My first Macro shot

Ambrola

Hello everyone,
I am new to the board and new to photography. I have a Nikon D80 with a Nikon 105mm VR Marcro lens. I also have a 70-300mm and a 18-135mm lens. I realy love the macro shots. I want to learn to do the water drops

http://<a href="http://s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/?action=view&current=Dragonfly11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/Dragonfly11.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

PeterD-2009

Ambrola wrote: »

Hello everyone,
I am new to the board and new to photography. I have a Nikon D80 with a Nikon 105mm VR Marcro lens. I also have a 70-300mm and a 18-135mm lens. I realy love the macro shots. I want to learn to do the water drops

Good evening and welcome to the forum.
I am afraid your image link in the post has failed. If you want help to load your image, please ask. I, or any other forum member here would be pleased to assist.

Ambrola

http://It was there when I posted???

PeterD-2009

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

Good evening and welcome to the forum.
I am afraid your image link in the post has failed. If you want help to load your image, please ask. I, or any other forum member here would be pleased to assist.

Looks like you have spotted the problem and fixed it:D. Just seen your image.

I like your first image. Great composition and background. dof is a slight problem toward the end of the tail. The body and wing detail is very good.
One thing I have found with the Macro lens is the dof is very critical - much more so than for a none achromatic lens. With my set-up (I use the Sigma 150 DG Macro), I have found that f20 when using flash is a sweet spot for true Macro and f10 is good for non-macro shots with this lens. Try a few different aperture sizes to get the 'feel' for your lens.
Good luck and good shooting.

Ambrola

is it there now??? I can see it on both screens???

PeterD-2009

Ambrola wrote: »

is it there now??? I can see it on both screens???

Yes, see my reply to you re your image.
If you look in my first message to you, you will see a box with an X in it where your image should have been. It may have been that I responded too quick, before your image was properly attached - sorry.

Ambrola

Being new to photography also is a pain. I am learning about apeture and DOF and that good stuff. One thing I do is shoot all my pics in Manual mode now. Heres one more.

http://<a href="http://s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/?action=view&current=FlOWER.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/FlOWER.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

PeterD-2009

Thats really good. Just love the colour, water droplets and detail.

Lord Vetinari

All the shots look good.
The dragonfly shots look a bit bright/oversaturated for my taste. Slight tendency the shots to centralise the subject but composition tends to come with more practice.

Some macro hints and tips here
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=807056
Brian v.

PeterD-2009

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

All the shots look good.
The dragonfly shots look a bit bright/oversaturated for my taste. Slight tendency the shots to centralise the subject but composition tends to come with more practice.

Some macro hints and tips here
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=807056
Brian v.

You have put together a great article which covers many aspects of Macro work. Thanks for sharing. The way you have controlled the replies by keeping the thread closed is also magic and allowed me to read through your techniques without distractions.
I shall have a go at some of the techniques you describe.

Ambrola

I am not satisfied with the pictures. I know they can be alot better considering the equipment I have. There is so much to learn. Remember, I have never photographed anything other then point and shoot with a small Cannon powershot. I am so glad I found you guys and this board so I can read and learn. The D80 has alot of commands and each one is important. I do not want to just put it on auto and shoot. I want to control the shot. I have been trying to take water drops, but nothing yet???

Ambrola

After reading LordV artical on scale, am I reading that you can add extension tubes to you macro lens or add another lens to get larger magnification?? And which is best??? I was just looking and LordV's pics of the water drops with pics in them is what brought me to this page. Wonderful shots.

Lord Vetinari

Ambrola wrote: »

After reading LordV artical on scale, am I reading that you can add extension tubes to you macro lens or add another lens to get larger magnification?? And which is best??? I was just looking and LordV's pics of the water drops with pics in them is what brought me to this page. Wonderful shots.

Yes you can add a set of say Kenko auto extension tubes to the 105VR and get to about 2:1 magnification. This would give the best IQ and is probably just about enough to do some dewdrop shots.
Alternatively you could areverse a lens around 50mm or get a RAYNOX add-on diopter eg MSN-202 which would take the magnification to around 3:1. To reverse a lens you need to get a male/male coupler which fits both lens filter sizes. Before getting the MPE-65 lens I used to use both a set of extension tubes and either a reversed 50mm lens or a +20 diopter to get to 4:1 magnification.

Brian v.

Brian v.

Ambrola

LordV,
I only want to buy once, which way is the best and simplest. Also, I have to keep cost in mind. If I understand correctly, I would need a (RAYNOX add-on diopter eg MSN-202) which I don't know what that is, and a 50mm lens?? Can you explain what the add on diopter is? I found the Raynox, looks like an extension for around 70.00 US. Can you just screw it on the lens or do you need an adapter, and is that the best way to go?
Thanks for your advise.

