Decapitation and chickens with a drop of lime
Discussion
I mistakenly believed that it would be a splendid idea to buy some xmas toys with Santa hats and cut their heads off, surgically removing them from the hats, and try my hand and at a festive Christmas gerbil shoot (one in which the gerbil waits patiently whilst I don its hat, and shoot it in position whilst it smiles back at me, unmoving)
Complete with piss-plate (and piss) - Because they always sodomise the white paper. Here are the out takes:
It didnt work out.
Maybe next time.
plan b: Decapitate the rodents, attach the heads to the hat instead
I shot lime too, which didnt work out either
I should have focussed closer to the edge of the lime, rather than the water droplet. Or moved the edge of the lime out of the frame, trouble is I only have 70mm and not enough zoom (will come back to that in a minute)
Im still not sure if that would have been better though, or if the focus should have been on the droplet instead. Just one look, you know its not right...
Comments/suggestions?
Chicken seemed ok though
I dare not start another stock thread, but Im happy with my shots in general for now, as my microstock earnings have crested the £200/month marker
re: the usual guff I shoot/post (which is mostly macro I suppose) which canon lens would be best for me? Im wondering whether I could happily take most of my studio shots with a 70-200 on the tripod, but Im really not sure whether a 100mm macro lens would be better. I just cant decide. Any suggestions/advice?
Complete with piss-plate (and piss) - Because they always sodomise the white paper. Here are the out takes:
It didnt work out.
Maybe next time.
plan b: Decapitate the rodents, attach the heads to the hat instead
I shot lime too, which didnt work out either
I should have focussed closer to the edge of the lime, rather than the water droplet. Or moved the edge of the lime out of the frame, trouble is I only have 70mm and not enough zoom (will come back to that in a minute)
Im still not sure if that would have been better though, or if the focus should have been on the droplet instead. Just one look, you know its not right...
Comments/suggestions? Chicken seemed ok though
I dare not start another stock thread, but Im happy with my shots in general for now, as my microstock earnings have crested the £200/month marker
re: the usual guff I shoot/post (which is mostly macro I suppose) which canon lens would be best for me? Im wondering whether I could happily take most of my studio shots with a 70-200 on the tripod, but Im really not sure whether a 100mm macro lens would be better. I just cant decide. Any suggestions/advice?
Edited by UKBob on Tuesday 21st November 01:04
randlemarcus said:
Bob, have you never seen Scrooge? Same gerbil scenario, two possible options - SuperGlue or staples...
Is there a more rodent friendly option? Ive got a friend who shoots her rats, she has a cracking shot of one wearing a Christmas hat (and scarf too, iirc). Its a lot of hard work. Im ashamed to say it, but the water dropelet shot alone took over 100 shutter releases, mainly to get the right shape of the droplet... and its still crap
poah said:
bob get yourself some extention rings or get the 60mm EFs macro lens
Id forgotten about extention rings. They put empty space between the lens and the sensor, right? (never was too sure what they did exactly). How much are they, and "what lens" would I end up with, after buying them? Are there any drawbacks?
crmcatee said:
UKbob,
Is it just me or does that chicken piece look like it's something else that has been deep fried (perhaps one of your hamsters) ?
Oh it's easy to get mice and hamsters to pose for you..
Its exceedinly deep fried Is it just me or does that chicken piece look like it's something else that has been deep fried (perhaps one of your hamsters) ?
Oh it's easy to get mice and hamsters to pose for you..
Was your rodent dead, per chance? Its legs look rather... relaxed
cy88 said:
UKBob said:
Im ashamed to say it, but the water dropelet shot alone took over 100 shutter releases, mainly to get the right shape of the droplet...
Shouldn't it be a drop of lime juice?
crmcatee said:
UKBob said:
Was your rodent dead, per chance? Its legs look rather... relaxed
You could say it was relaxed. The piece of wood it's looking over is the trap that caught it. Still the photosells as stock so who am I to worry.
Especially the close ups of the nose and whiskers. 
I was going to suggest it was nailed to the wood
crmcatee said:
UKBob said:
Was your rodent dead, per chance? Its legs look rather... relaxed
You could say it was relaxed. The piece of wood it's looking over is the trap that caught it. Still the photosells as stock so who am I to worry.
Especially the close ups of the nose and whiskers. Lets have a link to your gallery
Oakey said:
I like the Lime, how did you do it? Cloned something out I guess?
Some cloning work yes. The backdrop was a photo of a lettuce with heavy levels adjustments and blur, which is reflected in the drop. Its not a terrible photo, but it was an awful lot of work for something which is not visually fantastic and is technically quite poor. Im going to try the whole shoot again with an orange this time and see how I get on.UKBob said:
re: the usual guff I shoot/post (which is mostly macro I suppose) which canon lens would be best for me? Im wondering whether I could happily take most of my studio shots with a 70-200 on the tripod, but Im really not sure whether a 100mm macro lens would be better. I just cant decide. Any suggestions/advice?
The benefit of a macro lens is it can produce an image on the sensor, 1:1 with the object being photographed, i.e actual size. They are also usually optimised to provide best performance at this level. The obvious down-side is that being a "prime" sens, there is a fair bit of camera adjustment required to frame the object with closeup work. A focussing rail is useful here, as you can slide the camera backwards and forwards without moving the tripod.
Extension tubes increase the focal length, and therefore the magnification. Great for closeups, but you will lose light as you increase the length, this gets worse as you add additional tubes.
I use a Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro and am very pleased with it. Unless you actually need 1:1 or thereabouts though, you're probably OK sticking to what you're doing now. They all look great to me!
Ed, with a macro lens, Id be able to move away from the subject quite a bit and be able to get shots from several feet away which effectively were 40mm shots (or the equivalent on my 24-70)... right? ie you are not forced by any means to obtail super large and close up images?
Platinum said:
Would I be able to use my 70-300 Macro lens for light tent work, or would it need to be positioned about 5 feet away from the subject?
Check the net for the closest minimum focussing distance. Im guessing, but it should be a couple of feet or so. Im guessing again, but I imagine with a bit of distance you could obtain any amount of wide angle if you move back, with the drawback of less depth of field. I think Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff