Extreme Macro Photography

[Matt Jason H]

I've been getting into photography propper ever since i got my first dSLR - a moddest (by dSLR standards) Canon 300D and assorted lenses and adapters. I think the beauty of photography is as much in the instrument that captures the image as well as in the image itself - cameras, particularly modern ones, are awe inspiring at times.

I've been doing alot of close up (macro) photography recently, to try and push the limits and illuminate how incredible a good camera is, so for your viewing pleasure here's some of my work - it's not perfectly in focus yet - but i'm getting there.

Diodes (about half the size of a grain of rice):
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/diode2.jpg (more impressive)
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/diode3.jpg (more in focus)

The small "5p" on a five pence piece:
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/5p.jpg - Attempt 1
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/5p2.jpg - Attempt 2 (more impressive)

A thin map-pin:
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/pin.jpg (more focus)
http://www.mattjasonh.com/_images/misc/photography/pin2.jpg (larger but out of focus)

I can get approximatley 6mm to horizontally fill the viewing plane in focus, meaning i can blow that upto A3 without loss of quality. Unfortunatley the depth of feild appears to be about half a millimetre if that at that size.

 

[silver]

you don't need expense to get macro,. near any compact camera and an cheap old slr lens

little bit of plastic tubing (is like a plastic bottle top - quite stiff but with some slight give) glued into the front of the 58 mm lens (by luck it fitted quite well anyway)

then that bit of plastic tubeing is the right size to slide on snugly onto the lens on the camera

and this is the finished item - it's secure enough to hold with the lens downward - cool

set the 'strap-on' to it's widest apature and inifinity and set the camera to infinity also (if it has that setting) - adjust the optical zoom and apature on the camera as required

Sil

 

[silver]

some pics with setup

the money shot

this one is a bit bigger so linked it

http://oneoddsock.co.uk/pics/cigfull.jpg

Sil

 

[silver]

I really need to use a tripod - have ended up with mostly blurred shots - need a lot of patience :lol

last 2 (for a while at least!)

I was chasing a spider - gets quite scarry when they come toward you :lol

Sil

 

[ChristopherP]

ALL of the pictures shown are AMAZING!! im dead impressed!

 

[crazylegs]

Yes some superb macro shots there....love looking at other peoples work as opposed to my own....

 

[Frodo]

Great shots guys,whats the best way of lighting in door macro shots ? as inexpensivly as poss,i have tried a hologen table light which produced some interesting effects but not the ones i want.

 

[silver]

Great shots guys,whats the best way of lighting in door macro shots ? as inexpensivly as poss,i have tried a hologen table light which produced some interesting effects but not the ones i want.

thanks

side light from a window on an overcast day probably (or a north facing window on a bright day perhaps) but there's a lot of options,. check out [thread=1479741]Watches (Experimental Photography)[/thread]

Sil

PS, macro is very prone to camera shake so a tripod or as much light as possible helps!

 

[Cache-man]

Some really great macro shots from all.
I currently struggle to get steady shots of whole computer hardware components, never mind the individual components thet make them up.

 

[TECHGUNS]

One of the reasons that I keep using my Pentax film camera is cause I have a set of the extention rings for my lenses to do this kinda stuff.
This trick can help you get very close ups of stuff fifteen feet away with a telephoto also.

About 5 years ago I got a Intelplay miroscope. All the engineers a work laffing at me for using a toy for photography, but a few days latter the manufacturing plant bought one after I showed them the photos.

I had to download the updated software to use it a XP.

 

[bagaaz]

set the 'strap-on' to it's widest apature and inifinity and set the camera to infinity also (if it has that setting) - adjust the optical zoom and apature on the camera as required

Sil

Why set the aperture to the widest setting? If you want more of the picture to be in focus you stop it down as far as you can.

 

[silver]

Why set the aperture to the widest setting? If you want more of the picture to be in focus you stop it down as far as you can.

you can adjust the aperture on the camera itself to control dof,. but experiment is the best way and whatever works is good

Sil

 

[TECHGUNS]

Yes this makes the photos much clearer. use a lot of light and a minitripod helps with small lenses.
I use a 125mm portrait lens, extension rings, large tripod to get very close ups of small stuff from about 15 feet away like small gems in a show case, but ya have to stand behind ropes. Ajust fstop for a clear photo.
Some places they let ya use a camera but no flash so hold it steady with a tripod.

Tripods, bulb, shutter cable are a must it you do macro photos with a telephoto lens, the field is much clearer and you can open it up with the fstop. 320mm telephoto lens will do 50 ft macros with the right extension ring.

Im havein campus keyboard failure. Oh ok fixed its brain failure.