Thank you! I like those better than the veggies
I'm surprised the kit lens works that good. Nice entries!
Nikolai, good morning.
Yes, these are far better than those ridiculous veggies, macro pretending
I shot in raw - not as usual these days - and with surprizingly better results than with the 16-35.
I want to try again. Later on.
Cheers.
b) Reverse a lens on the front of another normally mounted lens- Normally either the same focal length or the reversed lens smaller focal length than the main lens and either literally temporarily tape the lens on with duct tape or make a temporary connecting tube out of butyl rubber sheet or some foam material (camping mat is good for this)
What am I doing wrong? I tried this, and I only see blackness through my viewfinder. I can't see a durned thing to even try to focus manually.
I reversed my Tamron 28-80mm and taped it to my Tamron 70-300mm (my only other lens is a wide angle, so I can't experiment with another combination.
I also tried just reversing my 28-80mm alone by hand-holding it. I preset the aperture then pressed the DOF button while removing the lens and then reversing it, as Lord V suggested in an earlier post. My camera refused to fire. I could see a dimmed view of the shot in my viewfinder, but my camera was having nothing to do with my experiment.
I am completely ignorant here and would love to know what I'm doing wrong.
Three more
shot when I arrived home.
I know that they are not dead sharp, but it is the best I can do for now.
Nikolai and Brian: You are the ones to blame if now I want to have a macro lens: the 100 or the 180 mm Canon
shot when I arrived home.
I know that they are not dead sharp, but it is the best I can do for now.
Nikolai and Brian: You are the ones to blame if now I want to have a macro lens: the 100 or the 180 mm Canon
Very nice indeed, Antonio!
It's all Brian, he's the Macro Mastah!
Brian, what are the Pros and Cons of 100 vs 180 vs tubes?
What am I doing wrong? I tried this, and I only see blackness through my viewfinder. I can't see a durned thing to even try to focus manually.
I reversed my Tamron 28-80mm and taped it to my Tamron 70-300mm (my only other lens is a wide angle, so I can't experiment with another combination.
I also tried just reversing my 28-80mm alone by hand-holding it. I preset the aperture then pressed the DOF button while removing the lens and then reversing it, as Lord V suggested in an earlier post. My camera refused to fire. I could see a dimmed view of the shot in my viewfinder, but my camera was having nothing to do with my experiment.
I am completely ignorant here and would love to know what I'm doing wrong.
I just reverted the kit lens as you have probably read.
Shoot raw !!! Important !!! Very important.
I was in Manual 1/200 f/5.0 but the exit doesn't say so. I don't know why.
Please try again. Come on. You are going to do it now.:D
Very nice indeed, Antonio!
It's all Brian, he's the Macro Mastah!
Brian, what are the Pros and Cons of 100 vs 180 vs tubes?
The tubes I can't find them here. I can go to e-bay...
I do have googled a bit and I have had some difficulty finding the tubes.
At my usual store they don't advice tubes with the 16-35 - if I ever find them - because the lens is too heavy to be hold just in the thread of the filter.
Very nice indeed, Antonio!
It's all Brian, he's the Macro Mastah!
Brian, what are the Pros and Cons of 100 vs 180 vs tubes?
I always recommend a macro lens around 100mm unless there is a very good reason you want a longer focal length lens. The Tamron 90, canon 100, Nikon 105, sigma 105 are all very sharp when used properly. Advantage of the shorter lens?- it's just much easier to handle. When you start getting towards 150/180 you are in tripod land. A 100mm macro lens also makes an excellent long portrait lens.
Only advantage of a genuine macro lens over say a 50mm lens with a full set of extension tubes is smooth "zoom" from infinity to 1:1 macro. A 50mm with extension tubes would have a max focus distance of a few feet at most and a 1:1 focus distance of a few inches in front of the lens.
What am I doing wrong? I tried this, and I only see blackness through my viewfinder. I can't see a durned thing to even try to focus manually.
