Macro Photo thread
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Spent a long time trying to get these yesterday. This is one of only a couple of shots in focus from the session. They like to hover on front of you; just short of the minimum focusing distance of the lens!
Hawker in flight by Ed Phillips, on Flickr
Hawker in flight by Ed Phillips, on Flickr
Was looking out of the kitchen window today and was rather startled to see 'Hammy' spider staring at me from outside, so rushed out and took a few pics before noticing a few more of his (or her) friends in close proximity, so took a few more photos, then dashed back inside and showed the wife who was not overly impressed with my photographic skills!
Some recent visitors to my garden in western France. I don't have any fancy gear, and still shoot mainly with a Canon S120 Powershot, though I have added some achromats to it with a homemade extension tube. I do use LED lighting though, via a couple of torches I've put on a light rack I made out of a stainless kitchen spatula, don't think the missus has noticed its disappearance quite yet! Hope you find something interesting 
A green bush cricket, Phaneroptera falcata
The Marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus
A green shield bug, Palomena prasina
The Southern Emerald damselfly, Lestes barbarus
A Common darter, Sympetrum striolatum
A green bush cricket, Phaneroptera falcata
The Marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus
A green shield bug, Palomena prasina
The Southern Emerald damselfly, Lestes barbarus
A Common darter, Sympetrum striolatum
Edited by drhook on Monday 2nd October 14:05
drhook said:
It is indeed, Dibbydobbler; adding some inexpensive constant lighting to the arsenal has made a world of difference.
(I say inexpensive since I had the lights anyway and the spatula was, erm, sort of 'free'
)
I tried a similar approach a while back but didn't find it provided quite enough light to allow me to shoot at my preferred aperture and shutter speed (ie about 1/100 - 1/200 + f16) so I ended up going back to a flash (which needs a lot of difussion to get the light right). (I say inexpensive since I had the lights anyway and the spatula was, erm, sort of 'free'
)Can you recall the settings for the shots above?
Hi DibbyDobbler,
The cricket was f/5.7, 1/640, iso 400
The hoverfly was f/5.7, 1/1250, iso 800
The shieldbug was f/5.7, 1/400, iso 800
The damsel fly was f/5.7, 1/2000, iso 800
The darter was f/5.7, 1/500, iso 800
I generally start at f/5.7, 1/800 and ISO 800 loaded in the C setting. If the insect is calm and not moving, I'll drop the ISO for noise purposes and use as high a shutter speed as I can for exposure compensation. I keep the f/stop as low as possible since the s120 lens +Marumi/Raynox combo seems to give me a decent enough DOF while still de-rendering the background. It's a fortuitous discovery that things go together this well on this rig, but it lets me do lots of stuff I could not do with a big heavy rig, and the IQ is good enough for what I want to do with the photos. Having the constant lighting makes it easy to keep the shutter speed up which helps with handshake and typical movement blur. If you'd like details of the lights I use, ask away.
Hope this helps!
The cricket was f/5.7, 1/640, iso 400
The hoverfly was f/5.7, 1/1250, iso 800
The shieldbug was f/5.7, 1/400, iso 800
The damsel fly was f/5.7, 1/2000, iso 800
The darter was f/5.7, 1/500, iso 800
I generally start at f/5.7, 1/800 and ISO 800 loaded in the C setting. If the insect is calm and not moving, I'll drop the ISO for noise purposes and use as high a shutter speed as I can for exposure compensation. I keep the f/stop as low as possible since the s120 lens +Marumi/Raynox combo seems to give me a decent enough DOF while still de-rendering the background. It's a fortuitous discovery that things go together this well on this rig, but it lets me do lots of stuff I could not do with a big heavy rig, and the IQ is good enough for what I want to do with the photos. Having the constant lighting makes it easy to keep the shutter speed up which helps with handshake and typical movement blur. If you'd like details of the lights I use, ask away.
Hope this helps!
Edited by drhook on Monday 2nd October 16:13
Edited by drhook on Monday 2nd October 16:14
That is very helpful - thanks for taking the time
My approach has always been to go for as much depth of field as possible - hence f16 ideally - but maintaining a decent shutter speed as I hand hold (and the bugs can move as well obviously). The drawback being it needs a lot of light. I found with an LED I was only able to get to about f8, 1/100, iso200-400 roughly - but that was with a DSLR sized crop sensor (I guess with the smaller sensor you need less light and probably easier to get more dof?).
I've switched systems (Canon to Fuji) recently and have yet to get my setup fully sorted but will have another go next summer. Cheers
My approach has always been to go for as much depth of field as possible - hence f16 ideally - but maintaining a decent shutter speed as I hand hold (and the bugs can move as well obviously). The drawback being it needs a lot of light. I found with an LED I was only able to get to about f8, 1/100, iso200-400 roughly - but that was with a DSLR sized crop sensor (I guess with the smaller sensor you need less light and probably easier to get more dof?).
