Real Life Photography/Photo Editing II - NO IMAGES >100kb

[vilas 473]

i made some of them +2EV because of "dark object in sky"

and last was set +3EV as i remember, but yes, i will improve it

L is best, shame it cost so much (i only buy second-hand , but even 5 y.o. L will work next 10 years, people sell it to buy fixed 400 mm 5.6 or 70-300L or 70-200 2.8 )

100 Macro ? what for, makro ring, ring is better than any macro lens or buy second-hand and it will be working for years (if someone want to sell such lens)

[Derbysieger 11]

I like to take macro shots and that 70-300mm isn't a macro lens. You can do some fake macros, sure, but it's not the real thing. Macro ring is an option but I'm looking for a dedicated macro lens. And as soon as I find a second-hand 100m L I'll buy it. If I have the money that is. Otherwise I will buy a new one as soon as I have enough money. The great thing about good lenses is that you can use them your whole life.

I'm having my bike repaired this month and then I'll be making some tours in my region. With my camera of course :)

[vilas 473]

macro ring will give You better magnification than lens itself as i know

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xfSW6qb-8UA/TLdJbEhhBCI/AAAAAAAABc8/I8NdcF4lpqU/s640/IMG_1106.jpg

+

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-asgaZSodb9c/TMx2jLA2N4I/AAAAAAAABc8/j9j6krFImfI/s640/IMG_4037.JPG

usual 70-300 (not L) + macro ring for 60 PLN (15 Euro) + cheapest Nissin (photo taken ca. 70-80 cm from object)

only problem is flat D.O.F. but you know it

"macro" on lens only gives you possibility to make picture from low distance (sometimes it is pure nonsense, cause flash cannot light it up)

macro lens gives you possibility to make picture from meter away (+tele 100-200 mm) and use flash (which means also short time freezing when it works on 1/8 or 1/16 of power)

if you have money:

macro lens + macro ring + macro ring flash = extra magnification from distance 20 cm ;)

but in my opinion macro ring and flash you have (onboard or external) will be enough for most of macro (unless you do not want make an eye of fly)

Edited June 20, 2011 by vilas

[Derbysieger 11]

That doesn't sound bad. I will look into it. Thank you ;) But I will still buy that macro as soon as I can. f/2.8 can be very usefull if you don't want to use a flash (I know that focusing is a bitch at 2.8, I tried it before in a shop with varying results xD)

€:

(unless you do not want make an eye of fly)

that's exactly what I want to do ;)

Atm I have:

EF-S 17-85mm f/4.0-5.6 :rolleyes: It's ok but nothing serious

EF 50mm f/1.8 great lens for only 65€ (bought it second-hand)

EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 It serves it's purpose.

Speedlite 430EX II + 8xEneloop batteries

Tripod

Rucksack

Edited June 20, 2011 by Derbysieger

[vilas 473]

f 2.8

and macro ?

how flat d.o.f. will you have ? a ? 0.5 mm ? what you will take than ? "one eye of fly sharp and another eye blured" ?

low f is good - when you make portrait with blured backside

but in macro you always suffer from "not enough deep D.O.F

i always use f 11, 16 or 22 to have "deeper deep of field" cause

you wanna make fly with blurred legs ?

or you want whole specie to be sharp ?

in this case f 2.8 will never be used (moreover , you will work on f /11 or 16)

IS will be more important in such case , without IS and strong impulse of flash you want succeed

use both macro lens, macro ring

than try to have light (macro flash ring)

f/2.8 will never help you in macro

Edited June 20, 2011 by vilas

[Derbysieger 11]

Thnx for your input I'm just getting into macro-photography. I really appreciate this ;)

I'll start with a macro-ring and then see how I get along. Ican afford that right now :)

Edited June 20, 2011 by Derbysieger

[vilas 473]

please buy those rings, it is cheap, ca. 15 EU, really you will see how much you can do with them even not buying new lens :)

but buy those which has metal wire to communicate with aperture mechanism

full plastic will not communicate and aperture won't work

AF will not work of course, but in Macro hardly noone use AF

and you will see how good is such simple plastic ring between body and lens and how much you can do using this (mostly in complet there is 13, 21, 33 mm, for me i would like to have one 10 cm ring, to make "eye of fly" ;)

so i probably will buy second kit of rings (i have never seen one single long ring)

and i don't know if without external flash you willl succeed (time of exposure, moving insect... problematic, better to have strong 40-50 EV flash which on 1/16 power has flash time ca. 1/10 000 s while camera is set to 1/250)

Nissin 622 is cheapest from 40 EV flashes, and i did this water drop following way:

- all macro rings (6 cm)

- 70-300 lens set at ca. 150-200

- ca. 80 cm from drop

- flash set at 1/16 or 1/8 power

- camera on Manual mode , 1/250s, f/11 (higher ISO as i remember) all is in EXIF

Edited June 20, 2011 by vilas

[Derbysieger 11]

Done :) Thx again. Always nice to have a more experienced person to talk to.

€: Ok one more question: 58mm for use with 70-300mm, right?

nvm got it ;)

Edited June 20, 2011 by Derbysieger

[vilas 473]

i meant ring between body and lens :

http://dont.blink.ph/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/extension-tube-macro-ring-eos-canon.jpg

oo i find, in english they call it Extention Tube

sory, my fault, "extention tube"

[Derbysieger 11]

That's what I ordered ;)

[Flock 10]

Yep extension tubes are great, provided the lens you use with it is decent.

However, you also have to get a lot closer than with a dedi macro lens so it can be a lot harder to shoot insects.

Kenko extension tubes are suppose to be good value for money.

