8 sharp (bug) macros: Indoors with flash! (long load)

Paul Iddon

So all these are taken indoors, removing the leaves off a fuschia bush and with the camera tripod mounted and hotshoe diffused flash, they are all really quite sharp.

Sigma 105 with 3 extension tubes.

Last one a 100% crop. Some totally uncropped, others cropped slightly to A4 dimensions.


I thought at first it was a leaf-hopper/frog-hopper, but at the moment I'm not so sure. Whatever it is, it walks very quickly, and it measured just 4mm in length.


Sorry I got carried away taking eight, but I was enjoying myself...



























Paul.

GOLDENORFE

nice shots, it is a capsid bug, they damage all flowering shoots on fuchias ,i had hardly any flowers on mine last year. hope you dispatched it to insect hell!
phil.

Lord Vetinari

Lovely series Paul
What aperture were you using ?
Brian V.

Paul Iddon

HI Brian.

The first five were at F/14, and the remaining three were at F/11.


Paul.

Lord Vetinari

Paul Iddon wrote:

HI Brian.

The first five were at F/14, and the remaining three were at F/11.


Paul.

Try shooting at F11 at 1:1 and around F8 when using all the tubes at minimum focus (2:1) - think you'll find the shots will be even sharper but obviously with some loss of DOF.

Brian V.

Paul Iddon

Thanks Brian.

I have no idea what the best settings are when using tubes. Plus I also assumed that f32 would give me better than f11 for DoF when doing macro.

So you would suggest in a nutshell:

Lens alone, f11 in most circumstances (why not 22, 32 or 45)?
Tubes, f8 with all 3?
And any recommendations for the combination of tubes (13, 21 and 31mm)?



I tried to stack again last night but it didn't work very well, mind you it was a fly and was still breathing so there was movement..



Paul.

Skippy

Paul Iddon wrote:

So all these are taken indoors, removing the leaves off a fuschia bush and with the camera tripod mounted and hotshoe diffused flash, they are all really quite sharp.

Sigma 105 with 3 extension tubes.

Last one a 100% crop. Some totally uncropped, others cropped slightly to A4 dimensions.

I thought at first it was a leaf-hopper/frog-hopper, but at the moment I'm not so sure. Whatever it is, it walks very quickly, and it measured just 4mm in length.

Sorry I got carried away taking eight, but I was enjoying myself...

Paul.

That is a tiny little fella 4mm ... it's exciting to see such detail when you find something really small then see it on your screen larger than Life.

Thanks for sharing Paul ... Skippy
.

Lord Vetinari

Paul Iddon wrote:

Thanks Brian.

I have no idea what the best settings are when using tubes. Plus I also assumed that f32 would give me better than f11 for DoF when doing macro.

So you would suggest in a nutshell:

Lens alone, f11 in most circumstances (why not 22, 32 or 45)?
Tubes, f8 with all 3?
And any recommendations for the combination of tubes (13, 21 and 31mm)?



I tried to stack again last night but it didn't work very well, mind you it was a fly and was still breathing so there was movement..



Paul.

Paul at 1:1 you start getting significant image softening with smaller apertures than F11 caused by diffraction softening. As the magnification increases this gets worse so at 2:1 I normally shoot at f8 or F9. It's all a bit of balance and depends on whether you want shots with good dof but slightly soft or good sharpness with less DOF. This is of course the reason I use focus stacking a lot to get sharp shots and good DOF. Just suggest you try a day's shots at those apertures and compare to your normal.

brian V.

Paul Iddon

Thanks Max ine


And thanks again Brian.



Paul.

teamracephotos

Great pictures and...
Great questions and advice. Thanks MM