I reckon that's how many shots I must have taken before I got a 'keeper'.
I see John R is getting a long macro. I hope you realise that when you get it the wind will blow non-stop for months, John.
So busy lately, sorry for not commenting more, everyone.
C&C welcome Eric
Nice picture. Sharp and nice colours. I tried to get some hoover flies photographed but it is also to windy over here to do that. No sharp pictures.
Posted by Andy Astbury on July 10, 2008 at 3:57 AM
Well Eric, it's like I've told you before, that's why God gave us digital - with the present weather I'm shooting between 500 and 1000 frames a session just to get a handful of usable images - can you imagine the depth of pocket you'd need using film
Always nice to see a damsy
Always the hardest PoV to execute with the subject sloping towards and away from the sensor plane, easier to do from a side-on PoV.
What you needed to do here was get slightly higher with the cam tipped down a bit more, that way the sensor plane would be more parallel to the damsel - it's all about angles matey.
At f11 (you didn't say what your techs were) with a 180mm at say 60cms subject distance you'll only get around 3.8mm of DoF on a Nikon and 3.5mm on a Canon 1.6 crop body, and with a 150mm lens those figures will be around 5.8mm and 5.4mm respectively.
From the PoV you had here the linear distance (distance along the lens axis) from the tip of his abdomen to the surface of the flag leaf he/she's perched on is, erm, well, a damn sight more than 4 to 6mm - even f3 billion wouldn't pull the subject into full focus
Getting parallel would have put more of the subject inside the lenses DoF 'box' so to speak - when I've finished with you on the 6th August you'll be visualising DoF boxes in your sleep matey
Back to the image, great exposure, accurate colour - bit soft around the head but that's just compression - tad of USM at 30, 0.3, 0 would sort that out
Doubtless some detail freak is going to try and argue the figures, but they are about correct - I think my DoF calc is being played with by the last of the White-faced Darters, I've had to use an on-line one
yep nice image and colour, nits already covered. i must admit i too am fed up with the wind, it hasnt stopped for ages. !! its been fun watching some of the reed bed based birds holding on for dear life down at the pool near me.
Mark
Posted by Matt Doggett on July 10, 2008 at 6:07 AM
Even though the tip of the tail is oof it looks nice to me
Posted by eric weight on July 10, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Thanks for the comments, and apologies for missing off the techs - I was late for work! They were as follows:
400D, sig 180 macro
f/11; 1/100; iso 100
flash, 580 exII with loads of tissue and stuff over the front to try and disguise its use.
I spent ages trying to get the whole thing in focus by getting it on the same plane, but to be honest I was just lucky to get this much in focus because the wind just wouldn't give up. It was interesting to see the way that these damsels would move up and down the stems as the sun came and went, that didn't help much either. Anybody got any recommendations for an easily adjustable tripod for macro, my Gitzo is fine for static work, but a pain when you need to change position quickly and carefully. Eric
Posted by Paul Inglis on July 10, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Hi Eric,
It looks good to me! I've yet to get a decent postable image from either of my macro lenses, so as far as I'm concerned this is an excellent effort! I've not had a day less than 12mph in the last month!
Discussion
8 repliesI see John R is getting a long macro. I hope you realise that when you get it the wind will blow non-stop for months, John.
So busy lately, sorry for not commenting more, everyone.
C&C welcome
Matt
Always nice to see a damsy
Always the hardest PoV to execute with the subject sloping towards and away from the sensor plane, easier to do from a side-on PoV.
What you needed to do here was get slightly higher with the cam tipped down a bit more, that way the sensor plane would be more parallel to the damsel - it's all about angles matey.
At f11 (you didn't say what your techs were) with a 180mm at say 60cms subject distance you'll only get around 3.8mm of DoF on a Nikon and 3.5mm on a Canon 1.6 crop body, and with a 150mm lens those figures will be around 5.8mm and 5.4mm respectively.
From the PoV you had here the linear distance (distance along the lens axis) from the tip of his abdomen to the surface of the flag leaf he/she's perched on is, erm, well, a damn sight more than 4 to 6mm - even f3 billion wouldn't pull the subject into full focus
Getting parallel would have put more of the subject inside the lenses DoF 'box' so to speak - when I've finished with you on the 6th August you'll be visualising DoF boxes in your sleep matey
Back to the image, great exposure, accurate colour - bit soft around the head but that's just compression - tad of USM at 30, 0.3, 0 would sort that out
Doubtless some detail freak is going to try and argue the figures, but they are about correct - I think my DoF calc is being played with by the last of the White-faced Darters, I've had to use an on-line one
Mark
400D, sig 180 macro
f/11; 1/100; iso 100
flash, 580 exII with loads of tissue and stuff over the front to try and disguise its use.
I spent ages trying to get the whole thing in focus by getting it on the same plane, but to be honest I was just lucky to get this much in focus because the wind just wouldn't give up. It was interesting to see the way that these damsels would move up and down the stems as the sun came and went, that didn't help much either. Anybody got any recommendations for an easily adjustable tripod for macro, my Gitzo is fine for static work, but a pain when you need to change position quickly and carefully.
It looks good to me! I've yet to get a decent postable image from either of my macro lenses, so as far as I'm concerned this is an excellent effort! I've not had a day less than 12mph in the last month!