Micro image clarity tips / white balance issue

[Christie Photo]

Well we used to take a super close up of just the tips. But since we got the E510 I have just been putting up a super high res of the whole instrument. Most cases the end product turns out just fine. But some of these tips are 0.12mm wide and extremely delicate in which case if the end user cant see them clearly online they call to complain. ...The issue comes into play on only the very small delicate instruments.

Maybe post two images? ....One overall view and one detail view?

 

[DaShiznit]

http://www.amblersurgical.com/store/product.cfm?pID=785

The click to zoom will bring up the larger image.

Our website is being overhauled currently and with the new launch I am re-shooting all the images for the website. Hence the new camera and questions about using it.

 

[TCimages]

Personally, I would take a shot of the overall subject and superimpose the tips in a zoomed circle. I think you're doing fine with your current setup, but recemmended the macro for the smaller stuff.

 

[Flash Harry]

This is a specialist area of photography that probably is still best done with a LF camera with bellows extension and the knowledge of how to obtain a correct exposure, although a decent prime macro lens for your camera would help, your shots are under exposed not due to the white balance issue but to the fall off of light inherent with macro photography, a correct exposure sometimes needs multiple exposures to build up an exposure and is calculated using the formula M+1 SQUARED, where "M" = magnification. Also F16 may be fine photographing normal subjects but in this situation you need the lens stopped right down and focus 1/3 into the shot, I've done this professionally and its not as easy as it looks, critical focusing and large DOF is the way forward . H

 

[Helen B]

Your camera has TTL (through the lens) exposure metering, so you can forget about the extension factor that Harry mentioned - this only applies when taking a separate meter reading, not for TTL exposure systems. They take it into account automatically. I think that the underexposure is for the reason already mentioned - your camera is 'seeing' a predominantly white field.

The overall/detail view idea sounds the best. That Zuiko 50 mm lens will get close enough for 0.52x magnification. The sensor has about 200 photosites (pixels) per mm, so a 1 mm object would become about 100 pixels wide, I reckon. That means that a 200 x 200 inset could represent 2mm x 2 mm without resampling, and a 0.12 mm tip would be 12 pixels wide.

A small focus slide would probably help - you adjust the lens until you are nearly in focus, then do the fine focus by moving the whole camera using the focus slide. This assumes that you are using manual focus. The 'live view' function helps a lot in this respect.

If you want to get deep focus with macro, then consider 'focus stacking' software such as Helicon Focus.

Best,
Helen