Btw if you have a decent tripod, focus stacking (or focus merging) at about f8-f11 will get you much cleaner results than shooting at f22; I think as whole it's best to avoid above f13 (f11 on crop body) whenever you can because of defraction.

You can focus stack in cs4 or later or there are some dedicated programs for free. I recommend PTGui if you have the $.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Flock

[vilas 473]

i know about diffraction in high f, but from other side - what else can you do to have better d.o.f. than 1mm ? you are between hammer and the anvil

diffraction or blur , what is less worse choice ? ;)

i know - strong tripod and few shots at different focus put together (bracketing of focus) but it is too much work ;)

but on better lens, you have lower diffraction result

i compared both 70-300 IS USM and 100-400L ("the pump") with extention tube

results are different, L quality is L quality ;) now my main macro is : extention tube + L

Edited June 21, 2011 by vilas

[Flock 10]

i know about diffraction in high f, but from other side - what else can you do to have better d.o.f. than 1mm ? you are between hammer and the anvil

diffraction or blur , what is less worse choice ? ;)

i know - strong tripod and few shots at different focus put together (bracketing of focus) but it is too much work ;)

Umm mate, i never said you didn't know, i was just adding my opinion to try and help Derbysieger.

[vilas 473]

but i meant that it is problem in macrophotography

to have lower quality image (diffraction because of high aperture)

or to have blur and very thin d.o.f.

we have to choose "which one is less worse"

and with better lens i observe lower quality downgrade with extention tube

[Flock 10]

but i meant that it is problem in macrophotography

to have lower quality image (diffraction because of high aperture)

or to have blur and very thin d.o.f.

we have to choose "which one is less worse"

and with better lens i observe lower quality downgrade with extention tube

That's why i suggested to Derbysieger to look into focus stacking, you don't need to choose... it takes no more time than blending exposures or Hdr and lets you shoot at optimum aperture. Personally i would think you might get better results focus stacking properly (5.6-f8) with the cheapo 70-300 non IS than at f22 with 1-400.

It's the same with a lot of things in photography. You can spend $$$$ or take a little more time and do it in post for the same result, e.g tilt shift lenses==focus stacking, Grad Neutral density filters== exposure blending (not butchered hdr) etc

As far as i remember, sensor size and how much a lens can resolve have the greatest effect on diffraction, so your findings seem to sound right. One limits the other though.

The below example shows the effect on a medium format camera, which has a "sensor" many times the size of the 7d's.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-diffraction.shtml

Anyway, i think focus stacking is worth the effort.

[vilas 473]

i don't know those English terms

do you mean bracketing of focus ? making few photos with different focus field and than putting them together into one ? (tripod, but possible only with static objects, not insects)

what you meant by "stacking" aperture ?

maybe we talk about the same but using different words (English language)

cause i think when it comes to insects such bracketing of focus won't work , they move , when you do tiniest electronic device or jevel it will work for sure

regarding tilt-shift (except software fixing) i have method:

use wide lens (10 mm)

aim in center/horizon

than cut bottom from photo , leave top

you will have T-S E simulator and straight tall building ;)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jDsybT3AYHs/Tf0XTzCVsbI/AAAAAAAABkY/bkqHuyxAt-A/s512/IMG_0491.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vSz_EADIoWg/TfuvGgDFcyI/AAAAAAAABho/VxbSlx-jJM8/s512/IMG_0976.JPG

Edited June 21, 2011 by vilas

[Flock 10]

Yes thats very true with insects but if you can get close enough to use extension tubes with a tripod, i would say your chances of focus stitching are high (obviously with insects that aren't in flight, in which case the challenge is often just to catch the correct focus in the first place).

When i was referring to tilt shift i was meaning the extended plane of focus you can get with them, not fixing distortion/pincushioning which has dedicated plugin in most image editing programs for repairing.

[vilas 473]

i must test something for extreme magnification:

lens + extention tube + macro lens on front (macro filter)

i wonder what will be image quality if i will add macro lens (front ) on lens extened by tube :D

i wonder if i can catch head of mosquito, anyone tried ? or imagequality will be horrible ?

[vilas 473]

@Derbysieger and how is your extention tube ? :D

now something positive (not politics)

all should be less than 100kb :] praying to Canon "pump"

[Macadam Cow 1]

beautiful pics vilas :)

Belgian coast...again :

[vilas 473]

squeeeeeeee rel

[norrin 9]

A Winter's Afternoon, Nagambie, Central Victoria, Australia

Most interesting thing about this pic is that this is the first time in 10 years that there's been any water in this dam, normally its a great big hole in the ground.

[-martin- 10]

Here are some photos that I made in 2007 in an army museum in the Czech Republic. Well it's not one of those proper museums where you can't even take a photo, this is a bunch of old Eastern and Western army stuff, airplanes, tanks, canons, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and even a statue of Stalin on a field owned by some man, the entrance costs about 50 Crowns as I remember and you can hold a Russian PPSH there, buy some paper models and sit in most of the vehicles including the Mig-17 and go inside a bomber airplane, you can also try out a replica of a Soviet uniform that Stalin wore.

It’s not very big and worth visiting if you have to travel across Europe but it’s something definetly worth visiting if you’re ever in Plzeň or around the city, the museum is located in the village of ZruÄ about 2 - 5km from Plzeň, here is the address:

180

330 08 ZruÄ-Senec, Czech Republic

Google maps coords: 49.808721,13.414963

Edited July 31, 2011 by -Martin-

[-martin- 10]

Thanks to www.ShareImage.org for free image hosting!

Edited July 31, 2011 by -Martin-

[Daniel 0]

Edited October 17, 2011 by Daniel