Coins and Bees on Flowers

asp87 · September 15, 2010

I don't own a macro lens but I enjoy taking pictures of small things so I bought a set of Kenko extension tubes. They allow full function of metering and AF with my Nikon D60 and any of my lenses. For the pictures of the coins, I ended up with 68mm of extension tubes behind my 70-300mm VR pointed straight down and the flash diffusing through the small diffuser in the SB600 and bouncing off the ceiling. It seemed to give the softest light. Settings were ISO 400, f/11, 1/200, MF (not enough light for AF to work). I stopped down to f/11 to increase sharpness and DOF. These are all 100% crops - not bad for a hacked together macro setup.

Everything was hand held, no tripods. I might try again on the coins tonight using a tripod on the coins. It should let me focus more sharply.

I think this last one is my favorite because it's the sharpest and you can see Lincoln sitting in the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to how close to the edge of the lid that these coins were on and the bottom left of the picture shows the edge of the lid.

Pictures of the bees were taken in Girdwood, AK with a 36mm extension tube behind the 70-300mm and natural lighting. I know these aren't truly 1:1, but they are definitely close up. Also, I have only hosted them on facebook and not flickr yet, so please excuse the small resolution.

C&C is welcome. Thanks!

IPClark · September 15, 2010

Being very honest, I find the coin shots far too busy. I'd consider taking a shot of one coin and a specific point on the coin.

All the other shots are of Hoverflies with the exception of one bee

. You've certainly not done badly at all on the hovers. Some decent shots with the setup you have.

asp87 · September 15, 2010

Forgive my ignorance of bugs and thanks for your comments.

Hmm, I don't know that I could only get a specific point on the coin as coin pic #3 is as close as I can get with this setup. I just thought of something else that would probably be less busy - a conical stack of coins with a half dollar on the bottom decreasing in size to a dime on top. In my head, it looks more geometric and less chaotic. I'll give it a shot tonight. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 2x TC, so I'm sure I'll be putting that to use for both macro and wildlife.

IPClark · September 15, 2010

It's ok, I used to think the Hovers were wasps of sorts

Your idea on the stacking of the coins could be quite interesting. Give it a whirl

Lord Vetinari · September 16, 2010

Good series- just to show people have different tastes, I rather like the coin shots

Brian v.

asp87 · September 16, 2010

Thanks! My thinking on the chaos was that it would be cooler to have a background of a coin with more coins rather than nothing related or nothing at all... I also didn't think I'd be able to get much more macro than that. That said, here are the 100% crops from this evenings experiments (all but 1 were taken with my 18-55mm in front of the 68mm ext tubes)

This is my attempt at my stacking idea

A friend suggested fruit as a macro subject. Not quite a true fruit, but here's a strawberry.

I wasn't quite ready to quit shooting for the night so I went in the garage in search of creepy crawly things and found this fellow.

Overall I'm much happier with tonight's shots than last nights. They're equally as sharp (or sharper) and are greater than life size. I took a picture of my Leatherman micra and about 13.5mm filled the frame widthwise. It's a Nikon DX sensor that measures at 23.6mm across meaning that I'm shooting at about 1.8:1. I can't wait until my 2X TC gets here...

kidzmom · September 16, 2010

I love the last 2 shots! Great work!

asp87 · September 16, 2010

Thanks! I found this posting - I offered $50 for the Vivitar 90mm f/2.8 1:1 macro. I did some reading about it and there were only good things to be read. Thankfully, it will mount to my D60 with no modification. I don't care that I'll lose metering or AF... It's macro, not sports, wildlife, or portraits. With the setup I was using last night I may have been at 1.8:1 magnification, but my working distance was about 3/4". The macro lens will get me 1.5:1 at ~9" away because it is a full frame lens. New toys are always fun.

Edit: darn, someone offered him $70 and is supposed to be picking it up tonight. Is this lens worth that (presuming it's in good shape?) or should I hold off for a better lens in the same price range?

IPClark · September 17, 2010

I like the stacked coins idea.

Also really like number 6 with your having captured the image of the man within the pillars. Good stuff.

Can't offer advice on the vivitar I'm afraid/

asp87 · September 17, 2010

Thanks very much!

I think that Vivitar got sold, so I went back to the hunt. I've narrowed it down to a few different criteria and lenses that I want. I want a 90mm f/2.8 that can reach 1:1 by itself and without any extra attachments. There's a Panagor on ebay right now that I'm trying to win. Don't steal it from me! :giggle

I was bored last night and took a few more that I think came out good. We'll see. I'm also trying to sort through my 1300 or so pictures that I took in Alaska 2 weeks ago. It's slow going.

asp87 · September 19, 2010

Well, that auction just ended and I won the Panagor PMC 90mm f/2.8 for $91+$10 shipping. I can't wait to start playing around with it.

GOLDENORFE · September 20, 2010

i like the stacked coin shots, worked quite well.

2nd hover shot the best for sharpness

enjoy practising with new lens:D

asp87 · September 20, 2010

Thanks! I agree that #2 is the sharpest. I'm looking forward to getting some real detail out of the bug faces like all you guys with the fancy glass can get

Coins and Bees on Flowers

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