Testing My Macro adapter

[JosephH]

Well I figured I would stay in and work with my macro adapter today and work on my basic Manual Mode Skills. I think I took everything people have been telling me about my ISO settings etc and put it to good use.

TY everyone for all your feedback it is helping me set up for my low light conditions.

First Shot I played around wanted to do water drops but didnt realize had to be on top the water with the macro adapter so thats later.

I tried it out on my dirty hand from work lol it was hard holding camera still and pointing at my other hand.

Camera: Nikon D3500 DSLR

Low Light Indoors

23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 450
f/5.6
1/60

 

[JosephH]

Now I took that and set up a cool shell I got from somewhere during vacation many years ago.

The First shot was set In Aspect Mode and let the camera do its thing

The rest were in manual mode with me using settings based on all the feedback I have been getting I wanted to use the camera mode for reference

Shell-01 Aspect Mode let camera do everything
23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 2500
f/3.8
1/125

Shell-02
23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 200
f/3.8
1/5

Shell-03
23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 200
f/3.8
1.0 sec

Shell-04
23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 200
f/3.8
2.0 sec

 

[JosephH]

And for the grand Finally once I was happy with my settings I set up a shot for everything composition depth of field lighting etc

Please give a critical critique of the entirety of the photo as I been listening to what everyone has told me and think that I got it in this shot

Shell-05
23MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 100
f/3.8
1.3 sec

 

[dennybeall]

Now you need to look into "photo stacking" so you can get more apparent DOF in your macro shots.
Also consider that any "adapter" is a poor substitute for an actual device.

 

[JosephH]

thanks Yea I did some test stacking on some sunsets will try here today. also I want to open the aperature and go for overal sharp shell. Iwanted to try and get a Brokeh look in this one even though my aperature wont go quite low enough for good effect. and will do some stacking today.

I didnt think stacking on this would make a difference wince there is no movement in the object it is just sitting there?

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts:
1) I think you've mixed up your stacking concepts and that's understandable as there are several different kinds. When you say you tried stacking with a sunset that makes me think you were exposure stacking (often called bracketing and also HDR). Basically where you're using two or more separate photos with different exposure settings so that you can capture the entire range of light values in a scene when the range is greater than the camera can achieve with a single photo (eg a bright sky and sun with a dark shadowed ground)

When people refer to stacking in macro its focus stacking. This is where they take a series of photos and move the point of focus/camera closer to the subject with each shot. This way you get a little overlap in the depth of field between each photo and the depth of field moves through the whole subject. You then use software to combine the photos so that the sharp parts of all are added together to give a single composite photo.
The bonus here is that you can get a greater depth of field whilst using a wider aperture (smaller f number). This means that the background remains blurrier and also that you can use a sharper aperture as opposed to, say, using a f22 (a very small aperture) which would give you a lot more depth of field, but softer details and not as blurry a background.

2) With your example photos you're varying the shutter speed, which isn't always ideal in macro when you are holding by hand. You can do that on a tripod, but things have to be really stable. Often a remote control for the camera or you can use the timer function so that you don't shake it pressing the camera button; a tripod really is important but can cause issues (eg if you're standing on wooden flooring or carpet your own body motions can move the tripod a little).
Ideally for macro you'd want faster shutterspeeds and/or flash so that the light is frozen in a splitsecond to get sharp results.

3) I would encourage you to try the set again - mount the camera on a tripod and set the ISO and shutter speed, then vary the aperture. f3.8 is very wide and is giving you a very thin depth of field and blurry background; try going through a selection of apertures. f3.8, f5.6, f8 etc.... If you mount your camera on a tripod then you can leave the ISO alone and just let the shutter speed vary for a proper exposure each time.

 

[JosephH]

thanks when I said stacking it was from when I was reading up on moon photography where everything stayed still but the moon was moving slightly. So I am guessing from your description since the shell wont move like the moon then to move the camera a hair shotot move a hair shoot to get the same effect as the moon moving would? am I understanding that correctly?

 

[JosephH]

oh also the camera was sitting flat on the table hands free and I was using my phone to fire the shutter. it was the perfect position for the shell angle i wanted on the shot

 

[Overread]

You can either move the camera a little bit closer each time or turn the focusing ring. Or you can even move the subject.

If your camera was on a tripod you'd use a focusing rail which lets you turn a dial to move the rail back/forward in very small distances to move the camera (rather than moving the whole tripod which would be very hard to do for the tiny distances involved). With your setup I'd say just turn the focusing ring on the lens very slightly. More photos is better as the overlap between each photo helps the software.

Then you just need some stacking software. Photoshop can do it if you've got the latest version; or you can buy Zerene Stacker, Helicon Focus or use the freeware program Combine ZP (legally free to use)
CombineZP. Get the software safe and easy.

They each work a little differently and there is no "winner" for best. Stacking is complex and one software might fail whilst another works with a set of photos.

 

[JosephH]

I have a program called registacker that was recommended for the moon photography stuff for stacking

 

[Overread]

I know astrophotography uses its own stacking software, though I've never done any to know the fundamental differences. I know that they use exposure stacking and some forms of focus stacking, but I think its different to the nature of focus stacking in terms of macro photography. You can give it a try and see hot it works and also compare it to the results from something like Combine ZP that I linked to above.

 

[JosephH]

Playing around today I tried this setting and I think looks nice

24MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 100
f/14
10 sec

 

[JosephH]

but I put the wide angle adapter on along with the Macro adapter and this turned out great

 

[JosephH]

I like the effect of that one though it isnt all that great of a shot I wanted to see what both would look like

 

[JosephH]

Just went to Walmart for some background material since the snowstorm died down but before I left I took a really nice photo of the bottom of the shell

24MM With Macro Adapter
Iso 100
f/4.0
1.15 sec