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

[LightSpeed]

In addition, thank you all for showing up at this thread. You did a good deed gentlemen.
Not for me. But for all.

Your rigs are amazing. I have much to look forward to. Thanks to many of you here.
I enjoy the tutelage from those like yourself, that means all of you. With many of you here, I don't feel like I'm in this by myself.
Yes I get destroyed with C&C from time to time, but really , it is a great benefit that gives one determination. ( pay attention beginners to that last sentence.)
Yes I have been through it. Not a whole lot here but enough. lol. I got nailed on other forums wayyyy worse. It almost came down to me hunting someone down.
God, I'm glad I didn't do that. The guy was RIGHT. And he was terrible NASY about it..............worse by far than GSgARY AND GIPSON.
You slop up here.........they tell you so, and boy look, these fkers don't hold back.
And then there's Ron Evers. Critiques subtly while giving hints. You know you got it going on when you can teach by giving hints.
Ron.

Salute.
Fine job gentlemen.

Yep........I'm LightSpeed, alright.

 

[unpopular]

I'll update in a couple weeks with my new rig.

 

[LightSpeed]

833 HITS ON THIS THREAD BRO. In less than 14 hours.
Good info from all of you guys. We hit the search engines.

Good for you photo forum. And thank you for my stay and putting up with me.

 

[Lowrider]

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:

The water drop is nice. Gotta ask tho, do you normally keep your toothbrush on the toilet?

 

[kundalini]

The water drop is nice. Gotta ask tho, do you normally keep your toothbrush on the toilet?

Thanks for noticing. It was due to be replaced, so I used it as a focusing point in the bowl of water.

 

[cgipson1]

a little late.. but here is the rig I use for most handheld macro shots..

D7000
Tokina 100mm Macro (with or without Raynox DCR-250 and / or Kenko Extension Tubes)
Kirk Macro Bracket
Nikon SB-900 flash
Lastolite 9" softbox

 

[unpopular]

a little late.. but here is the rig I use for most handheld macro shots..

So do you handholders shoot manual focus, auto or focus assist? Not that it doesn't take a steady hand to capture a fruitfly taking a dump regardless, but if you guys have to manually focus - especially with gipsons "... or are you happy to see me" rig - that'd just be incredible.

 

[cgipson1]

a little late.. but here is the rig I use for most handheld macro shots..

So do you handholders shoot manual focus, auto or focus assist? Not that it doesn't take a steady hand to capture a fruitfly taking a dump regardless, but if you guys have to manually focus - especially with gipsons "... or are you happy to see me" rig - that'd just be incredible.

I evaluate the subject.. and how much magnification I want for it.. and try to preset the focus / mag. I then move the camera back and forth to get the focus I want. Since typically my lens is fully extended (1:1)... even the setup is easy. Since I use flash in almost all of my macro shots.. I can vary my shutter speed to either kill / allow subject motion, or to allow / kill ambient light. Aperture is usually stopped down, depending on the subject / background relationship.

When I do find a focus change necessary, I cradle the lens / focus ring in my hand.. and use that as a secondary support anyway. I shoot strictly manual focus for macro.. AF is too flaky.
Does that help?

 

[unpopular]

Yeah, it does. I suppose also you'd get more DOF with a dedicated macro lens, since you have greater working distance. For my primary macro lens, the 50mm Rodagon, I really don't have that much DOF at all, plus no auto diaphragm.

Not saying it doesn't take skill. Just from my perspective, having never owned a macro lens, it'd be nearly impossible.

 

[cgipson1]

Yeah, it does. I suppose also you'd get more DOF with a dedicated macro lens, since you have greater working distance. For my primary macro lens, the 50mm Rodagon, I really don't have that much DOF at all, plus no auto diaphragm.

Not saying it doesn't take skill. Just from my perspective, having never owned a macro lens, it'd be nearly impossible.

Depth of field is always an issue.... as you know, anytime you get close (macro close), the DOF is razor thin! When you add tubes or other magnification, it drops it even more. But that is part of the fun.

I used to do a lot of rifle / handgun shooting... competition stuff. Studying how top shooters use their body mechanics to stabilize their weapon, is very applicable to photography also... especially in the handheld macro realm. You just have to be able to grasp the concepts.. and correlate those into the different grips and shapes our equipment has. A little practice goes a long way!

 

[Overread]

One day I'll have the space and money to have that many flashes and light stands! It's honestly something I miss right now, only the one tripod so if the camera is on that the flash has to be in the hands (which is a nightmare for macro because all the distances are so small and light does this annoying exponential thing over distance so even small shifts in my holding throws out the exposure sometimes).

 

[Buckster]

My field macro rig (bug hunting):

My typical studio macro rig (water drips and so on), except that now I have macro rails and a geared head for it:

 

[unpopular]

Depth of field is always an issue.... as you know, anytime you get close (macro close), the DOF is razor thin! When you add tubes or other magnification, it drops it even more. But that is part of the fun.

When I was younger I could shoot down to 1/8s, 50mm at about 2' and still get pretty sharp results. I feel like now my hands are a bit more shaky than they were when I was 18.

It's funny how you notice these things in a matter of only a few years. Five years ago I never thought about getting older, at least not physically. I'm sure though with practice I could improve again.

 

[Overread]

I've heard that a glass of wine before you shoot can sometimes help steady your hands.


Of course if you end up drinking a few bottles it might have the opposite effect - though chances are you mind won't know the difference by then

 

[unpopular]

I had a friend in college who spent eight hours and like 30 rolls of film taking blurry photos of trees while under the influence of magic mushrooms.

I guess something was lost in translation.