how to get crazy up close macro photos

[nzmacro]

Raynox fan here as well. Bellows, macro lenses all gone now days. Camera is either a Sony NEX-7 or Oly E-M10 and a Canon FD 100-300 F/5.6L, on goes a Raynox DCR-250.

Advantage is the lens to subject distance of around 100mm with a ratio of near 4:1

All the best.

Danny.

 

[dannylightning]

even with the extension tubes on a lens at 200mm its not getting any close .

Extension tubes work better with shorter focal lengths. On a 200mm lens you need 200mm extension to reach life size (some of this will typically come from the lenses focusing range).
Using your 18-35 with ~30mm added extension should allow you to focus from just under life size (zoom at 35) to around 2x. But you'll have to get pretty close to focus at all, focusing is usually done by moving the camera & lens relative to the subject - generally rocking back & forth to fine tune the focus.

If using a long lens the Raynox you mentioned above will work better than extension.

Sorry I see Overread & others beat me too it!

my 18-35mm 1.8 is already able to focus at 11 inches from a subject according to specs. I would say mine will actually focus closer than 11 inches. I was playing with it and the tubes again the other day. If I put 36mm worth of extension tubes on it the lens hits the subject and still cant focus, if i put less extension tubes on that lens the lens is basically right up against the subject before its close enough to get focus and the lens blocks out all the light. I think I can only use the 12mm ext tube on that lens due to this reason and that still gets so close that bugs often run away when i try to shoot them but i cant enlarge the subject enough for my liking.

I was also trying to use around 50mm of ext tubes on the 50-100 at 50mm and the same thing, the lens would hit the subject before it could get focus so i cant get a 1:1 whit those lenses.

so I think I need some other form of magnification or a real macro lens would be a beter option than a regular lens with tubes to get nice close ups of really small objects. I was reading about extension tubes on a actual macro lens and it sounds like that works out great.

I might try out this screw on magnification kit that comes with a +1 +2 +3 +5 and +10 screw on filter. saw it on amazon, it has lots of really good reviews and people posted lots of photos they took using the kit and for 17 bucks its worth a shot till i can afford a real macro lens, as close as my 18-35mm lens can focus I bet something like that would give me pretty good results, its worth a shot.


with my 18-200mm lens at 200mm and all 3 extension tubes I can get focus with the lens right up against the subject and the lens blocks out the light. i took this photo like that and i laid a flash light sideways on the table so light would get between the coin and the lens. basically with all of my lenses and extension tubes the lens needs to be right against the subject to get a really nice close up and i think i already say the bugs start running away when you get that close

if i could get a nice close up image like that with the lens a little farther away that would be great..

playing with extension tubes20151217-DSC_6927 by Daniel Caldwell, on Flickr

 

[petrochemist]

The subject will be close using extension tubes effectively, but your 50mm example SHOULD focus with the subject 100mm (twice the focal distance) in front of the 1st nodal point. The nodal point will typically be within the lens relatively close behind the front element, it varies on lens design but I'd expect the object distance at 1:1 to be 90-100mm in front of the lenses front surface.
Fit the extension tube & set the lens to manual focus at infinity. Then move the camera slowly closer/further from the subject till the image is in focus. DOF will be very small & the difference the focusing control makes will usually be fairly minimal.
AF can be easily fooled in macro, and you may want to remove the hood to get enough light on the subject...

If you still can't find focus zoom out to 100mm & try again with the extension tube still in place. Focus will be further away& the image less magnified (around 1:2). Having found focus you can zoom in gradually moving the camera closer as you go...

