First time shooting at 3x -creep you out warning!!

Dalantech

After I started shooting at 2x Mark Plonsky told me that I needed to go up to 3x -always pushing me, but it's a good thing

I think it's time to start saving up my lunch money for the MPE-65 -it would have to be easier than shooting with a 100mm macro, 1.4TC, and 62mm of extension tubes...

Creep you out warning because the next photos after this one are gonna be spiders...



If you look closely you can see the red tipped fangs on this next one...







There not as sharp as I like them. Not sure if it's diffraction from shooting at F11 or movement (me and them due to the wind). I'll have a better idea tomorrow cause I plan on shooting ants at 3x out at the farm.

Lord Vetinari

Love the fly- must be a horse fly of some type- spider shots are good but are a bit soft . I'd try shooting at F8 or larger next time at 3:1- I have to do that with my MPE-65 to prevent diffaction softening.
Brian V.

Dalantech

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Love the fly- must be a horse fly of some type- spider shots are good but are a bit soft . I'd try shooting at F8 or larger next time at 3:1- I have to do that with my MPE-65 to prevent diffaction softening.
Brian V.

Thanks Brian! I'll give that a try tomorrow with the ants.

Awais Yaqub

Do you have Kevlar jacket ? or some kind of iron sheilds on you when shooting these ?

Beautiful

Dalantech

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Do you have Kevlar jacket ? or some kind of iron sheilds on you when shooting these ?

Beautiful

No, but I hate spiders and as I'm walking away my skin starts to crawl...

I was shooting one today and it was windy, so I thought about picking the flower it was on and moving it to a better location. Then I thought "gee, if it jumps on me I'll freak out" and decided to just deal with the wind

photographix

3x
awsome shots d very nice work

ShepsMom

Great work, i'm wondering if you shooting at the same spot? You seems to have quiet few of those spiders in yellow .

Skippy

Dalantech wrote:

After I started shooting at 2x Mark Plonsky told me that I needed to go up to 3x -always pushing me, but it's a good thing

I think it's time to start saving up my lunch money for the MPE-65 -it would have to be easier than shooting with a 100mm macro, 1.4TC, and 62mm of extension tubes...

Creep you out warning because the next photos after this one are gonna be spiders...
If you look closely you can see the red tipped fangs on this next one...
There not as sharp as I like them. Not sure if it's diffraction from shooting at F11 or movement (me and them due to the wind). I'll have a better idea tomorrow cause I plan on shooting ants at 3x out at the farm.

Wow and double Wow these are great Dalantech
I wonder if alllllllll that yellow doesn't help when your focusing,
it's quite a dominant colour, not a lot to seperate the spider from the flower and the surroundings .... just a thought... wonder if that flower wasn't yellow if the shot would appear more in focus ???

Love that first shot, man look at that EYE :ivar well done!
So you had everything on board?
The 100mm the 1.4Ext, and the full set of extentions as well ??

Shooting that close are you hand holding? or using a tripod?

Can't wait to see what you come up with next

Excellent series Dalantech .... Skippy
.

Dalantech

photographix wrote:

awsome shots d very nice work

Thanks! Gonna try a Tamron 2x + 37mm of tubes today -and F8 to cut through some diffraction.

Dalantech

ShepsMom wrote:

Great work, i'm wondering if you shooting at the same spot? You seems to have quiet few of those spiders in yellow .

Same abandoned lot. There is a huge black snake in it (saw it yesterday) so I'm not walking through the tall weeds anymore...

Dalantech

Skippy wrote:

Wow and double Wow these are great Dalantech
I wonder if alllllllll that yellow doesn't help when your focusing,
it's quite a dominant colour, not a lot to seperate the spider from the flower and the surroundings .... just a thought... wonder if that flower wasn't yellow if the shot would appear more in focus ???

Love that first shot, man look at that EYE :ivar well done!
So you had everything on board?
The 100mm the 1.4Ext, and the full set of extentions as well ??

Shooting that close are you hand holding? or using a tripod?

Can't wait to see what you come up with next

Excellent series Dalantech .... Skippy
.

I look for clues when focusing, and on most insects it's the eyes that I pay attention to. I look at the scene as a whole to check the composition, adjust if necessary, and then watch the eyes and body hair to get the focus where I want it.

As for the focus: I think Brian is right -it's just diffraction. I'll stop down to F8 today and see if I can get some sharper images. I knew shooting at F11 was going to be a problem, but it was my first outing and I wanted as much depth as I could get -needed some practice focusing the lens at 3x. Now that I have some confidence I'll drop the depth of field a little to get better image quality.

I had Canon's 1.4TC and 62mm of extension tubes. I think the working distance was less that 10cm, but I haven't measured it. The Tamron setup should give me more distance since I'll only need 37mm of extension to get above 3x.

I have a Novoflex Min Chest Pod that I hacked (removed the neck strap and added a ballhead to it). I was using it like a monopod, bracing the end against my waist. I put a Gitzo (sp?) carbon fiber monopod on order yesterday...

Next up is ants at 3x -I'm off to the farm

Thanks for the props Skippy!!!