Congratulations Clarky.

Glad to here both are doing well

I think I should start a poll titled "How long do you think it will be before Clarky pushs his macro set up in front of his grand daughter"

Regards
PaulM

Hi Techno,

For RAW conversions I use either the free one that came with my K200D at home and at work I use RAWTherapee (its also free) and as George mentioned I do little more than fiddle with exposure, white balance and colours.

Anything else (croping, editing, straightening and sharpening) I do in photoshop.

I found Photoshop Elements more that adequate and whilst not free it was certainly cheap (iirc 50 or 60 quid) and very easy to use

Regards
PaulM

Hi Spad.

Thats exactly the set up I have. cheap and easy way to try macro photography and as you can see in Mike-P's post you can get excellent results.

The only drawback I can think of is that you have to get quite close to your subject which can scare it off sometimes. Its a little frustrating but it does teach you patience !!

Yes the Depth of Feild (DoF)decreases as magnification increases but if you take multiple shots at different focal points you can get software to stack them and create the illusion of a greater DoF. (I cant remember the name of any though, sorry)

Regards
PaulM

Hi Mike,

Just to add my 2 cents to this.

As above mentioned I dont do any sharpening in the RAW conversion and leave it all until I have finished what ever processing/editing I am doing.
Then I use the default sharpening in PS (Filters>Sharpen>Sharpen) that usually suffices. If I feel I need more then I will create a duplicate layer and use the High pass filter (Filters>Other>High pass) and adjust the radius to suit. Then I set the blending mode of this new layer to either Overlay, Soft Light or Hard Light and finally I reduce the opacity of the new layer until it looks right.

Regards
PaulM

Hi all,

still playing with simple compositions I took these two at the weekend with the SMC 50mm f1.7.

With this first one I saw the empty snail shell and tried to mix the curves of the shell with the straight lines of the ridges in the leaf and compose using the rule of thirds. Does it work for anyone?
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP5473.jpg[/IMG]
1/350 iso 400. hand held

In this second one I was just trying to get the fly as it walked in to the shot towards the lower LH rule of thirds point. Again does it work for anyone? is the piece of wood too distracting in the shot?
[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP5511.jpg[/IMG]
1/20 iso 100.

Defo taken with the SMC 50 1.7 hand held
(edited to add exif info)

DOH!

Both of these where definately taken with the Tamron (I just checked the exif). I had been using the 50mm just before hand (see other thread) and was getting a bit confused last night when I responded. (can I claim that as a senior moment?)

Sorry for the confusion guys :OS

PaulM

Amin,

The dreamy background is courtesy of the pentax SMC 50mm 1.7.

PaulM

Thanks Guys,

In the first I was trying for a different angle on the spider and still show the large white bits and I was worried the second one looked a little over sharpend.

Thoughton, it was a very windy day and I was trying to stop my son running on to the road and watch to see when the web stopped vibrating in the wind at the same time!

Regards
PaulM

Saw this little beauty in the garden and couldn't resist.

C&Cs welcome

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP5547.jpg[/IMG]
300mm, 1/8 @ f11 ISO 100

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/IMGP5560.jpg[/IMG]
300mm, 1/10 @ f16 ISO 400

Both taken with the Tamron 70-300 macro, on a tripod.

Regards
PaulM

I found myself looking in to that image thinking 'wow now thats a closeup' whilst subconsciously starting to scratch my head !!

Good capture.

Regards
PaulM