ferny
No longer a newbie, moving up!
Jess said:I'm curious about the vignetting. I just used my coupler for the first time today and was horribly dissapointed to see the only a circle instead of the whole frame. Is this common? I thought my set-up just stunk.
I noticed in the guessing game thread that there isn't any w/ the vignet, are they cropping them?
Also, very importantly, is there anything particular you do to reduce shake on your macro's? Course, I was shooting something on the ground, so my posture wasn't ideal, but my photo's suck... attached.
If you're mounting a lens on a lens the amount of vignetting you get depends on the focal length of the camera lens and the aperture value of the reversed lens. With a big focal length on the camera you can "zoom" through the vignetting. If the lens is short you're going to pick up lots.
If the aperture of the reversed lens is small (the hole is nice and big) then vignetting is going to be less of a problem.
Vignetting is normal (just look at the examples I posted to see what you get) and without question most photos for the macro game are cropped. Not only does that get rid of the black edges but it allows the object to be bigger on the screen. You bin the pointless stuff around the object which leaves more room for the object itself.
Shake with macros is a problem. I can't shoot them handheld and I expect most can't. Everything gets magnified in macro photography. That includes the object and camera shake. The other problem is that because you're so close to the object it will normally be in your shadow. You'll be blocking lots of light. So the shutter speed has to be longer. Use a tripod and the self timer. 10 seconds is better than 2 as well, if your camera can change the timer length. The tripod will wobble after you press the shutter button and the 10 seconds gives it lots of time to settle down. Also, stand still after you've pressed the button. Walking around moves the tripod to, possible the surface that the object is on as well. Unless the floor that everything is on is very solid, concrete for example.