Working distance is often an issue in macro. particularly if shooting bugs. Shooting early in the morning when it's cold helps as the insects need to warm up before they can run away

 

[dannylightning]

The subject will be close using extension tubes effectively, but your 50mm example SHOULD focus with the subject 100mm (twice the focal distance) in front of the 1st nodal point. The nodal point will typically be within the lens relatively close behind the front element, it varies on lens design but I'd expect the object distance at 1:1 to be 90-100mm in front of the lenses front surface.
Fit the extension tube & set the lens to manual focus at infinity. Then move the camera slowly closer/further from the subject till the image is in focus. DOF will be very small & the difference the focusing control makes will usually be fairly minimal.
AF can be easily fooled in macro, and you may want to remove the hood to get enough light on the subject...

If you still can't find focus zoom out to 100mm & try again with the extension tube still in place. Focus will be further away& the image less magnified (around 1:2). Having found focus you can zoom in gradually moving the camera closer as you go...

Working distance is often an issue in macro. particularly if shooting bugs. Shooting early in the morning when it's cold helps as the insects need to warm up before they can run away

alright let me try this again, stuck the 36mm ext tube on my 35mm lens. I set the focus to the infinity mark and tried to get focus on something,

I started about a foot way and I slowly moved closer, right about the time it started to focus the lens bumped against the water bottle and blocked the light. if i moved back even a hair it went out of focus pretty bad.

i tried rotating the focus ring to see if it would work better at something other than infinity but could not get focus unless the lens was resting aginst the water bottle,

i tilted the lens at a slight angle so some light wold get in there and snapped this shot.

.

 

[dannylightning]

OK one more try with the 50-100, put 48mm of extension tube on since that is as close as i can get to 50mm with the tubes. set the lens to 50mm and put it at infinity fous and these are the results i got. maybe my extension tubes are not correctly marked as far as the mm of the tubes..

50mm with lens bumped up all the way against the water bottle, i cold not get focus.


at 60mm same exact thing, slightly more in focus as the lens hit the waterbottle but still could not get a focus.


at 70mm i was able to get focus, i would say 1-2 inches from the water bottle.

 

[dannylightning]

and one more test on the 35mm lens, here is a photo with no tube and one with each tube.

35mm lens no extension tube about a foot away from the subject.


35mm lens with a 12mm extension tube about 2 inches away from the subject


35mm lens with a 20mm extension tube about 1 inch or less from the subject. it does not look like it magnified the subject any more than the 12mm tube did.


35mm lens with the 36mm extension tube and the lens pretty much resting against the subject

 

[SquarePeg]

I bought a set of extension tubes a while ago and had similar results. I found them to only work with some of my lenses, not with all. The best use I got out of them was with my 55-200 kit lens. Since that lens isn't great to begin with, they were essentially useless unless shooting with a tripod and controlled lighting. I get better "macro" shots with my Sigma 17-70 because the minimum focus distance is so short that I can be on top of my subject, sometimes touching it if it's backlit, and still get focus. I have the 105mm f/2.8 now and, while I love it for portraits and for the great bokeh, despite it's "macro" designation it doesn't get me up close and personal with any bugs or spiders like those shots you are referencing. Even with cropping. In reading about macro it seems a lot of people stun the bugs, bring them into a studio type set up and get their shots that way.

 

[Overread]

Nothing stops you using extension tubes on a regular macro lens; the bonus is that they should, in theory, give you more working distance*. Yes tubes can result in you being right on top of your subject and thus running a high chance of spooking the bug or/and of shadowing the subject with the camera and lens and thus making lighting difficult.

You can certainly shoot live bugs, but yes shorter working distances make for a much harder situation .

*distance from the lens front element to subject; as opposed to minimum focusing distance which is measured from the sensor/film to subject. As you can see in general terms min-focusing distance is good enough for regular shooting but in macro working distance becomes all the more important.

 

[chuasam]

LAOWA 60mm f/2.8 2:1 Ultra-Macro Lens | Venus Optics - Anhui ChangGeng Optical Technology Company Limited
here's a really affordable macro lens

 

[Overread]

Ahh I totally forgot about the Venus macro lens!
There are some reviews for it about and I did look into it when it was released but I can't recall what I found, although I have a gut feeling its like the Rokin type lenses - no frills basic operation but decent optical quality and performance.

