Mermaid Of The Inky Deep

[K9Kirk]

The weather is cruddy today so I thought I would make the best of it and have a little fun being creative indoors. Thanks for looking!

 

[Jeff1548 48]

Almost abstract......

 

[K9Kirk]

This question is for @Derrel . Derrel, I saw a similar macro pic of yours recently and it looked real sharp/focused so I value your opinion very much. I'm using a tripod and I'm using my "live view" and zoom to get everything as sharp as possible but it still seems to be lacking some sharpness so my question is, would a "macro rail" make any difference to sharpness in my macro pics such as this one? Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well. Thanks for any help, it's greatly appreciated.

 

[Derrel]

Sharpness is mostly from stopping down to get as much DOF as possible, although in new -school macro, multi-shot focus stacking is the way to go, according to most.

I've never used a macro rail, but they do allow precise, controlled movement of the camera.

 

[K9Kirk]

Sharpness is mostly from stopping down to get as much DOF as possible, although in new -school macro, multi-shot focus stacking is the way to go, according to most.

I've never used a macro rail, but they do allow precise, controlled movement of the camera.

I appreciate your input, Derrel. I just found out that I forgot to do one key thing that involves using white light so I should be able to get away from the small 2.8 aper and get some dof. Thanks, bro!

 

[Derrel]

I am guessing that this is the photo of mine that you were referring to. I posted it here a few days ago, and I believe I posted it back in 2014 when I made it. This photo was shot with a 180 mm Nikon AF-D prime lens using as I recall a 20 mm extension tube, and for sure with an aperture of f / 4.5. I was careful to keep the back of the camera parallel with the bubbles, and it was shot handheld, but with electronic flash to stop any camera shake.

 

[K9Kirk]

View attachment 186241

I am guessing that this is the photo of mine that you were referring to. I posted it here a few days ago, and I believe I posted it back in 2014 when I made it. This photo was shot with a 180 mm Nikon AF-D prime lens using as I recall a 20 mm extension tube, and for sure with an aperture of f / 4.5. I was careful to keep the back of the camera parallel with the bubbles, and it was shot handheld, but with electronic flash to stop any camera shake.

Yes, that's the one and it's a totally different way of doing it than I am. I could do it handheld but it physically wears me moving forward and back. I went ahead and bought a decent 4-way macro rail for $30 today. I'm going to set up a glass bowl with a piece of paper underneath it on a glass kitchen table and then have a white LED in a chair underneath shining upward to light up the bowl. the paper will defuse the light but give the light I need aside from the colored LED's to make the oil pop with color. I'll put up some pics soon. Here's the set-up that I 'was' using (bathroom is nice & dark).

 

[Derrel]

There is _much_ to be gained by having a set-up that allows precise camera positioning. When shooting handheld macro photos there are quite a few discards due to incorrect camera placement or bad focus.

 

[Derrel]

I basically use a Pyrex baking dish propped up on books on the dining room table. My background was a plastic label from a 2-litre Pepsi bottle. The flash was a Nikon SB 800 connected to the camera with an SC-17 cord....very much 1980's technolgy. The bubbles were formed, and I commenced to shooting. The relatively long focal length gave me a fairly narrow angle view of the background....and the f/4.5 aperture made sure that the background was not too much in-focus. As I recall the background was about 4 inches behind the bubbles.

 

[K9Kirk]

I basically use a Pyrex baking dish propped up on books on the dining room table. My background was a plastic label from a 2-litre Pepsi bottle. The flash was a Nikon SB 800 connected to the camera with an SC-17 cord....very much 1980's technolgy. The bubbles were formed, and I commenced to shooting. The relatively long focal length gave me a fairly narrow angle view of the background....and the f/4.5 aperture made sure that the background was not too much in-focus. As I recall the background was about 4 inches behind the bubbles.

I used a 21 and 13 mm tube with mine as well to bring it in closer. It seems to work well.