I reversed my Tamron 28-80mm and taped it to my Tamron 70-300mm (my only other lens is a wide angle, so I can't experiment with another combination.
I also tried just reversing my 28-80mm alone by hand-holding it. I preset the aperture then pressed the DOF button while removing the lens and then reversing it, as Lord V suggested in an earlier post. My camera refused to fire. I could see a dimmed view of the shot in my viewfinder, but my camera was having nothing to do with my experiment.
I am completely ignorant here and would love to know what I'm doing wrong.
Not sure what camera mode you are in but you need to be in manual mode really although I think Tv or Av modes should work.
Brian V.
shot when I arrived home.
I know that they are not dead sharp, but it is the best I can do for now.
Nikolai and Brian: You are the ones to blame if now I want to have a macro lens: the 100 or the 180 mm Canon
Very good Antonio - think you are getting the hang of this
I always recommend a macro lens around 100mm unless there is a very good reason you want a longer focal length lens. The Tamron 90, canon 100, Nikon 105, sigma 105 are all very sharp when used properly. Advantage of the shorter lens?- it's just much easier to handle. When you start getting towards 150/180 you are in tripod land. A 100mm macro lens also makes an excellent long portrait lens.
Only advantage of a genuine macro lens over say a 50mm lens with a full set of extension tubes is smooth "zoom" from infinity to 1:1 macro. A 50mm with extension tubes would have a max focus distance of a few feet at most and a 1:1 focus distance of a few inches in front of the lens.
Brian V.
Thank you very much, much appreciated.
FWIW I just ordered Kenko set from Adorama. My "nifty-fifty" hasn't seen any action for a loooooong time, hopefully this set will bring it back to life:-)
I always recommend a macro lens around 100mm unless there is a very good reason you want a longer focal length lens. The Tamron 90, canon 100, Nikon 105, sigma 105 are all very sharp when used properly. Advantage of the shorter lens?- it's just much easier to handle. When you start getting towards 150/180 you are in tripod land. A 100mm macro lens also makes an excellent long portrait lens.
Only advantage of a genuine macro lens over say a 50mm lens with a full set of extension tubes is smooth "zoom" from infinity to 1:1 macro. A 50mm with extension tubes would have a max focus distance of a few feet at most and a 1:1 focus distance of a few inches in front of the lens.
Brian V.
Thank you Brian.
I think I will buy the Tamron 90 or the Sigma 105, the cheaper.:D
Cheers.:D
I always shoot in full manual and RAW. Just won't fire. I must be having a blonde moment as I just have no clue.
I don't know if this helps but I was having a blonde moment trying this just now myself... and found out that my problem was I had the lens zoomed out to 18mm. The focal length being at 55 (for the kit lens) seemed to be the sweet spot.
I don't know if this helps but I was having a blonde moment trying this just now myself... and found out that my problem was I had the lens zoomed out to 18mm. The focal length being at 55 (for the kit lens) seemed to be the sweet spot.
I don't know where the zoom was when I shot because I just adjusted it once or twice as I shot in sequence.
As I was holding the lens in my left hand, the zoom moved too and I had to re-adjust it.
I have also noticed that - this is most obvious - different zoom positions were giving me different field of vision. It was then that I noticed: I had moved it un-voluntarely. Then I re-adjusted it.
For the focus I moved myself back and forward as Brian said to.
This is not a procedure to repeat over and over. The camera is wide open to the air consequently to dust.:D
Nothing special for settings. Aperture priority, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/30 s.
It's early morning so I have the sun putting light on the grass at a shallow angle so I figure I'll try and get the light through the grass at ground level. That was not easy, even stopping down the aperture and trying to get the camera to focus where I want. Technically, I'm not crazy about this picture because the focus isn't right, but I like the effect I got so what the heck.
Nothing special for settings. Aperture priority, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/30 s.
It's early morning so I have the sun putting light on the grass at a shallow angle so I figure I'll try and get the light through the grass at ground level. That was not easy, even stopping down the aperture and trying to get the camera to focus where I want. Technically, I'm not crazy about this picture because the focus isn't right, but I like the effect I got so what the heck.