I've switched systems (Canon to Fuji) recently and have yet to get my setup fully sorted but will have another go next summer. Cheers
Dibbly Dobbler - I do not know if it is any help, but I do use quite a bit of light, about 1600 lumens or so from three different sources, one of which is a 219 Nichia led to give the spread a little colour. You do need all of that light, almost all of the time, if you want to keep the shutter speed up. But for me there are several advantages to this approach - I don't scare the insects away like I used to (in fact some insects positively LIKE the light and come closer), I can fire at the s120's 12 fps in JPEG mode, and liveview works as it always does, so I can use the most of the WYSIWYG lcd, something inherently useful to me as I shoot in manual to take advantage of all three exposure parameters, and jumping in and out of hedges means I really do need to constantly adjust them.
As for the DOF - yes, I would absolutely agree that the smaller sensor helps with both not needing perhaps as much light, and most obviously with having a deeper focal plane that the APS-C sized sensor. It also probably helps that with the three achromats in line I have to get back so close again to the subject that I lose little light spill. Of course, if I'm photographing a large insect with just the Marumi, the focal distance is about 10" or so - at that distance I have to realign all the lights to focus on the one spot to get the same intensity. It's all a work in progress, but the one thing I do like is that with diffusers on each light I'm happy enough with the results not to have to muck about with snooters and so on - I consider that a bonus.
Hey, but I'm only using a piffly s120, so most likely anything I have said will not apply to you and your Fuji system anyway, lol
Take it all with a pinch of salt......
Where do you live and chase insects? USA?
As for the DOF - yes, I would absolutely agree that the smaller sensor helps with both not needing perhaps as much light, and most obviously with having a deeper focal plane that the APS-C sized sensor. It also probably helps that with the three achromats in line I have to get back so close again to the subject that I lose little light spill. Of course, if I'm photographing a large insect with just the Marumi, the focal distance is about 10" or so - at that distance I have to realign all the lights to focus on the one spot to get the same intensity. It's all a work in progress, but the one thing I do like is that with diffusers on each light I'm happy enough with the results not to have to muck about with snooters and so on - I consider that a bonus.
Hey, but I'm only using a piffly s120, so most likely anything I have said will not apply to you and your Fuji system anyway, lol
Take it all with a pinch of salt......Where do you live and chase insects? USA?
drhook said:
Dibbly Dobbler - I do not know if it is any help, but I do use quite a bit of light, about 1600 lumens or so from three different sources, one of which is a 219 Nichia led to give the spread a little colour. You do need all of that light, almost all of the time, if you want to keep the shutter speed up. But for me there are several advantages to this approach - I don't scare the insects away like I used to (in fact some insects positively LIKE the light and come closer), I can fire at the s120's 12 fps in JPEG mode, and liveview works as it always does, so I can use the most of the WYSIWYG lcd, something inherently useful to me as I shoot in manual to take advantage of all three exposure parameters, and jumping in and out of hedges means I really do need to constantly adjust them.
As for the DOF - yes, I would absolutely agree that the smaller sensor helps with both not needing perhaps as much light, and most obviously with having a deeper focal plane that the APS-C sized sensor. It also probably helps that with the three achromats in line I have to get back so close again to the subject that I lose little light spill. Of course, if I'm photographing a large insect with just the Marumi, the focal distance is about 10" or so - at that distance I have to realign all the lights to focus on the one spot to get the same intensity. It's all a work in progress, but the one thing I do like is that with diffusers on each light I'm happy enough with the results not to have to muck about with snooters and so on - I consider that a bonus.
Hey, but I'm only using a piffly s120, so most likely anything I have said will not apply to you and your Fuji system anyway, lol Take it all with a pinch of salt......
Where do you live and chase insects? USA?
Thanks again that is interesting. I also have a Sony Rx10iii which has a 1 inch sensor so the principals are the same - I have never really got to grips with 'proper' macro with it though. Maybe something to have a play with - can't remember the power of the LED I was trying but I guess it was nowhere near what you are using! I am shooting in 'sunny' Scotland so I tend to need all the help I can get with decent light - the bug season is also sadly rather short. We do have nice mountains though As for the DOF - yes, I would absolutely agree that the smaller sensor helps with both not needing perhaps as much light, and most obviously with having a deeper focal plane that the APS-C sized sensor. It also probably helps that with the three achromats in line I have to get back so close again to the subject that I lose little light spill. Of course, if I'm photographing a large insect with just the Marumi, the focal distance is about 10" or so - at that distance I have to realign all the lights to focus on the one spot to get the same intensity. It's all a work in progress, but the one thing I do like is that with diffusers on each light I'm happy enough with the results not to have to muck about with snooters and so on - I consider that a bonus.
Hey, but I'm only using a piffly s120, so most likely anything I have said will not apply to you and your Fuji system anyway, lol
Take it all with a pinch of salt......Where do you live and chase insects? USA?
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