Recently I've been playing with a few "new" toys.
I can't afford the prices of all the macro lenses I've been looking at so I got myself a reversing ring for about a fiver. I have also been trying out Helicon Focus and Combine ZM. I'm still very much at the experimenting stage but I'm quite pleased with these results.
This is a single frame without processing. It is a small seed (1/4") sitting on my camera lens cap.
Same seed using image stacking with Combine ZM.
This photo of a fly's wing is a composite using just two images in a stack.
I plan to post up more macro photos soon. Each time I experiment I've learned a few new techniques so hopefully the quality will improve.
I think I'll need to provide some sort of reference photo so you can see how small the subject is. Waddya think?
Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Btw if you have an external flash and some sort of extension cord for it then that can seriously improve your lighting. (= you can use smaller aperture) External flash mounted in the hot shoe doesn't do much good but If you can bring it close to the subject it may do wonders A somewhat cheap alternative to macro flash rings.
Also when doing focus bracketing on macro subjects you could try tying the front of your lens down because if you move it by just 1mm at those distances it may mean that you can't alight your images properly anymore. Some thin rope or wire and a heavy weight should do it. Also turn the image stabilizer OFF if you have any.
Thanks Arthurio, I think I have the same camera as you, Canon EOS 400D with standard kit lens EFS 18-55mm.
I have set the focus to manual and so far I have had no problem with the lighting as I have been shooting on the windowsill of a south facing window.
You are right about the critical nature of the focus and the DOF. So far I have been using a Tripod or a camera cushion for stability. The ideal piece of kit for this is I've been told, a set of rails that attaches to the camera which fastens the camera to the tripod. This allows for minute incremental adjustments and keeps the subject in a fixed position in relation to the camera. As I do not have the dosh for this yet I'm sticking with experimental Heath Robinson doohickys
I'm just working on some more to upload back in a mo
Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Btw if you want a white background then regular white copy paper is probably sufficient ... the texture won't usually show because of the shallow angle and dof. You can also experiment with placing some of the paper vertically as reflectors so you get more light on the subject. Glossy paper or plastic looks better tho...
Btw if you want a white background then regular white copy paper is probably sufficient ... the texture won't usually show because of the shallow angle and dof.
Heh, that's one of the aforementioned techniques I learned through experiment I used it in the photo of the wing.
Here is a reference photo of the seed I used in the photos above.
This is about the highest magnification I achieved in the first few experiments, I think I only used three photos in the stack.
The rest of my experiments focused on my favourite models, Venus and the Sundew. The closed trap of the Venus plant is about 1/2" to 3/4" in length. I initially had the shot set up with the trap open, and that took ages, when I had the brilliant idea to use the fly whose wing I had photographed earlier. Now usually with a Venus plant the trigger hairs have to be tickled at least twice before the deadly trap snaps shut. She must have been starving or having a laugh for as soon as I gently placed the deceased fly inside the trap...gulp!
So another few minutes setting up the shot and I was ready to go. Each photo is made up from between two to ten separate exposures, stacked in CombineZm and finished off in Photoshop.
Pump this into google and fill your boots. diy focus rails
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?It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.? Voltaire
thanks
I used 400D + 50mm f1.8 II + extension tubes + 580EXII + hot shoe flash cable (I replaced the short 1m cable with a 7m one myself ... soldering all 12 connections was a pain tho.) The 50mm f1.8 II is a very cheap lens and works perfectly with any extension tubes.
The flash is what really gives me the ability to shoot at ISO100, 1/200, f10 (or even f22). For macro however the 580EXII is clearly overkill, any cheap flash would do.
Any ideas how I could get my hands on a nice fresh winged insect in the winter? ... I found a few but they had dust all over and a spider had had his way with them.
Extension tubes, I think that is the next step for me in the macro department. Then the next stop is to combine them all and track down one of those pesky leptons...then I'll know the answer...then they wont be laughing....
HA!
This is the remains of a fly after the Venus trap has opened again, which is anything from a couple of days to never.
This is a macro of the fossilised Shark tooth I had on the lens cap earlier.
So, preparation is the key here I've found. I quite like the way some of the photos turned out with hardly any editing, what's that word? Brokeh or something, meaning something about use of focus and blur to create another dynamic or something like that. That's what I'm claiming anyway
Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Excellent stuff Arthurio, the black background works wonderfully. Now what we need is some more detail, shooting information I mean. How many exposures, what equipment, what software did you use to increase the DOF, I don't ask for much do I?
Well done again.
~8 exposures, 70-200f4 + reversed 50f1.8, 1/200s f32, 580exII flash mounted on a gorillapod, photoshop cs4 (photomerge with vignette removal and geometric distortion removal and then auto blend layers with stack images and seamless tones and colors)
The setup also includes a big black sheet of carton placed relatively far away, 3 sheets of regular white paper for reflecting light, a green pod for supporting the camera, a cord for connecting the flash and a 2 liter bottle of water for holding the camera in one place while focusing.
I bought 2 cokin adaptors: 67mm and 52mm, glued the flat sides together with superglue and then connected the two lenses with it. Looks ok and works like a wonder. This is what it looks like when assembled. Can't have the camera on the picture because I only have one.
Nice one, you didn't mention what you had for dinner
I've read about using the (cokin) adaptors glued together to connect the two lenses I think it was in the article you linked to, I've read so much stuff on the subject which is the reason I'm not sure. Did you leave the glass in the adaptors? I've got one adaptor/filter that has the glass cracked so I'm going to remove the rest of the shards from that one and do the glueing jobbie with another one to attempt the same set-up as you.
I've ordered a Canon 50mm prime lens that should come in this week so I'm looking forward to experimenting with that.
You have CS4 MMmmmMMMMmmmHHmmmHHm I could be quizzing you all week on that. I've been following the video tutorials on the Russell Brown website and from what I see and read it seems Adobe have really dug deep and fundamentally changed a lot of the basic coding in Photoshop. I'm hoping to get CS4 next year, it means I'm going to have to find a lot more paid work to afford it. I like my life to have the minimum of wage slavery balanced with the maximum free time, so that's going to take a knock.
Have you tried Helicon Focus or Combine ZM yet? I know you mentioned them in an earlier thread but I think you said you had not used them at that stage. Having said that you've done a great job using Photoshop.
Cokin adaptors are just empty metal rings with a filter screw on one side, other side flat, no glass. You're supposed to attach the filter holder to those things. They cost $14 each around here. The neat thing about them is the wide flat surface that can be easily glued to another matching flat surface ...
I think both helicon and combinez suck ... at least that's my experience with them. And well this is all I did in photoshop: tutorial just note that when he says that this may take quite a while he means it (especially with 7-10mb .cr2 files) and also photoshop will take 1.5-2gb of ram with these things and blending may give you an error: "not enough memory" ... in this case just save the psd, close ps and open it again because for some reason there's quite a bit of memory leakage left from the 1. step. IF you still don't have enough memory then try cropping and resizing the whole .psd before blending ... that's what I did :/
Found and caught this tiny little spider, killed it with alcohol (this is the way to do it) and then tried to dry it a little but it's still too flexible ... positioning it was such a pain This picture took me 4 hours ... and it still sucks ... sorry ... just have to vent my frustration a bit...
My big clumsy fingers, two tiny needles and a tiny spider (body width: 1mm), me sitting on the floor next to the table and trying to see what I'm doing ... spider constantly falling off of anything I put it on. Taking pictures was easy after I got the spider in place. And then beating photoshop with a club for an hour so it would do what I need it to do.
posted 11-19-2008 18:45
A somewhat cheap alternative to macro flash rings. 
