New Dgrinner/Rookie Macroer

46thga

Hi -

I bought a Nikon D80 in March 2007, and have been trying to learn about digital photography and macro photography.

I shot these recently with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor and a total of 48mm Kenko tubes. I've seen some graet dragonfly pix here and at dpreview. Are those typically taken with a dedicated, longer macro lens in order to achieve the working distance I assume you need for such skittish creatures?

Lord Vetinari

Hi welcome to the forum

Lovely mantid shots .
Think you have found one of the problems with a 50mm lens and ext tubes- the focus distances are a bit close for many dragonflies . You can use a normal macro lens for dragonflies but the focus distance may still be too close for really skittish ones. Think many people actually use longer telephotos (200-300mm) with ext tubes for those. I don't have too much poblem with the dragonflies and butterflies I get in my garden just using my 105mm Ex macro lens but I'm fairly good at not scaring bugs plus I suspect the dragonflies are a bit tamer.

Brian V.

Skippy

46thga wrote:

Hi -

I bought a Nikon D80 in March 2007, and have been trying to learn about digital photography and macro photography.

I shot these recently with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor and a total of 48mm Kenko tubes. I've seen some graet dragonfly pix here and at dpreview. Are those typically taken with a dedicated, longer macro lens in order to achieve the working distance I assume you need for such skittish creatures?

Nice work 46thga .... your little friend was even happy enough to
eat dinner while you continued to take photos

Extention tubes come in handy for use with so many lenses.
They work really well, as we can see with your images.

That second shot is a real beauty
Looks like your doing a excellent job to me at learning MACRO.

Welcome to the Dgrin Forum, I'm sure you will learn plenty in this new MACRO Forum
.... don't forget to look at very first entry inside HOLY MACRO
there you will find an excellent set of MACRO TUTORIALS,
by our very own Brian Valentine

Brian Valentine - SmugMug Artist-in-Residence

Excellent first post .... keep them coming.... Skippy
.

46thga

Thanks Skippy.

I have SO MANY shots that are "ALMOST OK" shots. Somehow, everything came together for these.

He/She was quite patient with me, but there are some shots I took a bit later than these, where I'm getting the "you are next" look, so I knew it was growing tired of posing.

Thanks for the tip about Brian's macro course. I've looked at it briefly and will certainy go through it.

Thanks again.

46thga

Thanks Brian!

Your photos are so wonderful and inspiring. I enjoyed looking through your galleries.

Christmas is approaching, and if I can continue to be a good boy, I'm hoping to have a Sigma 105mm macro lens under the tree. I've enjoyd the tubes and the 50mm, but a dedicated macro lens would allow me to do more.

Thanks again.

Dalantech

46thga wrote:

Hi -

I've seen some graet dragonfly pix here and at dpreview. Are those typically taken with a dedicated, longer macro lens in order to achieve the working distance I assume you need for such skittish creatures?

Well done on the mantis! :cool

I wrote an article on shooting dragonflies that might help. There are some species that are easier to get close to than others, but you can use just about anything to photograph them provided the critter lets you get close.

IMHO working distance is a myth because there are basically two types of insects: Those that will let you get close and those that won't. If you are patient, and can keep your movements slow and even, then it's up to the critter if you can photograph it or not.

You can use a standard macro lens and a diopter for closeups so that you can get sharp detail and really good bokeh like this:





You can also use a diopter with a telephoto lens. Granted a telephoto will usually give you good bokeh by itself most of the time, but telephoto lenses do not focus well when shooting close to the subject -they are designed to focus best toward infinity. A diopter will make a telephoto lens sharp at minimum focus. Here are some examples:





For life size and higher you could go with a standard macro lens and add extension tubes to it -even add a diopter or a teleconverter (but never both -too much glass and the lens won't focus). I use to shoot with Canon's 100mm macro + tubes + a teleconverter or a diopter, but once I picked up an MPE-65 I've been using it exclusively for macro. Here are some examples:









Take the time to learn their behavior and you can even get one to land on your finger...



The only difficult part about taking that last shot was holding the camera with one hand

46thga

Thanks Dalantech.

The articles you reference look helpful, and I will make use of your info.

I do have a Canon 500D diopter, but it is sized for my Nikon 18-200mm lens. I really hope to get a dedicated macro lens, but will also consider a diopter for my current setup of Nikon 50mm 1.8 and Kenko tubes (especially since the diopters are so cheap.

Thanks again - you've got some great shots!

Dalantech

46thga wrote:

Thanks Dalantech.

The articles you reference look helpful, and I will make use of your info.

I do have a Canon 500D diopter, but it is sized for my Nikon 18-200mm lens. I really hope to get a dedicated macro lens, but will also consider a diopter for my current setup of Nikon 50mm 1.8 and Kenko tubes (especially since the diopters are so cheap.

Thanks again - you've got some great shots!

Glad I could help :cool

patricia kay

46thga...you have some great shots there...an interesting subject...never seen one up close before...Thanks for sharing them!

Dalantech...Your dragon fly shots are just beautiful...you have some lovely colored ones....Mine here are green,brown and red....I really like these friendly creatures and last summer i had a green one pose on a garden cane for almost 1 hour and each day returned...never moved when i got my camera as close as i could...will post a few...BUT...they are no where near as good as your shots!!!!


Patricia.......:D

Awais Yaqub

These are beautiful welcome to the forum

46thga

Thanks Patricia. I had never seen a praying mantis that close before either and I was glad that I was too big for him to dine on.

46thga

Thank you.

You have some nice photos. I enjoyed looking at your galleries.