GOLDENORFE

hi , welcome to the forum
good shots, light on the flower much better than the dragons, full direct sun?


with reference to extension tubes and reynox lens. most people use a set of kenko extension tubes on a standard macro lens. which as brian mentioned will double your 1.1 mag macro lens. this will probably be the easiest soloution and most versatile for shooting all types of subject.
they can be used on all lenses, a 12mm tube on a long zoom good for dragons/butterflys at a decent working distance.

depends on what subjects/magnification you will be shooting

phil

Ambrola

Thanks Phil,
I want to be able to take water drops. I have played around at it, but no luck. The pictures are just no good. The 1.1 magnification is to weak, I would like to get 3.1 or 4.1????

GOLDENORFE

think you will have to go get canon equipment

reversing a 50mm on a 100mm + ex tubes might get x3 mag but focal distance will be very short

Overfocused

Ambrola wrote: »

Being new to photography also is a pain. I am learning about apeture and DOF and that good stuff. One thing I do is shoot all my pics in Manual mode now. Heres one more.

http://

For your first macro your shots the dragonfly is very nice and crisp! The tail is blurry yes but you have to pick and choose what's important and what's not with macro.

In addition to shallow DOF, one other thing about it is to also be aware of diffraction of your camera. Around F11-14 most cameras start losing sharpness to gain DOF because of it. Sometimes it's better to shoot at F11 than F22 to maximize on details that are lost with diffraction. Another thing is to also be aware of where diffraction starts for your particular camera. Some have a limit of F8 some have a limit of F16. You might want to experiment with it with a tripod and a test subject with small details. Deciding whether DOF or sharpness is more important is up to you with each different subject though.

Lord Vetinari

Ambrola wrote: »

LordV,
I only want to buy once, which way is the best and simplest. Also, I have to keep cost in mind. If I understand correctly, I would need a (RAYNOX add-on diopter eg MSN-202) which I don't know what that is, and a 50mm lens?? Can you explain what the add on diopter is? I found the Raynox, looks like an extension for around 70.00 US. Can you just screw it on the lens or do you need an adapter, and is that the best way to go?
Thanks for your advise.

With regards to the 50mm lens or the raynox, you only need one or the other they basically do the same thing. I was not sure if you already might have a lens around 50mm.

To give you an idea the shot below was taken with my sigma 105 and a 65mm extension tube set, so maybe just think about getting a set of extension tubes first.

Brian V.

Ambrola

Thanks BrinV,
The tubes is what I will try first.

basflt

Ambrola wrote: »

Thanks BrinV,
The tubes is what I will try first.

take care you buy the correct one
you need the electric contacts
tubes without wont work
for that same reason you can not use a reverse ring

i can confirm that its enough to do this dewdrop trick

Ambrola

These are the ones I was going to try. Are these correct??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360283494784&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

basflt

yes , i have the same
only EXIF is not passed correctly to the camera , but thats an un-importend detail

paddler4

Odd. My kenko tubes pass exif info to the camera.

These are the right ones. My suggestion is that you start with the short tube (12mm), practice a little, and work up. Everything gets progressively harder as the length of extension gets longer--less light, less DOF, and therefore more difficulty with focus.

basflt

actually its only focal-length
it remains at 105
further every thing seems normal

paddler4

yes, with mine as well. And I often can't recall what length of tube I used, since it is not in the exif

Ambrola

I will be using these with my 105vr macro lens. Will that put me at 2-1 magnification?? I assume the focus distance is affected also?
I might buy the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Marco Lens. What is the magnification with that lens??

Overfocused

Ambrola wrote: »

I will be using these with my 105vr macro lens. Will that put me at 2-1 magnification?? I assume the focus distance is affected also?
I might buy the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Marco Lens. What is the magnification with that lens??

You just said it.... 1x-5x, lol. (means 1:1 to 5:1)

It won't have infinite focus either, its a dedicated macro.

Raynox makes a really good 2.5x diopter that is more convenient than tubes and it works extremely well. It retains sharpness, color, contrast, and barely loses any light at all. I've used one with a 100mm canon macro and it doesn't reduce quality one bit. (There is a full-frame and 1.6x version for different cameras) The only thing is that you need to get really close to your subjects (about 2 inches at max magnification)

The full frame version is around $90, The 1.6x is $50-65:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=raynox&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&cid=2485257153814259076&ei=lX5MTJDKDYTqM8HtwNIH&sa=title&ved=0CAcQ8wIwADgA#p

basflt

allmost 2:1
but that is not so importend , its sufficient [ i have same lens as you ]
as Paddler4 said , you need to practice first
the more magnification , the harder it will be , in the same ratio as magnification
you will notice , when they arrive

yes , working-distance is affected enormous
with full set ;
minimum distance will be half as it is now , a couple of centimeter
maximum (infinity) will be about 40 / 50 cm
but thats not a big deal ; you want close-up anyway

Ambrola

You guys are great. I thank all of you. I will get the tubes and practice. I am still learning the camera, and I have a hand full with that. Its was free so I can't complain. My daughter gave it to me as she had 2. One was the D50 and the other D80. Of course I took the D80. The only purchase I have made was to buy the Nikon macro lens. Looking forward to getting the tubes.

Ambrola

Heres a pic of our State Bird. Red Cardnial
http://<a href="http://s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/?action=view&current=Robin4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/Robin4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>