Rest. (C&C)

Markw · May 31, 2009

Little guy posed (asleep?) for about 15 mins in the swaying wind. He was only about 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch long. The +10 macro lens gives an extremely tiny focal range, so this was super hard to take. This was the best one.

Tell me what you think.
Thanks.

Mark

Overread · May 31, 2009

looks like you got the focus right on the tip of his nose and eyes! But whilst the background has blured wonderfuly I think you really need to stop down more- get to f8 at least and if you can go smaller that would really help - f13 is where I do most of my macro work. Otherwise you depth of field is razor thin - it makes it a lot harder to compose a shot

Markw · May 31, 2009

For some reason, with the macro on, the aperture is fixed like that, or else I would. Thanks

Mark

Overread · May 31, 2009

when you say that do you mean the macro lens attachment or do you mean your using an auto shooting mode for macro work?

Battou · May 31, 2009

Overread said:
when you say that do you mean the macro lens attachment or do you mean your using an auto shooting mode for macro work?

I have the same question.

With macro, the only times I can think of where aperture is fixed is with reverse non-manual lens and auto modes. Even then the aperture is not really fixed in auto mode, it's just chosen by the camera.

*EDIT*

Now that I think about it, I think (could be wrong) the breechlock Canon FD lenses and M-42 lenses are capable of fully adjustable aperture with reversed lens.

Markw · May 31, 2009

I am shooting with the nikkor 28-80mm and quantaray +10 macro 'lens' (I think its more of a filter..but they call it a lens.) that attatches to the front of the nikkor lens. With that on, the lens, no matter of what the camera is set at for some reason, has the same focal plane. This is the only thing I absolutely hate about this attatchment. I will add a picture to this to show you how shallow it is.

Mark

Markw · May 31, 2009

This flying insect was on my window screen (again, regular fine mesh screen), and was also about 1/16-1/8 of an inch in size, look at the depth of field in this one.

This was shot at F/8 and the DOF is still this tiny, im guessing less than a quarter inch. You can see, even the back half of this tiny insect is out of focus. This is how all the photos turn out with this attatchment on.
Unless the surface is flat all the way across, only this much will be in focus, that is why I am so happy about the 'rest' photo, I had to fight the wind as he was on a 5' waving stem of a grape vine with this small of a DOF to work with.

Mark

Overread · May 31, 2009

ahh so you can use smaller apertures but the depth of field remains small for all of them - that makes far more sense - welcome to the world of macro

Even though it is small still keep to the smaller apertures - it does help to get every tiny bit you can!
I like that ant shot as well!

Markw · May 31, 2009

Thanks. I didnt post it because I thought everyone would say it was too centered. Crops dont reaqlly work with this one, I dont think. To give you a better example, this photo was taken at F/13 and still less than 1/16 of an inch is in focus (barely at that..)

And so little is still in focus, so I dont think it really matters with this attatchment, but I still keep it with a high a number as possible with the lighting conditions.

Thanks again.
Mark

newrmdmike · May 31, 2009

i looked at a few of your macro posts elsewhere and by far like the first one here best.

good job!

Markw · May 31, 2009

I love the feeling of the first one and I think the centering composition works with this. Thanks everyone.

Mark

Battou · Jun 1, 2009

Overread said:
ahh so you can use smaller apertures but the depth of field remains small for all of them - that makes far more sense - welcome to the world of macro Even though it is small still keep to the smaller apertures - it does help to get every tiny bit you can!
I like that ant shot as well!

Not necessarily, Yes he can use smaller apertures but that does not mean that regardless of that the DoF will be razor thin. This was shot with Canon FD 100-200 with similar Macro filters (+1,+2 and +4) made by Tiffen stacked on to the lens on a bellows. (this is just the bellows alone if you are curious.) So DoF can be increased to a useable level with the use of those filters.

Markw · Jun 2, 2009

If the subject and background are 'flat' at the same degree with the lens, they will be in focus as in this one:

But even in that one, you can see it getting out of focus where the screen curves and the edges. That one was shot at F/5.6 and the earlier one was shot at F/13. The screen was relatively at the same degree as the lens, so it was in focus. The fly was at a major angle, so only the very center was in focus. Even at F/5.6, the picture is way sharper in many many more areas than the earlier one of the fly shot at F/13. Im sure Tiffen's filter optics compares to Quantaray have something to do with it.

Mark

Battou · Jun 2, 2009

Markw said:
If the subject and background are 'flat' at the same degree with the lens, they will be in focus as in this one:

[IMG - pulled for space]

But even in that one, you can see it getting out of focus where the screen curves and the edges. That one was shot at F/5.6 and the earlier one was shot at F/13. The screen was relatively at the same degree as the lens, so it was in focus. The fly was at a major angle, so only the very center was in focus. Even at F/5.6, the picture is way sharper in many many more areas than the earlier one of the fly shot at F/13. Im sure Tiffen's filter optics compares to Quantaray have something to do with it.

Mark

Well, I am going to opperate on the assumption that the variation in filter optics between Tiffens filters compared to the Quantaray filters are not going to be substantial enough to account for some 60 degrees of angle. However I will take into account the variation in magnification where you are using +10 you said(?) wile I am barely breaking +6, (Bellows not included but ads somewhere in the neighbor hood of another 1).

I am going to suggest that you tripod your camera and get a few shots with the lens stopped all the way down. I'm curious as to what Minimum apeture is going to do for you with this filter setup you have.