POST YOUR MACRO RIG. If you have one that is. This may be a good beginners tutorial

[LightSpeed]

I only have a measly Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 mounted on either a D300 or a D700. I'll sometimes add a flash or four.


The Setup:

The Shot:

LORD HAVE MERCY!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is the most beautiful water drop I have ever seen, and I have seen MANY.
It's magnificent.

 

[unpopular]

I'll be upgrading soon with an XYZ setup. But until then, here is my very basic setup. I like backlighting lately.

 

[Nikon_Josh]

And it gives us men chance to oggle at her avatar

You don't get women like that 'Up North' do you Gary??

How wrong you are Kimosabe,

Look at her profile and you will notice that she is one of us 'Canuks'. Stunning ladies are everywhere up here. It's the clean air and maybe something in the water.

Haha, I think you misunderstood my little joke aimed at Gary. It was a little joke from englishman to englishman! Over here we have a bit of a rivalry between south and north.. similar to the US/Canada rivalry that sometimes comes up on these forums.

Mentioning America and Canadian women though, I noticed when I spent time in Canada and America. There were ALOT of stunning women everywhere... one of the main educational observations I made when I visited your homelands and a good enough reason to visit again.

 

[RebeccaAPhotography]

I'll be upgrading soon with an XYZ setup. But until then, here is my very basic setup. I like backlighting lately.

Dude yours looks like some science experiment lol!! I don't know what most of the stuff is roflmao! There ya go I showed my true old noobself lol!!!

 

[unpopular]

The main difference between my setup and others is that my lenses are in barrel. That means that there is no way to focus the lens; because I use enlarging lenses. Enlarging lenses are designed for close focus because the film which they are focussing onto is relatively close to the rear element; mounting them in reverse is preferred, actually but the lens here has a dented filter thread ... anyway, I need some way to focus so I use bellows, like this one from wikipedia:

(Macrophotography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Bellows though are very useful in general macrophotography in place of extension rings, because the extension is variable. This means that you can adjust magnification. The disadvantage is that the lens and the camera are not generally linked together unless you spend a lot of money on bellows which are. This means that you must manually adjust the aperture and focus before making the exposure.

The image is of grains of course kosher salt, the kind you'd use on the rim of a margarita. It is uncropped, and I'd guess around 10:1 magnification.

 

[LightSpeed]

Some of the gear posted here can be rather intimidating to a novice & that is why I showed a simple way of shooting macros using lenses the person likely already has with the aid of extension tubes.

Here is another example, using a 50mm f2 lens on a 25mm tube shooting a rubber stamp.

Here is the shot which is a 1:2 macro.

If one wanted a 1:1 macro you would need 50mm of extension tube. I highly recommend a novice starting out in macro to go with extension tubes, before spending big bucks on a real macro lens.

You did very well Mr. Evers. That is one of the reasons I made this thread.
You're equipment, by the way , IS, Impressive.
But more than that, you're a master at this. I'm much honored that you show on my threads.
Means a lot to me. Thank you.

 

[Patrice]

Mentioning America and Canadian women though, I noticed when I spent time in Canada and America. There were ALOT of stunning women everywhere... one of the main educational observations I made when I visited your homelands and a good enough reason to visit again.

True enough, but you fellows have a fair few bonnie lasses to be found as well. Over 2 decades back I was on a work assignment in England for a few months. I got to know a charming petite young northern girl from Lancashire, you could describe her looks as 'black irish' with pale green eyes, black silky hair, very fair complexion with a few freckles on the bridge of her nose, not to mention legs to dream about.



We've been married for over 20 years now.

(Enough of this hijack, the thread is about macro set-ups.)

 

[unpopular]

I highly recommend a novice starting out in macro to go with extension tubes, before spending big bucks on a real macro lens.

There really is a lot you can do with extension tubes. You're prob not going to get a fruitfly laying an egg or anything - but there is tons of stuff to explore nonetheless.

