Stay at home macro photos

With so many of us being advised or told to stay home I thought of an outlet for all that creativity we have among us, Now's a good time to bring out that macro lens, close up lens, extension tubes or similar optic to take closer than usual images of anything at home. What if you have none of the optics mentioned? One can sometimes get surprisingly good close ups by holding a good quality magnifying lens close to the camera lens. One of the examples I will post is one where I used the front lens from an old overhead projector. I used a Cokin filter holder to hold the lens in front of my Tamron 28-200. (I had version1 which did not close focus.)

The easy way- SLR with macro lens

A few examples of macro shots around the home.

Wall decorations, Maxxum 8000i 50mm f 2.8 Maxxum macro, HP5+

alternative thermometer, Maxxum 5 50mm f 2.8, Fuji 200

wind chime detail, SRT 101, MD Rokkor 100nn f 3.5, Tri-X

Mugs, Minolta XE with 55mm Celtic macro,

Next one is an improvised set up: 8000i with Tamron 28-200 and overhead project lens as close up attachment,

\

Ariel up close

Of course these images have been posted at one time or another so I plan to do some macro shots around the house over the next few days. We're not under a stay at home order, but the idea of macro photos sounds like fun.

I look forward to seeing everyone's images.

A "poor man's macro" was to take the 50mm lens off of the camera, turn it around and hold it against the front of the camera to take macro photos. I used to have a reversing ring for that to make it easier. One side was threaded to screw into the lens and the other side had the camera mount.

 

Thanks,James. I'd forgotten to mention the reversing ring. I actually have two (one in 49mm and one in 55mm). Typically most normal lenses perform better reversed than when used in conventional position with extension tubes or with a close up lens. Surprisingly, reverse rings can work well with many wide angle lenses as well.

I usually do macro with digital but tomorrow I'll do some on film. What the heck I am out of work for another week anywho.

A "poor man's macro" was to take the 50mm lens off of the camera, turn it around and hold it against the front of the camera to take macro photos. I used to have a reversing ring for that to make it easier. One side was threaded to screw into the lens and the other side had the camera mount.

 

[ATTACH=full]1334343[/ATTACH]

Ditto, but change tense to present!

Nikon F2. 1972 Micro-Nikkor P 55. f32 10 ' Fuji Superia X 400 (on tripod, of course) :)

2 from a 12 exposure roll of UFX 100 developed in Lmax for 6 minutes. Nikon F100, Vivitar 70-150 3.8 and B+W closeup filter.

 

 

Stay at home in effect here in the Austin area effective midnight tonight till April 13th. I'll get a letter from my workplace saying I work for a business is exempt.

Surprisingly, reverse rings can work well with many wide angle lenses as well.

 

It's worth mentioning that you get a significant amount of magnification also when using WA lenses reversed. Even a 35mm will give you a decent level of magnification. Plus, when reversed, they tend to have a flatter field, which can be useful for macro work. Calculating the magnification is not simple, but can be approximated by the formula

1/f = 1/d + 1/s where f is the focal length of the lens, d is the object distance between object and the lens, and s is the distance of the image between the lens and the sensor or film plane. An easier way to determine the exact magnification ratio is to take a picture of a ruler and then measure the image on the film plane as compared to the measurement of the ruler. For determining the magnification with a sensor, the image the sensor produces must be measured in your preferred image editing software.

 

Another popular technique -- one that is used by the famous outdoor/wildlife photographer John Shaw -- is to use two lenses, one reversed in front of another. Typically, two focal lengths are used, with the shorter mounted reversed onto the longer. It is easy to calculate the level of magnification. Divide the longer focal length by the shorter focal length. The resulting number is to magnification ratio. For example, let's say the lens mounted to the camera is 100mm, and the lens reverse-mounted onto the 100mm is 50mm. Divide 100 by 50 and you get 2. That's your magnification ratio. So as you can quickly see, the use of a wide angle reversed can provide a significant amount of magnification. Let's say we reverse mount a 24mm onto the 100mm. Now we have a magnification ratio of 4.17, which is quite a lot.

The lens attached to my XE-5 was my first true macro lens. It's a preset Rokkor. I paid ten dollars for it during mid 1980's.

Here are two setups I like:

 

EBC Fujinon Macro 5/3.5 with its matching 1:1 auto extension tube. The tube does not support open-aperture metering, however.

 

Kiev 2x converter and reversing ring. The optics are removable from the converter, allowing it to be used as an auto extension tube (Nikon mount).

 

Soligor offered a 2X converter with removable optics. Still have one for Minolta MD mount.

