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Wouldn't be worried about it being manual, I'm always on manual with the mt-24ex if I'm at more than 1:1 The Hunter by Raikyn, on Flickr  spider vs mosquito by Raikyn, on Flickr Raikyn fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 13:15
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Nice! Here is a jumping spider with a chewed leg   (reversed 28 on extension tubes)
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Apr 15, 2015 09:40
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Yeah once you start taking photos I find there are 2 things that seem to missing legs/or feet. Jumping spiders and seagulls
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Apr 15, 2015 11:32
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Raikyn posted:
Yes thats true about seagulls. I think they have a detachable lizard tail thing going on or something.
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Apr 15, 2015 20:55
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I set up a reef tank earlier this year, and am having fun learning how to shoot corals. Thinking about picking up some filters so I can capture fluorescence. wellsophyllia by meramsey, on Flickr  acan lord by meramsey, on Flickr
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Apr 24, 2015 18:27
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Is there a way to stack and avoid the distortion I'm getting around the legs? I'm using Helicon to stack.
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Apr 25, 2015 23:04
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InternetJunky posted:Is there a way to stack and avoid the distortion I'm getting around the legs? I'm using Helicon to stack. I use Zerene Stacker myself, which has a mode called 'PMax' that uses a pyramidal method - basically it breaks the images into progressively finer spatial frequencies and uses regions with the highest contrast. It introduces a different set of artifacts, but is dramatically better at hairs and other complex areas. Helicon Focus has something similar, but it's called Mode C - you'll still see reduced contrast around the legs, but it should be a lot less offensive. One drawback of the pyramid approach is that it also changes the overall tonal balance of the image somewhat - so you may find that it can be good to combine the same stack made with two different methods in places. Dia de Pikachutos fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Apr 26, 2015 |
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Apr 26, 2015 08:41
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 whitetail spider by Raikyn, on Flickr  mantis by Raikyn, on Flick
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Apr 26, 2015 09:53
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spongepuppy posted:I use Zerene Stacker myself, which has a mode called 'PMax' that uses a pyramidal method - basically it breaks the images into progressively finer spatial frequencies and uses regions with the highest contrast. It introduces a different set of artifacts, but is dramatically better at hairs and other complex areas. Different pose:  Another stacking question... Are these star trails in the shot just the same piece of dirt/dust taken from each shot? I can eliminate them by adjusting the smoothing, but maybe I should just remove them from each shot separately before stacking instead. It's more work but the details on the subject will be retained better. 
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Apr 27, 2015 16:14
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InternetJunky posted:Thanks. I played around with the settings and managed to reduce the distortion around the legs, although now I'm getting a haze effect around where anything in the foreground covers over the background. You lose contrast because the in-focus regions will always be partially occluded by out-of-focus features in front of them. I ran an old stack through to test that - here's a 1:1 crop after stacking with DMap on the left and PMax on the right (so I guess Helicon A and Helicon C). The colours are not brilliant, but you can see the detail loss on the background parts - you can see how you're trading one hell for another:  InternetJunky posted:Are these star trails in the shot just the same piece of dirt/dust taken from each shot? I can eliminate them by adjusting the smoothing, but maybe I should just remove them from each shot separately before stacking instead. It's more work but the details on the subject will be retained better. Yep - they move around because the stacking software is scaling each image to align with the previous one, so you can get some pretty interesting "warp speed" effects. Spotting the images as a batch in ACR can save you a lot of pain and suffering before the stack, since sensor dust will generally stay in the same place during a stack.
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Apr 28, 2015 10:33
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I bought a butterfly net yesterday and went out hiking with a backpack full of containers. As a result, I have a fridge full of bugs at the moment. I've processed a few more and cleaned up my fly shot:     
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Apr 29, 2015 18:48
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I saw an insect today. Nikon D7000 with '90s battleship 75-300mm Nikkor, not cropped. I missed the focus a bit, the near wings being sharp and the eye blurred, but I'm happy I got the shot at all of a dragonfly flitting about five feet away.