There's certainly a market in lenses which lack frills like AF but which are affordable and good performers and for macro the lack of AF isn't a weakness.

 

[dannylightning]

The lowa looks awesome as far as image quality goes but it appears that you need to be very close to your subject with that lens. someone already mentioned that lens and i have done my research. tokina makes a AT-X 100 D 100mm f/2.8 pro II macro lens or something like that, its about the same price and gives you better working distance, great image quality too but i cant really afford it at the moment. for what its worth i think ken rockwell said its one of the best lenses he has reviewed optically lol.

I did figure out a good combo with my 50-100mm lens and i can focus probably about 6 inches or farther from my subject. i throw 2 of the extension tubes on it, set the focus to 0.95 and use the lens at 100mm. these are cropped a good deal but I am getting great results. I may just buy a 20 dollar screw on close up kit and see how that works out. the focus is already very hard to get hand held like this though..

in the first photo i did not crop it much, that fly was really small. the beetle was maybe 1/4 inch long

 

[nzmacro]

Danny, great name that

Good results, but be careful with cheap single element addons. Something like the Raynox DCR-250 is a 3 element two group design and shows no CA. There is quite a bit of difference and the Raynox are really sharp. DOF is always hard to get, so I use a ringflash and stop the lens right down to F/22 - F/32

With a Canon FD 100-300 F/5.6L on the Sony NEX-7, no cropping. All FF from the NEX-7

Red admiral butterfly

The only issue you might have with the Raynox is that you need the right filter size on the lens within the range of the adapter, 52-67mm. Longer focal lengths above around 100mm to avoid vignetting.

A decent zoom gives you a variable macro range and all from a good lens to subject distance.

All the best Danny and good luck with the decision. Its never easy.

Danny.

 

[dannylightning]

Danny, great name that

Good results, but be careful with cheap single element addons. Something like the Raynox DCR-250 is a 3 element two group design and shows no CA. There is quite a bit of difference and the Raynox are really sharp. DOF is always hard to get, so I use a ringflash and stop the lens right down to F/22 - F/32

With a Canon FD 100-300 F/5.6L on the Sony NEX-7, no cropping. All FF from the NEX-7
View attachment 127571


View attachment 127572

View attachment 127573
Red admiral butterfly

View attachment 127574

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The only issue you might have with the Raynox is that you need the right filter size on the lens within the range of the adapter, 52-67mm. Longer focal lengths above around 100mm to avoid vignetting.

A decent zoom gives you a variable macro range and all from a good lens to subject distance.

All the best Danny and good luck with the decision. Its never easy.

Danny.

Thanks, those are some great photos you posted

the rayonex does not fit on any of my lenses, there all 72-82mm filter sizes. i don't want to hold it up by hand in front of the lens.

I can get a set of the cheap filters for 17 bucks that will fit on 2 of my lenses. the photos people have posted on amazon that they took with the cheap filterset for the filter set, some of them are excellent and allot of them are very good.

I had a set of the cheap filters like this or maybe one of those big 0.42x screw on attachments at one time, cant remember which one it was but it worked well for the most part. that was back in 2007 or something, not sure what happened to them but I got photos like this with the attachments and a kit lens. the photos are not perfect but i still like them and I had fun playing with them.

trying out a inexpensive filter set for now seems like the way to go. something to play with and if I decide to stick with macro photography eventually ill get a real macro lens and one of the rayonex attachments.

 

[JohnFranklin]

I use a wonderful brass botanical pocket microscope for my macro work. It is excellent for viewing insects and sketching them on paper for future reference.

 

[nzmacro]

I use a wonderful brass botanical pocket microscope for my macro work. It is excellent for viewing insects and sketching them on paper for future reference.

I use an Olympus trinocular microscope and etch the images into stone using a portable CNC laser cutter. Takes a fair bit lugging the bag around though.

I once ate three pairs of boots.

Danny.