More about the preset Rokkor macro: The lens has a Leica screw mount and a Leica to Minolta SR adapter that is attached. The 1:1 tube is Leica mount so SR adapter has to be removed to attach extension. Interesting design.

I processed some new "at home" macro shots from yesterday and today and will scan and post soon.

Some new "at home" macro from the last two days.

ready to brew, Minolta XE-5, 100mm f 3.5 MD Rokkor macro, HP5+

wall warts, same gear

old thermostat (out of use since mid 1980's), same gear

edge of street in front of my house, XE-5 with Rokkor QE 50mm f 3.5 preset macro

\

cropped flower, same gear as previous photo

Another way to use a reversing ring is to combine it with extension tubes or bellows. I used to reverse my 28mm Minolta Celtic and put a revering ring between adapter and camera body. Almost like a low power microscope. I remember magnifying salt so much you could see the cubic crystals. Somewhere I have that image. I will have to look for it and scan it.

Another favorite macro lens: the Olympus Zuiko 50 mm f 3.5. It is similar in size to many fast 50's.

Way back when it was gasoline that was so scarce that on most days you couldn't find any, I tended to stay at home when I could, because if I ran out I would have to push my truck five miles uphill in the snow. Anyway, I got to wondering what a large format lens would look like on 35mm film, and found that my OM-2N was thin enough it could be sandwiched onto the back of a Calumet view camera. Using the Calumet as a bellows, I tried a 135mm Symmar-S, with tilt and swing to get the texture in focus. The lighting was a small flash, manually triggered. The images turned out to be considerably underexposed, though, hence the abundance of scanner noise. The lens wasn't as sharp as a Zuiko, but it made pretty tolerable 8x10 prints. Shot on Kodachrome 25.

 

Artificial, 1979.

Sand dollars. 1967 Nikon F with 55mm f3.5 Micro Nikkor; Kentmere 400 in D-76.

If you're interested in achieving almost microscope-like magnification, here's a fairly simple trick you can employ. Scrounge around for a D-mount lens, the sort that were used on the old double-8 movie cameras back in the 40s and 50s, the shorter focal length the better. For example, I have a 1/2" Wollensak that I use for this.

 

I'm gonna attach this D-mount lens to a macro lens, although it doesn't strictly have to be a macro lens. In my case, I'm using a Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 macro. It takes a 49mm lens cap. Scrounge up a spare cap that fits your lens and then drill a hole in the center of the cap that matches the diameter of your D-mount lens. In my case, it needed a 1/2" drill bit. Then reverse the lens and glue it into place on the lens cap. I used clear epoxy, but whatever is gonna work for you is fine.

 

Mount this lens and cap to the front of your lens. You're not going to focus with this small lens, you'll focus with your regular lens. Just set the D-mount lens to infinity. You might also play around a bit with the aperture on the D-mount lens. I usually just leave mine set to wide open, but if you stop it down some this might improve its performance. Focus on your subject and fire away. You're gonna find that you have to get extremely close to your subject before it will come into focus. I have some photos I can show of the results, but I can't get to them at the moment. When I can, I'll show you. But here's a brief description of the results. Using an APS-C digital, this lens's coverage completely filled the frame. Sharpness was excellent in the center of the image, but it fell off quite a bit to "acceptable" by the edges and corners. I've never calculated the magnification, but it is immense.

Here are three from a Canon T70 fitted with a 50mm Canon FD SSC f/1.8 lens and Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter. Not really macro but sort of interesting. The film was Arista EDU Ultra 200 developed in Pyrocat HD.

 

Akai

 

 

Shelf

 

 

Taken Aback

 

 

 

 

 

Not really macro, these photos were taken with an old fujica 35 SE fitted with a fujinon 1.9 / 45 whose focus goes down to 2.5 ft

 

Lichens and mosses

 

Detail of an old trunk

Nikon F 55mm 3.5 Micro Nikkor - P

 

We may have a little overlap with this thread and some of our others, but I'll post a few more macro shots from my arch8ves.

magnolia blossom, Pentax ZX-7, 50mm f 2.8 macro with Kentmere 100 (cropped)

mug, Maxxum 8000i with 50mm f 2.8, Plus-X

super close, roundworm in pond water (surrounded by algae) 50X microscope, flash fired at illumination mirror- did this in the early 80's. Probably Ektachrome.

old Ansco tank, rubber stamp, empty Kodak paper box

also from the 80's, probably used close focus range of a telephoto zoom

Some more macro at home.

not sure where this tube was used but it does contain some neon,Olympus OMG 50mm f 3.5 macro, HP5+

70's vintage board games, same gear plus Vivitar 383 flash

detail of ironing board cover, same gear

magnetic copy board, same gear