like to get a cord for the external so I can move the flash anywhere.

 

[LynneClomina]

this was with my spotmatic, set at f-stop 1.4. havent touched up the dust, but my mom likes how it comes up out of the hazy background....

 

[Mr Hako]

shooting macro, to get back-to-front sharpness is virtually impossible with a 35mm type camera. The closer you get, the shallower the depth of field.

The only way around this is the use a bellows camera which allows you to twist the lens and film plane independently, and a tiny aperture like f45.

The best thing, is to realize that you are not going to get back-to front sharpness, and use it to your advantage.