j_smith6 Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 I've seen many macro pictures on internet like this one <a href="http://photography- on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7057"> (picture of ant)</a> and I'm wondering how to take such shots. It's much more than 1:1. <br><br>I have Canon USM 100 macro lens and am wondering what else can I do to have bigger magnification. Reverse lens, extension tube? What gives best results with high magnifaction like this ant on picture + fast aperture + not too much equipment? Regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beauh44 Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Hi Michael, Well he mentions he used a reversed Pentax 50mm lens but it looks to me as though you could get the same results with your 100mm Macro. You could put an extension tube on it too I suppose but you'll be able to tell what the ant had for supper! Basically, it's just good technique: Tripod, good lighting, mirror-lock, remote shutter release and a bit of good timing and luck. You might try using flash so you can light the subject well enough to stop down your lens to get adequate DOF. Canon sells a flash system especially designed for its macro lenses (it'll work well with your 100mm Macro) but they aren't cheap. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted December 19, 2006 Author Share Posted December 19, 2006 Thank you for your reply! You mean getting the same results without reversing lens? Maybe, but ant would have to be pretty big :) At 1:1 ants are still "dots" in viewfinder, I think I'll go to a camera shop and try reversing lens or mounting extension tube/s. I'll check which option gives better effects. Probably reversing... but I still would like to hear some opinions about using it. Thank you, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars c Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 I think using the Canon MP-65 1-5x macro lens, will give a beter result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_fromm2 Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Well, you're going to have to learn how to use flash closeup. The example you posted is an obvious flash shot. If you want to stick with Canon lenses, the 65/2.8 MP-E is designed to be used at magnifications from 1:1 to 5:1 and has a very good reputation. Otherwise, educate yourself about macro lenses made for working above 1:1. Just adding extension to get the magnification is a bad idea; lenses made for use below 1:1 should be reversed when working above 1:1. Lester Lefkowitz has a good discussion of getting the magnification in his book The Manual of Closeup Photography. So does A. A. Blaker in his book Field Photography. Get a copy of each. You're also going to have to learn how to manage ants. They're usually fairly fast-moving. At the magnification needed to fill the frame with one most people are too unsteady to frame and focus well enough shooting hand-held. You may be an exception, if not you'll have to slow your ant down ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendel_leisk Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Here's a review of the above mentioned Canon MP-65: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-MP-E-65mm-1-5x-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopoldstotch Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Yes, reversing a $10 50mm Manual focus lens will give you about 2.5x magnification. If you look at the three pictures on my profile, those were taken using that method. just be aware that doing this has a soft focus effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 [[Taken with a G1 with a pentax 50mm 1.4 attached in the reverse position. It is one of my favorites of my bug pictures.]] Mounting a reversed 50mm lens in front of a Canon G-series or A-series is relatively easy and can prove to be a fantastic solution for macro photography. The photographer of the ant image, Mark Plonksly, offers articles on his website regarding different techniques: http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 [[just be aware that doing this has a soft focus effect.]] AFAIK, a reversed 50mm lens will not give you a soft-focus effect (unless there's something wrong with your lens I suppose). But you may think it is due to the amazingly shallow depth of field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopoldstotch Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Yes, that is why it appears to have a soft focus effect. Sorry, I forgot to mention that...thanks for the heads up. But to get a deeper depth of field it will have to be stopped down too much (around f12-16), which will require a long exposure...and since as far as I know, there is no way to mount it (without a bellow, at least), it will have to be held up to the camera, which makes up for some shaky business. Ideally, you need a shutter speed of about 1/4s on a tripod to get a decent image with this message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 [[and since as far as I know, there is no way to mount it (without a bellow, at least), it will have to be held up to the camera, which makes up for some shaky business]] It depends on the camera. My A80 has a lens adapter from http://lensmateonline.com and to that I screw on a 52mm reversal ring. My 50mm lens screws right on to the reversal ring. The whole setup is very stable, but I still only shoot from a tripod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknagel Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Its a cropped photo. Most macro shots posted are cropped (some more than others) You can't tell from a picture if its 1:1 or greater without looking at the original. Can you tell what magnification this shot is? I did this as a quick test shot the day I got my MT-24 flash (I didn't spend time getting the focus or DOF tweeked). Nothing fancy, just tripod, and fly. Looks big, but its not 1:1. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, but I was at least double the min focus distance. Mark<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknagel Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Oops, it was taken with a 20D, 100mm Macro and MT-24 flash. BTW, this crop is down sized, the original is larger. So you lens is very adequate. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_chappell Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 As others have said, for macro work in the 1X - 5X range, it's hard to beat the MP-E 65, plus a good macro light (ringlight or twinlight). