Macro Photo thread

[Ed_P]

Female Digger Wasp, resting on a leaf ...

Mellinus arvensis (f) by Ed Phillips, on Flickr

[ExPat2B]

I have been watching a lot of Micro Monsters with David Attenborough, and thought I would have a go at emulating the style, black background, harsh light, lots of contrast and depth of field.

Rearing_Catapillar_Spinning_Silk by Nature Ist, on Flickr

Macro_Catapillar by Nature Ist, on Flickr

[DibblyDobbler]

Finally got a decent darter shot!


Common Darter (1) by Mike Smith, on Flickr


Common Darter (2) by Mike Smith, on Flickr

[RobbieKB]

The quality on this thread just goes up and up! I nearly neglected it with my last shot taken today, so I'm going to cross-post with RP4:



I was photographing a spider when a bee landed nearby. The spider was not happy one bit and decided to show the bee who is boss with a British-post-pub-kick-out display of aggression.

[ddarno]

Common Darter Dragonfly by David Arnold, on Flickr


Common Darter Dragonfly by David Arnold, on Flickr

[DibblyDobbler]

Bee (head on) by Mike Smith, on Flickr

Bee (profile) by Mike Smith, on Flickr

Bombus pratorum by Mike Smith, on Flickr

[V8Wagon]

So I've took the plunge and ordered a Macro lens Nothing fancy just the Tamron 90mm but I'm looking forward to having a bash at this.

Still reckon I'll go for a Raynox too.....the 250's winking at me.

[DibblyDobbler]

V8Wagon said:

So I've took the plunge and ordered a Macro lens Nothing fancy just the Tamron 90mm but I'm looking forward to having a bash at this.

Still reckon I'll go for a Raynox too.....the 250's winking at me.

That'll work

What about lighting?

[V8Wagon]

I'll just have a crack with the 90EX and use it outdoors to begin with. I googled the MT24-EX the other day.....how much?? !!

[DibblyDobbler]

V8Wagon said:

I'll just have a crack with the 90EX and use it outdoors to begin with. I googled the MT24-EX the other day.....how much?? !!

Yes it is ridiculous! Main thing is to get the diffusion right otherwise you'll get a nasty harsh light. Homemade solution seem to work best

[V8Wagon]

I've ordered a £5 diffuser from eBay. Looking forward to this :-) Forgive me for asking....are your subjects 'alive'? As reading up on this Macro malarkey points to certain elements of it being a but grisly.

I'm hoping to just snap things in the garden.

[ddarno]

V8Wagon said:

I've ordered a £5 diffuser from eBay. Looking forward to this :-) Forgive me for asking....are your subjects 'alive'? As reading up on this Macro malarkey points to certain elements of it being a but grisly.

I'm hoping to just snap things in the garden.

Personally I only photo live subjects. Adds to the challenge, and satisfaction when you get one. If not may as well take photos of a bowl of fruit.

[DibblyDobbler]

ddarno said:

V8Wagon said:

I've ordered a £5 diffuser from eBay. Looking forward to this :-) Forgive me for asking....are your subjects 'alive'? As reading up on this Macro malarkey points to certain elements of it being a but grisly.

I'm hoping to just snap things in the garden.

Personally I only photo live subjects. Adds to the challenge, and satisfaction when you get one. If not may as well take photos of a bowl of fruit.

Same here - live only

PS - I predict your £5 diffuser will be ste

[RobbieKB]

DibblyDobbler said:

ddarno said:

V8Wagon said:

I've ordered a £5 diffuser from eBay. Looking forward to this :-) Forgive me for asking....are your subjects 'alive'? As reading up on this Macro malarkey points to certain elements of it being a but grisly.

I'm hoping to just snap things in the garden.

Personally I only photo live subjects. Adds to the challenge, and satisfaction when you get one. If not may as well take photos of a bowl of fruit.

Same here - live only

PS - I predict your £5 diffuser will be ste

Same. Never photographed a dead insect. Just an aside, but you can always tell if an insect is dead in an image by their legs and antennas.

Lighting macro is a bloody art form but can be done in many more ways than you realise. I've tried everything and honestly, you can pull off good results with many different methods. I've used 550 EX II, Marumi ring flash, a torch, an LED brick, a natural light + reflector and just natural light. I'd be impressed if you could go through my macro work and pick out which were done with expensive flashes and which weren't. Just experiment.

Welcome to the club.

[V8Wagon]

This turned up this morning. Looking forward to having a play later today.

[ddarno]

Wasp by David Arnold, on Flickr


Wasp by David Arnold, on Flickr

[Ed_P]

V8Wagon said:

This turned up this morning. Looking forward to having a play later today.

Although the Canon MP-E 65mm is the macro lens most frequently on my camera, this is the lens that I use for larger beasts such as butterflies and dragonflies. Always performs very well in 1:1 macro lens comparisons. Light, very sharp and doubles-up as a great portrait lens. Auto-focus is somewhat slow, but for insect macro, it's generally best to set the lens on manual, and then focus by moving the whole lens/camera assembly.

I really like this lens. Hope you enjoy it too. Can also be adapted to take the Canon Twin-lite and Ring-lite flashes as well.

[DibblyDobbler]

100D, 100mm with Raynox - lighting was MT24-ex with various diffusers.

Fly Macro by Mike Smith, on Flickr

Edited by DibblyDobbler on Thursday 17th September 18:42

[Ed_P]

DibblyDobbler said:

100D, 100mm with Raynox - lighting was MT24-ex with various diffusers.

Fly Macro by Mike Smith, on Flickr

Edited by DibblyDobbler on Thursday 17th September 18:42

That's a fine shot Mike!

[DibblyDobbler]

Ed_P said:

That's a fine shot Mike!

Thanks Ed