Want to get into macro / small scale studio photography?

NateOntario · Feb 28, 2009

You can make a little home studio for around $10 if you buy your materials, or, if you're like me and have tons of crap lying around your house, $0.

Strobist: How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio

Here's my setup. Ignore the godawful photo, haha. pop-up flash and massive wide angle lens don't agree with each other. That's a flash on the left, and a big metal light

and here are some photos I took with it over the last hour or so.

in conclusion,

BUILD ONE! You have nothing to lose

ArntorFTL · Feb 28, 2009

I like the first two with the turquoise-colored jewelry. In the last one, everything seems sort of out of focus to me.

I totally want to build a white box and have a perfectly sized box sitting in my closet just waiting for me to find the time

This is inspiring!

chris miss · Feb 28, 2009

I built one using the same instructions. It works really good. I just need to get some additional lighting. Here's one of my shots of a paperweight. I have a little reflection going on in it, though. I need to work on that!

Christine

Battou · Feb 28, 2009

I tried building one of those a year or so ago and was not pleased with the results and just went back to shooting on cards.....but that is just me.

Anywho, when you are shooting macros of stationary stuffs there really is no reasn for such shallow DOF seen in the Ipod (or whatever it is) Close off those aperture blades and let'er sit open for a wile, it ain't going nowhere.

NateOntario · Feb 28, 2009

Battou said:
I tried building one of those a year or so ago and was not pleased with the results and just went back to shooting on cards.....but that is just me.

Anywho, when you are shooting macros of stationary stuffs there really is no reasn for such shallow DOF seen in the Ipod (or whatever it is) Close off those aperture blades and let'er sit open for a wile, it ain't going nowhere.

Actually there was

I tried to have the Skullcandy logo on the headphones as the focus, but I guess its not obvious enough.
edit: and the focus on the logo isn't quite perfect either

Battou · Mar 1, 2009

NateOntario said:
Actually there was
I tried to have the Skullcandy logo on the headphones as the focus, but I guess its not obvious enough.
edit: and the focus on the logo isn't quite perfect either

A big thing with working with shallow DOF is sharp focus. Even the slightest miss is amplified, Twice over when working with macro. I'm not trying to sound like an asshole but in all honesty the only shot I feel you exicuted well is the first one. The bokeh is not distracting in that one. In the second one you have a very large part outside the focus right front creating a distraction.

In the third, you have a very large prominate blob of blackness, don't get me wrong this can be used effectively but the focus needs to be on the button. For that shot I still maintain a smaller aperture was needed to make it work. Two things I can see that you did, You chose the wrong logo to try focusing on. The contured logo that is the same material as what it is on is going to dissapear into it self. You would have been better served to use the white logo on the headphone as opposed to the contured one on the vinal. The second is what I said earlier about being too shallow. You opted to try for just the logo, I feel you would have been better served to get both headphones into focus. This should bring more attention directly to the headphones and if I am seeing this correctly it will also bring in the brand name. What you are emulating in this shot is a type of advertizing style and a logo with out a brandname attached to it is kinda pointless.

My suggestion, If you still want to maintain minimum DOF is to move the R headphone next to the left one and use the painted logo for focusing. You will still prolly need one maybe two stops smaller to get both of them but I feel it will work out better for you.

A quick example of what I mean

That is just my two cents.