My new macro lens shots

[dhoch]

Went out and purchased a used Tamaron 90mm Macro lens... I'm VERY HAPPY with the results with just 1 day of shooting... here are some pics: (enjoy)

 

Leng Sy cap (under actinic only)

 

Blue green acro (from eve):

 

Blue tip acro (from 143gadgets):

 

Blue/green deep water:

 

Blue pink stylo:

 

My macna acro (under actinic only)... this actual frag is for sale:

 

Wildfire zoanthid..

 

Dave

[fab]

Macro lenses are fun to work with. Success in your macro photography will provide you with memorable images and great, artistic material to adorn your walls at home and at work. You will have lots of opportunity to learn how to use it well and to have fun with it. If you don't mind, I'll offer a few tips on the subject, using your pictures as examples. Macro photography of our marine scapes and specimens can be one of the most rewarding ancillary activities to being aquarists.

 

First of all, good macro photography is not easy. It is hard. But, when it works, it works. It can be spectacular. Our little microcosms of the oceans cry out for us to take really neat macro shots.

 

One thing you have to learn about macro photography is that you have only a handful of millimeters of depth of field to work with. You must shoot with the smallest aperture (largest f-stop number) that you can. That will give you the most depth of field. Still though it won't be a lot. Your lens probably has very high f-stop numbers on it compared to normal lenses. That is because of the aperture requirements to get the depth. Using a flash is pretty much the only way to get adequate light to get away with the smallest apertures. Composition can really be tough because of the depth of focus limitation. Good composition of a scene in the photo frame is one of the big challenges in macro photography.

 

The depth of field problem is clearly evident in the shots of your Leng Sy cap. Notice how few of the details are actually in focus as you move from the foreground to the rear of the picture. Then again in the blue pink stylo notice how few of the white tips are in focus. Then go look at the real objects and observe how narrow a distance range those white tips that are in focus fall in. It's probably in the order of a half inch or less. That is the depth of field. It's not much, is it.

 

When you look at the work of the best macro photographers you'll see they often orient the picture to have the smallest distance range of interest in the photo oriented more parallel to the lense, placing more of the interest in the shot within the expectedly small depth of focus. Shooting macro shots across objects emphasizes the depth of field problem because only a narrow distance range of the object will ever be in focus. This is evident your shot of the macna acro.

 

Also, when shooting macro photography, an important skill to develop is choosing the right feature to be in focus and making sure it is sharp. The human eye is naturally drawn to the part of a picture that is in focus. So that's how you make sure you draw the eye of the observer to the interest you are trying to establish in the photo. An example, in the macna acro shot the topmost part of the object is in the frame. It is a natural feature that draws the eye to it. But it is not in focus. That makes the eye have to search for the region in the frame that is in focus, which turns out to be about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the object of interest. In a specimen shot like this one it would be better to do either of two things. First way, frame the shot so the peak isn't in frame. Then focus on the blue tips of one of the detailed features that is facing forward or almost forward, and re-frame the shot so that feature is well off-center in both the horizontal and the vertical directions. That type of shot makes the bulbous shape and its tip the obvious point of interest. The second way is to frame the shot much as you have it now, but make sure the topmost blue tips are sharply focused. Also, reframing the shot so the long axis of the stem is oriented at an angle within in the picture frame with the very tip top being about 1/3 down from the top and the bottom of the stem being about 1/3 up from the bottom, would improve the composition.

 

When shooting critters, you ALWAYS want the eye or the eyes of the main critter in the frame to be in focus. The human pysche doesn't cooperate with photos that violate this rule. Try violating this rule and see if you can ever come up with a photo that makes someone say WOW about the impact of the photo, itself, not of the specimen in the photo. You probably won't succeed. The masters follow this rule strictly.

 

In my own underwater photography I use two off-camera flash attachments when shooting macro shots. Neither of these flash sources can be very close to the camera or you will get back scatter, or in shooting aquarium shots you'll get reflections of the flash, itself. When I say close, I mean it in terms of the angle that is formed between the line from the flash to the object and the line from the object to the lense. 35-60 degrees is often about right. One flash wants to be somewhat overhead shooting down and the other wants to be coming in from above and off to a side. The one coming in from overhead can be a much as 90 degrees, shooting straight down to the object.

 

Shooting through the tank sides really makes these geometries hard to work, as its flat surface adds another dimension to the problem lighting geometry problem. You should also consider using a black drop cloth behind the you and the camera to eliminate ambient reflections from the glass or acrylic surface.

 

Have fun and good shooting,

fab

Edited November 4, 2006 by fab

[dhoch]

fab,

 

thanks for the constructive criticism...

 

I understand about the lack of light and flash and increasing the depth of field, also the comments on the macan acro are well taken...

 

As for the lighting I need and want a remote flash, but purchases take time

 

Also a concern on the lighting, most flash shots give a washing of the coral color... they no longer look how they seem to my naked eye... how would you deal with that.

 

As to the macna acro I think you would have prefered it cropped more like this:

 

[Gadgets]

IME.l I have found macros to be pretty easy.

 

1. Use a tripod

2. Very slow shutter

3. High f-stop

4. Shoot head-on (Perpendicular to the coral)

5. Fine-tuned WB

[fab]

Properly exposed flash will not wash out color. Overexposure will and does. With through-the-lens flash control you must know the minimum distance from which you can shoot with flash. If a flash is too close to the object, the controller will not be able to turn off the flash fast enough and you will get a hot spot in the image.