Here I'm at ISO 400, f/15, 1/45 s.
Thank you for the entries!
I love the sunstar on the second, very nice touch!
Thanks to LV, Nikolai, and Antonio I have finally tried reversing a lens to do macros! I've never actually been moved to try this before (was too scared.)
I was having a terrible time with the focus - my DOV is so narrow I don't even think any of these shots caught the water drops itself... Plus I didn't realize it was national Check Your ISO Day so this is at 1000. I think that everything I shot comes with a kind of blurry haze over it, too. Maybe I am not getting the lens centered over the body?
Nonetheless it's great knowing that there is some macro photography possibilities available with the equipment I have!
Thanks to LV, Nikolai, and Antonio I have finally tried reversing a lens to do macros! I've never actually been moved to try this before (was too scared.)
I was having a terrible time with the focus - my DOV is so narrow I don't even think any of these shots caught the water drops itself... Plus I didn't realize it was national Check Your ISO Day so this is at 1000. I think that everything I shot comes with a kind of blurry haze over it, too. Maybe I am not getting the lens centered over the body?
Nonetheless it's great knowing that there is some macro photography possibilities available with the equipment I have!
New student joining the class! Now that I've got my site (somewhat) up and running, I have time to play, and I have always wanted to learn how to do this. Thanks Lord V for the outstanding tutorials with a wealth of information. I even optimistically downloaded the program for focus stacking, but I think that will have to wait until I get real macro gear.
My first attempts were with the kit lens just to get an idea of how to set up the shot, and I was really excited that I was able to get a decent refraction in the water drop. This is at 5.6, 1/100 and my flash bounced and diffused with the attached thingies:
I really wanted to get in closer to get my hand out of the image and I didn't want the flower to be recognizable but I don't have any macro lenses or gear, so I checked out Antonio's linky (thank you Antonio) about reversing the lens and soon found out that I needed another hand; one to hold the camera, one to hold the lens, and another to hold the flower in just the right spot. I made a "stem" out of toothpicks for the flower so I could position it where I wanted. Wow, handholding the reversed kit lens is really difficult - all I had to do was breathe and it would move out of place, which I could tell because the image in the viewfinder darkened. And it's really hard to find the sweet spot for focusing on the drop. Maybe it was because I drank too much coffee that morning . Here's the best of that:
5.0, 1/60, 580EX on camera bounced and diffused again with the attached thingies.
I felt I was getting closer, but I didn't like the highlight from the flash, so this morning I gave it another shot with direct flash diffused ala Lord V (yes, I caught it in the photos ), otherwise known as a papertowel attached with a rubber band. I liked this light better, but I spent an hour trying to get just one drop hanging suspended from a blade of grass, rather than sitting on top, and it just wasn't happening. Here's the best from this morning, but my in-house critic already told me he doesn't like it because it doesn't look like a drop of water sitting on top of the blade of grass. I think I spent more time trying to get perfect water drops than anything else.
I haven't given up yet because I'm making just enough progress to keep me going! I was going to try with a larger flower to improve the background (the one I used was maybe an inch across), but there was just enough breeze by that time that it was impossible to get a sharp image. And these were all shot in the early morning under a heavy marine layer for soft, diffused light, but I think I'm going to give it a try in sunlight, too.
Pretty exciting stuff for my first attempt at macro photography, as low budget as it was. Thanks for the great assignment!
New student joining the class! ... Pretty exciting stuff for my first attempt at macro photography, as low budget as it was. Thanks for the great assignment!
Welcome to the Class!
Thank you for the post, nice entries!
I swear, I haven't given up yet. I figured out that my camera wouldn't fire because I had my built-in flash popped up. Once I locked down the flash, my D80 would fire just fine with the hand-held reversed lens.
Of course, this leaves me trying to take macros without a flash. I've been trying to find a way to force the flash to fire with my lens dismounted and reversed, but I've had no luck.