In fact, APO Rodagons are sold as high-end industrial/scientific macro lenses:

http://www.edmundoptics.com/products/displayproduct.cfm?productid=1416

The 50mm listed at EO is the exact same one as this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-RODENSTOCK-APO-RODAGON-N-50MM-F2-8-LENS-/370578494614?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item5648331496#ht_2250wt_1291

but placed in a helical

 

[LightSpeed]

I highly recommend a novice starting out in macro to go with extension tubes, before spending big bucks on a real macro lens.

There really is a lot you can do with extension tubes. You're prob not going to get a fruitfly laying an egg or anything - but there is tons of stuff to explore nonetheless.

LMAO..................oh man.
Oh my God, that was ruthless.
That was a high compliment man.
HIGH 5.
I'm stoked!

 

[unpopular]

LOL man. All I am saying is that you have a nice lens!

Seriously though, by the time you provide enough extension with enough working distance to not spook the bug, the viewfinder will be so dim that MF becomes really hard - if not impossible (nevermind live view) and AF-assist is pretty much useless. That's one REALLY annoying thing about relying on extension is that pesky inverse square law. It's not that you can't get great results, especially with a lens designed for the task, it's that the exposure starts falling off very rapidly at about 10cm.

I bet though this would be a lesser issue with large format macro lenses.

 

[LightSpeed]

LOL man. All I am saying is that you have a nice lens!

Seriously though, by the time you provide enough extension with enough working distance to not spook the bug, the viewfinder will be so dim that MF becomes really hard - if not impossible (nevermind live view) and AF-assist is pretty much useless. That's one REALLY annoying thing about relying on extension is that pesky inverse square law. It's not that you can't get great results, especially with a lens designed for the task, it's that the exposure starts falling off very rapidly at about 10cm.

I bet though this would be a lesser issue with large format macro lenses.

The egg shot, hand held.
I shyt you not.
I was right on top of the fruit fly. Aside from loss of light, diffraction becomes an unreasonable problem. Depth of field is slim and becomes a major problem when ur that close.

I got the egg man.................GIMME SOME LOVE!
YESS
lol
WHAT UP BOYY!
Hot damn, I can't believe I nailed that shot.
I am fking stoked dude.
I know I'm probably making more of it than need be and I'm sure there are better, but I'm happy and I feel lucky.
Dude I woke up this morning and I was breathing and then I got that shot.
Life. It's my gift.

 

[unpopular]

That's amazing! Hand held? How was it focussed? Don't even tell me manual/no assist! There is NO WAY i could hold any rig that stable and maintain the non-existant DOF.

What kind of magnification do you think you got there?

 

[cgipson1]

LOL man. All I am saying is that you have a nice lens!

Seriously though, by the time you provide enough extension with enough working distance to not spook the bug, the viewfinder will be so dim that MF becomes really hard - if not impossible (nevermind live view) and AF-assist is pretty much useless. That's one REALLY annoying thing about relying on extension is that pesky inverse square law. It's not that you can't get great results, especially with a lens designed for the task, it's that the exposure starts falling off very rapidly at about 10cm.

I bet though this would be a lesser issue with large format macro lenses.

The egg shot, hand held.
I shyt you not.
I was right on top of the fruit fly. Aside from loss of light, diffraction becomes an unreasonable problem. Depth of field is slim and becomes a major problem when ur that close.

I got the egg man.................GIMME SOME LOVE!
YESS
lol
WHAT UP BOYY!
Hot damn, I can't believe I nailed that shot.
I am fking stoked dude.
I know I'm probably making more of it than need be and I'm sure there are better, but I'm happy and I feel lucky.
Dude I woke up this morning and I was breathing and then I got that shot.
Life. It's my gift.

yea... it's great, isn't it?

 

[cgipson1]

That's amazing! Hand held? How was it focussed? Don't even tell me manual/no assist! There is NO WAY i could hold any rig that stable and maintain the non-existant DOF.

What kind of magnification do you think you got there?

Just takes practice!

 

[unpopular]

^ i'm not up for the frustration in the meantime. Besides, I'm not into bugs anyway.