 

If any region of an image is overexposed, then I regard that image as being overexposed.

 

Flash will paint your corals with their true colors and will give the best looking, most vibrantly colorful photos. If you are used to looking at your corals under blue light then you are used to not seeing their true colors. Taking long exposure shots lit only by your normal aquarium lighting will give you photos that are color tuned to that lighting. If you like that as your product then fine. If you'd like to produce the stunning photos you see in magazines, you'll most likely have to use flash or studio lighting to bring out the real colors. Also, with a digital camera it is very important to calibrate your white balance before shooting.

 

Something a lot of people don't factor into their shots is the fact that water doesn't reflect light from your flash back into the lens. So only the reflective objects in the field of view will participate in returning light to the camera. You will not light up the water with a flash unit.

 

In my underwater photography, I use through-the-lens metering for aperture control and that controls turning the flash on and off based on the light returned from the object I am shooting. I always operate my camera on aperture priority for underwater shots, particularly macro photography. That means I set the desired aperture and let the camera select the shutter speed. That way I am in contol of depth of field; that is the control I prefer when shooting underwater.

 

I take my light readings on a central spot basis that only uses a small region near the center of the lens to determine the shutter speed setting based on my manually set aperture. In macro, I normally leave the aperture set to its smallest setting. In my case that is f64. I take my light reading from the object I am photographing then I focus on the part of it I want to be the center of interest and then I reframe the image for composition. Since there are no natural up, down, left, right underwater you really have a lot of freedom in composition unless you are including the sea or aquarium bottom or the surface of the water in the image. Of course in aquaria, you also have to worry about other man-made objects in the image such as vertical tank edges and pump heads and the like. They have to look natural, also. That's generally not a problem in the ocean.

 

To assure good exposures on a shoot, I calibrate my camera and flashes using a procedure that is a PITA for shooting underwater photos. I do this before a trip because I have to get my film developed before I can finish the procedure. My camera has an aperture offset feature that allows 1/3 f-stop incremental settings above and below the control apeture setting. I shoot a test scene at a couple of shutter speeds and aperture settings, varying the aperture offset from -2 f-stops to + 2 fstops, in the minimum aperture offset increment. Then I evaluate each image to determine which aperture offset provides the best exposure. I then use that aperture offset for the shoot. It produces excellent exposure results. You do have to shoot beyond a minimum range or the flash will not be able to turn off fast enough to preclude overexposures.

 

Since you would be doing this in your home and probably are using a digital camera, you can do all this much more simply by just experimenting with over and under exposure control. If your camera doesn't allow you to crank in a set amount of over or under exposure you can achieve the result by moving the flash units farther and farther away from the object until you get no overexposed regions in the picture. To do this you need to have off-body flash units with long enough electrical control leads for your geometry.

 

If you are using flash you don't need a tripod for the camera. You can take images fast enough that movement will not blur the image you have worked so hard to get set up and sharply focused. On the other hand having tripods for the remote flash units is a wonderful advantage. It provides a lot of convenience.

 

fab

Edited November 5, 2006 by fab

[fab]

WRT the cropped image of the macna acro... Yes I think that can be a more interesting shot also. Try it in a vertical format since it is a naturally vertical object. Also make sure, just as you did in this version, not to center it.

 

The other thing I would recommend is that you set your white balance. You will need a white object that is being lit by the same light that is lighting up your object. Maybe you have white sand at the bottom. If so you can balance from that.

 

fab

Edited November 5, 2006 by fab

[dhoch]

fab,

 

I've been shooting for a while... white balance I do that regularly, in fact it's one of the best tips you can give out to people for improving their shots...

 

I should say the reason taht that shot of what I have labeled the "MACNA" acro is shot under pure actinics...

 

I'll definitly work more on the flash... everything I've tried with it leads to over exposure...

 

BTW since Chris has not responded... what are you doing on the 19th?

 

Dave

[fab]

Is your flash controlled with TTL metering?

Are your flash units(s) off-body?

You could consider getting your flash checked out for its calibration accuracy. That costs though.

How does it work for normal, non-aquatic scenes? Do you get good, even, balanced flash exposure?

What is your flash-object-lens geometry?

......

I don't know Chris. What is going on on the 19th?

 

fab

Edited November 5, 2006 by fab

[dandy7200]

purdy......

[dhoch]

fab,

 

Chris = 143gadgets...

 

the 19th is a day I am having a tank tour... a number of members have asked about photography and interest in improving their pictures, I volunteered my house and tank before the tank tour for that...

 

I asked Chris if he would come and help educate everyone, but without him (and as I said I haven't heard form him on it) I would be happy to have you.

 

Dave

[jason the filter freak]

Great shots

[fab]

Unfortunately, I will not be able to join on the 19th. I expect to be out of town.

Thanks for the invitation, though.

 

fab

[PupChow]

If there is going to be a workshop, I'd be interested in attending. I too struggle with my macro shots (D100).

 

Some tips I recently picked up:

 

1. WB w/ coffee filter

2. Turn off all pumps so things stop moving (including fish, they get confused and stops swimming around)

3. Higher ISO + tripod + cable release

 

I would love to learn more about it though, cause I am still not happy with the shots I am getting.

 

Nice pictures, keep on shooting!

[dhoch]

Pupchow there will be one at my place, before the tank tour on the 19th...

 

If you can make and are interested let me know.

 

Dave