The Learning Curve

Following on from recent (superb) forum posts by darkskies, Dr O and CharlotteF, I've been on a massive learning curve this past week or so and I've also been busy building myself some home-made kit that will do justice to what I'm trying to achieve. I'm still waiting for the final piece in the jigsaw to arrive (Nikkor lens), but in the meantime I've been practicing with the best I have.

Please let me know what you think, especially in comparison to recent images I posted, which took a bit of a battering!

All shots with the K-3, a butchered FA28-80 zoom, a reversed Pentax-A 50mm F1.7, a Neewer TT560 Speedlite manual flashgun attached to the hotshoe and a home-made softbox, cobbled together from a 2.5 litre screenwash bottle (the rectangular type), a Pringles Tube, tissue paper and some Duck Tape. The softbox has made a massive difference to the lighting and avoids the black backgrounds on most shots, whilst spreading the light very well. The zoom is set to F32, the reversed lens to F1.7, based on excellent advice from the aforementioned PU Members.

Edit: I forgot to mention, please bear in mind these are all shot 'in the wild' so to speak, in breezy and dark outdoor conditions, with the stems of the plants waving about quite a bit. With this level of magnification, this makes it extremely difficult to get sharp, in focus shots.

1.





2.





3.





4.




All the best
David

The good advice has clearly paid off David - full marks to you for pulling yourself along the curve! Big bug heads are not my thing, but I sure can appreciate the technique and patience required to get these things sharp & in focus.

David - these are magnificent - but please for those like me who really do not like bugs - could you post a mental health warning with them ?

I really ain't got the patience to try anything like these

There is noticable camera shake David, and the flash could do with being diffused a bit more as there are 'hot spots'.

A little tip - when focusing I focus into the creature rather than just on the the bit closest to the lens, that gives a bit more DOF. (not sure if that makes sense 'tis fdifficult to explain)

Good idea to practise before the Nikkor arrives as that's a lot sharper and will pick up technique errors more than the 1.7.

Have fun with it.

Thats a very steep curve David

Anything worth doing is usually not easy Nigel! Also, if it's hard it follows that not many people do it, so I am cool with it being a steep curve!

I've been practicing hard at macro for several years, my problem before was that I wasn't using the right kit. The recent posts about butchered zooms etc. have really set me off down a path and I won't stop until I consider my shots worthy of comparison with the best.

Also, as mentioned in my original post, I'm not interested in the 'put it in the fridge', 'shoot it indoors' or 'shoot it dead and stack it' approach, I want only to take pictures of these creatures in their natural environment with all that entails.

Thanks for your input and also sincere thanks to CharlotteF for giving great advice and helping to push me along!

Regards
David

Hats off to Charlotte! I think I can now see what she means about camera shake. Take the first image above and compare it with a similar one shot just before, that I haven't posted here. I've cropped the same area and drawn on it where I think there is evidence of movement. However, I don't think this is camera shake, it is probably due to the wind blowing the stem back forth as the movement indicated matches exactly the movement of the stem I was seeing as I tried to shoot these images:

No Movement (from a shot not posted here):





Movement (crop of first image posted above):




Charlotte's observation demonstrates to me how critical I need to be of the quality of my shots. Thanks Charlotte!

Also, the observations about 'hot spots' are correct, but after having re-checked this I think it is because I had the power turned up too high on the flashgun. I've checked some from last night with the power set lower and there are no hot spots on these, so this is due to 'pilot error' rather than my softbox I think! I'll try next time a lower power and also add some more diffusion to the softbox.

Regards
David

Great effort, David. What a complicated set-up but it's clearly working. Thank goodness for duct tape: not sure how we managed without it. Macro is, to my mind, the most technically demanding of all branches of photography.

You're certainly getting there David?

Not bad at all,how close are you having to get with these shots David?

I also purchased the equipment to have a play at this and have the hotshoe, diffuser, flash and Nikkor lens on my table as I type but the 28-80 I purchased off Ebay ended in so many parts it went into the bin in disgust as I couldn't put it back together Unfortunately I'm a bit ham fisted when it comes to that sort of thing.

I normally use my 7D and MP-E for macro these days (my latest avatar) but am interested to try this setup and compare the results.

One word David - Respect!

I caught the (pun alert) macro bug a couple of years ago and spent the whole summer 'perfecting' my technique. My results were truly amazing - by the end of the summer - you could even identify some of the species

Joking aside - for me it was a passing interest that I tired of fairly quickly but if it taught me anything - it taught me to respect the skill that goes in to producing a good macro shot.

I have nothing but admiration for your application and dedication to mastering the art - stay on that curve!

Carl

Good start there David, you've inspired me to have a bash, had the butchered lens for a while and finally got the Nikon lens on e-bay last week.

Will hopefully test it out as some point.

Regards

George

Excellent!!

I had two FA28-70 both with fogged rear elements. One got utterly disassembled just to see, and the other is now destined for butchering. Mwahaha.

(Just not sure when exactly :roll

Matt

Thanks guys and girls for your feedback, I've been working hard on this and it's good to know I might be getting somewhere!

Hi Mike, the working distance on these is very small indeed, probably only around 2 centimetres with the reversed Pentax-A 50mm F1.7. This makes it quite difficult to stop the insects from flying off, in particular the Damselflies.

Dismantling and re-assembling the 28-80 was not a simple task, unless you are an expert in lens construction it can be a bit daunting and is 50/50 whether you end up with something that still works. Surprisingly, the FA28-80, which was to all intents and purposes a 'Kit lens' was very well constructed with mostly metal parts which required a fair amount of drilling to get some of the lens elements out. Luckily, I ended up with a completely empty tube with a working aperture!

I'm still waiting on the Nikkor lens arriving and things will not really take off until I get that.

Regards
David

Well done David

I look forward to the results once the rest of your kit arrives