Next step options: continually scold camera until it feels shamed into obeying me, use a really bright spotlight to compensate for lack of flash, or give in and buy the external flash I need but can't afford and try to fire it off camera. Of course, the collective genius here may have another idea I haven't thought of yet.
I swear, I haven't given up yet. I figured out that my camera wouldn't fire because I had my built-in flash popped up. Once I locked down the flash, my D80 would fire just fine with the hand-held reversed lens.
Of course, this leaves me trying to take macros without a flash. I've been trying to find a way to force the flash to fire with my lens dismounted and reversed, but I've had no luck.
Next step options: continually scold camera until it feels shamed into obeying me, use a really bright spotlight to compensate for lack of flash, or give in and buy the external flash I need but can't afford and try to fire it off camera. Of course, the collective genius here may have another idea I haven't thought of yet.
Remember that the flash doesn't work off camera without more equipment.
Shoot at Sunlight
Comments
Good shooting of a difficult subjects! I love the first one! Thank you for the entries!
Thank you! I like those better than the veggies
I'm surprised the kit lens works that good. Nice entries!
Nikolai, good morning.
Yes, these are far better than those ridiculous veggies, macro pretending
I shot in raw - not as usual these days - and with surprizingly better results than with the 16-35.
I want to try again. Later on.
Cheers.
What am I doing wrong? I tried this, and I only see blackness through my viewfinder. I can't see a durned thing to even try to focus manually.
I reversed my Tamron 28-80mm and taped it to my Tamron 70-300mm (my only other lens is a wide angle, so I can't experiment with another combination.
I also tried just reversing my 28-80mm alone by hand-holding it. I preset the aperture then pressed the DOF button while removing the lens and then reversing it, as Lord V suggested in an earlier post. My camera refused to fire. I could see a dimmed view of the shot in my viewfinder, but my camera was having nothing to do with my experiment.
I am completely ignorant here and would love to know what I'm doing wrong.
shot when I arrived home.
I know that they are not dead sharp, but it is the best I can do for now.
Nikolai and Brian: You are the ones to blame if now I want to have a macro lens: the 100 or the 180 mm Canon
It's all Brian, he's the Macro Mastah!
Brian, what are the Pros and Cons of 100 vs 180 vs tubes?
Shoot raw !!! Important !!! Very important.
I was in Manual 1/200 f/5.0 but the exit doesn't say so. I don't know why.
Please try again. Come on. You are going to do it now.:D
The tubes I can't find them here. I can go to e-bay...
I do have googled a bit and I have had some difficulty finding the tubes.
At my usual store they don't advice tubes with the 16-35 - if I ever find them - because the lens is too heavy to be hold just in the thread of the filter.
I hope I made myself clear !
I always recommend a macro lens around 100mm unless there is a very good reason you want a longer focal length lens. The Tamron 90, canon 100, Nikon 105, sigma 105 are all very sharp when used properly. Advantage of the shorter lens?- it's just much easier to handle. When you start getting towards 150/180 you are in tripod land. A 100mm macro lens also makes an excellent long portrait lens.
Only advantage of a genuine macro lens over say a 50mm lens with a full set of extension tubes is smooth "zoom" from infinity to 1:1 macro. A 50mm with extension tubes would have a max focus distance of a few feet at most and a 1:1 focus distance of a few inches in front of the lens.
Brian V.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Not sure what camera mode you are in but you need to be in manual mode really although I think Tv or Av modes should work.
Brian V.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Very good Antonio - think you are getting the hang of this
Brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thank you very much, much appreciated.
FWIW I just ordered Kenko set from Adorama. My "nifty-fifty" hasn't seen any action for a loooooong time, hopefully this set will bring it back to life:-)
1) no card
2) no battery
3) lens cap ;-)
Thank you Brian.
I think I will buy the Tamron 90 or the Sigma 105, the cheaper.:D
Cheers.:D
I don't know if this helps but I was having a blonde moment trying this just now myself... and found out that my problem was I had the lens zoomed out to 18mm. The focal length being at 55 (for the kit lens) seemed to be the sweet spot.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
As I was holding the lens in my left hand, the zoom moved too and I had to re-adjust it.