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars c Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Dead or alive?, the fly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknagel Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Alive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stock-Photos Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Here is what you are looking for, by the macro man himself: http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=188714 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_myers Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Hi, To slow those little critters down, either schedule their photo session early on a cool morning before they've had their Starbucks, or put them in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes or half an hour. They'll be pretty slow moving for a few minutes until they warm up. You may have some trouble getting a reversed lens to work on Canon EF mount (i.e., there is no way to stop down the lens' aperture, without some sort of electronic communication). It might be easier with some other manual-aperture lens. A macro bellows is another way to make high magnification shots. That's also a bit trickier today with the electronic lens-to-camera communication going on. However, I seem to recall someone like Novoflex makes a bellows that works with the Canon EF mount. A bellows is really nothing more than an extra long, adjustable extension tube. So, similar results can be had by stacking and combining two or three tubes together. It's just not as adjustable and takes a little more fiddling. Too many tubes can really slow down or disrtupt lens functions, though, due to all the extra electronic contacts being needed. I'm not aware of one for Canon EF mount, but in some camera systems there were Helicoids available, too. These are also extension tubes, but have some variable range of length that allows adjustment of magnification. The range is generally not nearly as much as is possible with bellows. Other things that can be done include stacking a reversed lens in front of a normally mounted lens. The supplemental lens essentially acts like a diopter, while the normally mounted lens controls the aperture. Of course, you can also get a magnifying diopter (Canon's 250D and 500D for example) that screws into the front of a normally mounted lens just like a filter. There's no reason it won't work on a macro lens, to increase that lenses magnification. However, generally I've found some loss of image quality with most close-up diopters, ranging from a lot with the cheap ones to moderate with the better ones. Yes, probably the easiest and best way to get those high large magnifications would be the Canon EF 65 Macro lens! Once you have the equipment in hand, then you'll just have to learn techniques that will work. Little subjects can be elusive and hard to track, DOF is incredibly shallow, focusing is usually better done by movement of the entire camera rather than relying on AF, and macro flash and/or reflectors can be very helpful. Great fun, though! :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron_muderick Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 Extreme macro is the art of compromise. The greater your magnification, the more shallow your depth of field. The smaller your aperture for increased depth of field, the more you need artificial light. Stop it down it too much and you lose sharpness due to diffraction. While the Canon 1x-5x lens is great, I prefer a little more flexibility in my setup. Flexibility requires more pieces but it allows me to use the right job for the right task. Maybe I'm nuts but here is my setup: Rebel XT Canon Twin Macro flash (this is the most important piece of the entire setup. Without proper lighting you'll miss 90% of your shots. Canon 100mm Macro lens (can be used for normal tele-shots as well as macro) 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm of extension tubes (stackable for up to 58mm) 2x teleconverter (for increased working distance from skittish subjects) 35mm lens, reversed on the 100mm lens monopod (absolutely necessary with the reversed lens to keep the subject in frame) polarizing filter and polarizing film to cover flash and reduce glare and reflections 420EX off camera flash to provide back fill lighting on subject backgrounds With the monopod it is possible to imitate a focusing rail well enough so that multiple shots can be recorded at slightly different focus points and then post-processed in stacking software to obtain artificially deep depth of field. That said, I try to embrace the DoF limitations and work them into my composition. What do I like about macro? So many variables to master. I figure in about 10 years I'll have it down pat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ulrich_ploedereder Posted December 20, 2006 Share Posted December 20, 2006 Hi! Have a look at the "Novoflex Reverse Adapter for Canon EOS" in combination with a standard zoom lens like 28-105 or 28-135. Magnification up to approximately 3x (at 28mm) with full coupling of diaphragm and metering. Uli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted December 20, 2006 Author Share Posted December 20, 2006 Wow! Thank you! I love this forum - always so many great replies. I think I won't buy Canon MP-E 65 mm f/2.8 1-5x because I wouldn't use it too often. It can focus from 1:1 to 5:1, I if were a pro macro photographer I would buy it :) First of all I'll read books which you mentioned and then go shopping :) I've seen some Canon EF reversing lens adapters which allows you to reverse lens without losing aperture control. Mark Nagel - I could crop images but to larger prints it's not so usefull because they're not big enough after cropping, besides I still shoot film. Great picture of fly - still can't imagine that it was taken with 1:1 lens. I think that most important thing now is to have something that gives strong flash light to have big DOF. I'll try using 540 EZ on manual mode and see what effects it gives. I don't have any macro flash so 540 EZ is what I can use now. According to presentation which I was linked to there's written there that reversing lenses gives best effects, so I would like to try it first. I know that taking sharp close-ups with big DOF is really hard and I need more light for it, so I'll try taking some pictures with reversing adapter first and 540 EZ (I have book about flash photography where you can find description how to take macro pictures with "normal flash"). Pictures in here http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=188714 and here http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/ are really awesome, how did you take the one which is on main site? Thank you for your great replies! Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormegil Posted December 20, 2006 Share Posted December 20, 2006 <p>Could have also been a really big ant. </p> <p> I took a shot of a huge Dragonfly with 70-200 4L, and lots of people thought it was a macro.</p> <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/23/31600018_45dc261d98.jpg" width="399" height="500" alt="IMG_1208 - Red Dragon 2" /></a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted December 20, 2006 Author Share Posted December 20, 2006 What do you think about taking macro pictures with something like that? :) it's not in english so just see the pictures http://www.stopa.cso.pl/technika/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted December 20, 2006 Author Share Posted December 20, 2006 Oh, sorry - the link is not working correctly - click on "-stare sprzeta" in menu [left side of site] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted December 20, 2006 Author Share Posted December 20, 2006 I found it on one website [link is above] - pretty good idea :)<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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