Ants Feeding

Skippy

Hi folks, took my 50mm out with a couple of Kenko Tubes attached to see how it worked.

The image below is of Ants feeding on something in the garden, but I have no idea what it was?? I certainly didn't put it there for them to eat.

These little Ants are extremely small and would measure 3-4mm in length, so I was surprised they showed up so much detail.

The image has been cropped slightly, hand held shot, external flashed used and Foam diffuser as well........ enjoy...... Skippy

photographix

ants
ants are so cool. great macro skippy! i will see if my ants in the yard will come out and play or pose friday and shoot some.good job. rick

Skippy

photographix wrote:

ants are so cool. great macro skippy! i will see if my ants in the yard will come out and play or pose friday and shoot some.good job. rick

Thank you Rick ....not a lot of bugs to find with this drought in full swing here, that's about all I've found lately...... ants .... Skippy

BigAl

Great detail there Skippy. How much did you crop? (You must have a very steady hand )

Skippy

BigAl wrote:

Great detail there Skippy. How much did you crop? (You must have a very steady hand )

Hi Big Al, I didn't crop a lot at all, and no I really don't have a steady hand.
Let me tell you how you overcome that

Brian ohhhhhhh king of the Macro's told me some time ago about using Manual Mode on the Camera.

What I do is exactly how Brian explained it to me....
He puts the camera in Manual, ISO 100, Speed 200 and the FStop is anywhere between 11-16 and sometimes I can get even higher.

Using the speed of 200 compensates for the slight hand shake, and also using an External Flash gives you a heap more light.

I check by chimping if I can get a higher F Stop and sometimes I even move the ISO up.

It is very rare that I crop an image, and if I do I usually say so, mostly I try to fill the frame, on this Ant shot I tried for just a tighter crop of the main three Ants. .... thanks for looking ..... Skippy

Lord Vetinari

Lovely ant shot skippy - you'll have to try getting these collecting honey dew from aphids- it's fascinating to watch.
One point on apertures is that especially when shooting above 1:1 if you want detail rather than DOF then it's worth opening the aperture to around f8-F11 to stop diffraction softening, butobviously depends on what type of shot you are after.
Ok what is "chimping" ?
Brian V.

Kevin

well done indeed skippy!
them critters sure are small, have played with em myself.
lord vet and I are both lost re chimping tho

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Lovely ant shot skippy - you'll have to try getting these collecting honey dew from aphids- it's fascinating to watch.
One point on apertures is that especially when shooting above 1:1 if you want detail rather than DOF then it's worth opening the aperture to around f8-F11 to stop diffraction softening, butobviously depends on what type of shot you are after.
Ok what is "chimping" ?
Brian V.

Thanks for that tip on F Stops

Chimping??? awwwwww come on you guys your pulling me leg
Pro's dont do it NOT! hahaha

Heres a link to a video clip all about chimping

http://www.sportsshooter.com/special_feature/chimping/index.html

Chimping my friend is when you keep looking on the back of your screen to check your images, apparently your not suppose to do it, but I do it all the time and I love it hehehe ...... Skippy

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

Thanks for that tip on F Stops

Chimping??? awwwwww come on you guys your pulling me leg
Pro's dont do it NOT! hahaha

Heres a link to a video clip all about chimping

http://www.sportsshooter.com/special_feature/chimping/index.html

Chimping my friend is when you keep looking on the back of your screen to check your images, apparently your not suppose to do it, but I do it all the time and I love it hehehe ...... Skippy

Ah does that mean I'm a pro then ?
I have to wear pretty strong reading glasses to see anything close but take them off when I'm shooting so I can't see anything useful on the LCD anyway .
Brian v.

GraphyFotoz

Very Kewl Shot Skipster!!

The Lord V is wearing off on ya!
I'd imagine the Ant's are even sweating there about now!!

Skippy

GraphyFotoz wrote:

Very Kewl Shot Skipster!!

The Lord V is wearing off on ya!
I'd imagine the Ant's are even sweating there about now!!

Hi there Graphy...... yep Brian sure knows his stuff when it comes to MACRO, I've learnt a lot from him

Ants are in abundance over here, I flooded my laundry on Christmas Day mind you trying to save the water to recycle from the washing machine, and in a way it was a blessing in disguise.

After going through 13 towels to mop up the water on the floor, I was able to still save the water in the sink, and because some of the water went into the cupboard directly under the sink in the laundry I had to pull everything out of it and discovered a huge ants nest inside it, much to my horror........ alas there are no more ants inside my house Skippy

Awais Yaqub

great macro !
their bite is thing to remember

Skippy

Awais Yaqub wrote:

great macro !
their bite is thing to remember

I been bitten by a few of them and you don't forget it
Thanks for looking Awais ...... Skippy

riz_sat

great
achivement Skippy
beautiful photographs!:D

Dalantech

Excellent shots Skippy!

Agree with Lord V on the diffraction problem -I rarely go above F11.

Skippy

riz_sat wrote:

great
achivement Skippy
beautiful photographs!:D

Thank you ...... Skippy

Skippy

Dalantech wrote:

Excellent shots Skippy!

Agree with Lord V on the diffraction problem -I rarely go above F11.

Hi ya Dalantech thanks for commenting .... Skippy

douglas

Great shots Skippy, well done

drdane

Skippy wrote:

Chimping my friend is when you keep looking on the back of your screen to check your images, apparently your not suppose to do it, but I do it all the time and I love it hehehe ...... Skippy

The "instant gratification replay" looks OOF to me w/o reading glasses, too, but there are two things I CAN see well enough to be useful. The "info" button on my Rebel gives me a look at the histogram, and this cool thing that flashes black on and off in any areas that are OE.

And this is a neat shot, Skippy, especially for a 50 on tubes! Have you sharpened it up at all? Sharpening a soft selection of their little headses might help, if you haven't already done so.

I'd like to see one from the ant's eye view - did you get any like that?

ultravox

50mm + Kenko a great combo.
Well done .

Skippy

douglas wrote:

Great shots Skippy, well done

Thanks Douglas ...... Skippy

Skippy

drdane wrote:

The "instant gratification replay" looks OOF to me w/o reading glasses, too, but there are two things I CAN see well enough to be useful. The "info" button on my Rebel gives me a look at the histogram, and this cool thing that flashes black on and off in any areas that are OE.

And this is a neat shot, Skippy, especially for a 50 on tubes! Have you sharpened it up at all? Sharpening a soft selection of their little headses might help, if you haven't already done so.

I'd like to see one from the ant's eye view - did you get any like that?

I find it very difficult to focus on tiny things and annoying that the light seems to come in from the left side of my eyepiece and I often try to push my hat or put my hand up to block the side light.

I wish when they made cameras that they would remember that PEOPLE HAVE NOSES!!! and the back of the camera is FLAT which does not allow for your nose a better EYE CUP would be great.

Thanks for looking drdane ... Skippy

Skippy

ultravox wrote:

50mm + Kenko a great combo.
Well done .

I cant take the credit for it, cause I saw someone else post an image.
They had used a 50mm + Kenko Tubes, so I gave it a try too .. Skippy