I have also noticed that - this is most obvious - different zoom positions were giving me different field of vision. It was then that I noticed: I had moved it un-voluntarely. Then I re-adjusted it.
For the focus I moved myself back and forward as Brian said to.
This is not a procedure to repeat over and over. The camera is wide open to the air consequently to dust.:D
This is hard....
Started with the simple dew on flower petal shots
Nothing special for settings. Aperture priority, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/30 s.
It's early morning so I have the sun putting light on the grass at a shallow angle so I figure I'll try and get the light through the grass at ground level. That was not easy, even stopping down the aperture and trying to get the camera to focus where I want. Technically, I'm not crazy about this picture because the focus isn't right, but I like the effect I got so what the heck.
Here I'm at ISO 400, f/15, 1/45 s.
Website: Tom Price Photography
Blog: Capturing Photons
Facebook: Tom Price Photography
Morning /filtered light. I used a Canon 30D with a 100mm macro lens.
2"]EXIF[/URL]
EXIF
T
www.studioTphotos.com
"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."
----Ruth Ann Schubacker
Thank you for the entries!
I love the sunstar on the second, very nice touch!
Can you please update your post with the inline EXIFs and other accompanying info? TIA!
Ooops! Sorry. It has been updated
T
www.studioTphotos.com
"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."
----Ruth Ann Schubacker
EXIF here
I was having a terrible time with the focus - my DOV is so narrow I don't even think any of these shots caught the water drops itself... Plus I didn't realize it was national Check Your ISO Day so this is at 1000. I think that everything I shot comes with a kind of blurry haze over it, too. Maybe I am not getting the lens centered over the body?
Nonetheless it's great knowing that there is some macro photography possibilities available with the equipment I have!
*goes off to play some more*
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Thank you for taking the dare:-)
My first attempts were with the kit lens just to get an idea of how to set up the shot, and I was really excited that I was able to get a decent refraction in the water drop. This is at 5.6, 1/100 and my flash bounced and diffused with the attached thingies:
Exif http://offtopic.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=182705783
I really wanted to get in closer to get my hand out of the image and I didn't want the flower to be recognizable but I don't have any macro lenses or gear, so I checked out Antonio's linky (thank you Antonio) about reversing the lens and soon found out that I needed another hand; one to hold the camera, one to hold the lens, and another to hold the flower in just the right spot. I made a "stem" out of toothpicks for the flower so I could position it where I wanted. Wow, handholding the reversed kit lens is really difficult - all I had to do was breathe and it would move out of place, which I could tell because the image in the viewfinder darkened. And it's really hard to find the sweet spot for focusing on the drop. Maybe it was because I drank too much coffee that morning
Exif http://offtopic.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=182706106
5.0, 1/60, 580EX on camera bounced and diffused again with the attached thingies.
I felt I was getting closer, but I didn't like the highlight from the flash, so this morning I gave it another shot with direct flash diffused ala Lord V (yes, I caught it in the photos
Exif http://offtopic.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=182705704
I haven't given up yet because I'm making just enough progress to keep me going! I was going to try with a larger flower to improve the background (the one I used was maybe an inch across), but there was just enough breeze by that time that it was impossible to get a sharp image. And these were all shot in the early morning under a heavy marine layer for soft, diffused light, but I think I'm going to give it a try in sunlight, too.
Pretty exciting stuff for my first attempt at macro photography, as low budget as it was. Thanks for the great assignment!
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Welcome to the Class!
Thank you for the post, nice entries!
Of course, this leaves me trying to take macros without a flash.
Next step options: continually scold camera until it feels shamed into obeying me, use a really bright spotlight to compensate for lack of flash, or give in and buy the external flash I need but can't afford and try to fire it off camera. Of course, the collective genius here may have another idea I haven't thought of yet.
Remember that the flash doesn't work off camera without more equipment.
Shoot at Sunlight