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Apr 30, 2015 05:17
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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I shot a couple of deep stacks of a moth over the weekend. This was 259 images at 5:1 with an MP-E 65. Two flashes, similar to previous setup pictures I've posted. It didn't need to be 259 images though. I mistakenly left my stackshot set at 15 um steps, which is what I use for 10:1, then I left to deal with my 2 year old and came back to a big pile of images.  The second was my first stack using a Nikon 10x Plan Achromat Infinity Objective (MRL00102). This is an upgrade from my older (cheaper) Nikon 10x BE Plan objective. The new one is definitely a lot more sharp for this kind of photography. This was 130 images.  I also adjusted normally shoot big stacks in jpeg, but I also messed up and shot these in raw. About 8 gb of images for these two stacks. So unlike my normal workflow I adjusted white balance, raised shadows a bit, and removed dust spots from all of the raws in lightroom before exporting as high quality jpegs (no sharpening) before stacking. I really like how they turned out in terms of just technical quality.
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May 5, 2015 15:57
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Graniteman posted:I shot a couple of deep stacks of a moth over the weekend. I need to try stacking more pictures. I usually stick to 50 but I don't get results even close to yours. The only problem I find is that even with a 3 second pause between shots my flash can't cycle fast enough near the end of a big stack and 1/3 of my shots come out black. Do you use a battery pack?
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May 5, 2015 19:21
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InternetJunky posted:Incredible! You may be doing something funny then. If you are focus stacking the idea is to shoot with a wide aperture so that you avoid diffraction effects. Remember that for diffraction, the effective f-stop is the actual lens f-stop multiplies by the magnification. So I shoot my MP-E at /2.8 and 5:1, which gives diffraction equal to f/16. However you still get light-gathering (for the flash) equal to f/2.8. The short of it is that I run my flash at 1/64 or 1/32 power and it's plenty for these shots. The flash recycles really fast, and on Sunday I shot 700 images on a single set of (beefy 2000 mAh) AA batteries. Choosing the right aperture for this kind of focus stacking is actually really complicated. You have to factor in the size of the sensor pixel elements. You want the narrowest aperture before you become diffraction limited, so that you end up with the fewest number of frames. I'm shooting on a full frame camera, so I've worked out that for my sensor, with this lens, I have a table of step sizes and apertures that give the best results. For the microscope objectives I have (mostly) figured out the best step size for their fixed aperture (N.A.). It's really complicated. There are papers publishes on how to calculate the depth of field for these scenarios. The typical formula used for regular photography isn't accurate at very short distances and high magnification. If your flash takes 3 seconds to recycle you are maybe running at too narrow an aperture. That will mean you have huge diffraction losses, making your image blurry. I shoot f/16 or f/11 if I'm hand-holding and just plan to end up with a single image, but for focus stacking I go wider.
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May 5, 2015 22:19
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InternetJunky posted:Incredible! I've never needed more than 1/16 power on a couple of YN-560s with microscope objectives - and they eat a lot of light. As Graniteman points out, you'll want to be using the widest aperture you can get away with - usually 1 down from wide open with most f2.8-ish lenses in my experience.
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May 6, 2015 10:27
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Got bored at work and tried out some macro for the first time with a MP-E 65 we had sitting on the shelf and an old dried out mosquito I found on the windowsill. Tried focus stacking about 5 images in photoshop. Pretty lackluster compared to most of this thread but I had fun. Looking forward to some downtime at work again. Full size
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May 8, 2015 04:44
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I really, really like this shot. Well done.
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May 8, 2015 05:13
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drat, you folks do some amazing stuff here. I'm humbled! Hopefully, my own submissions here won't embarrass me too much... image by Irene Sanders, on Flickr image by Irene Sanders, on Flickr
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May 9, 2015 01:54
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This is great!
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May 9, 2015 07:20
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I've had the Canon 100mm for a couple years but just now am actually leaning how to use it better. I built a (Diet) Coke can diffuser and played around yesterday. It was windy outside, so most of my plant shots missed, but my green tree python was happy to pose.  100mm test shot with Coke Can Diffuser and 270EX by HungryMedusa, on Flickr Tikka tail scales by HungryMedusa, on Flickr Tikka May 2015 5 by HungryMedusa, on Flickr
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May 14, 2015 18:19
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^Loving the colours there!  I think this is a type of moth's caterpillar? Either way, it looks delicious.
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May 17, 2015 03:15
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For those of you with a stackshot/dedicated macro set up, what are you using for a platform to set the subject on? I was thinking a PVC pipe cut at an angle, and then wood/fiberglass to use as a platform. This way you can get either just a specific part in focus, or the entire thing due to the angle. I tried to google, but I must be phrasing it wrongly or i'm having a constant brainfart in choosing the right words to describe what I'm looking for.
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May 17, 2015 14:02
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FlashBewin posted:For those of you with a stackshot/dedicated macro set up, what are you using for a platform to set the subject on? I built a horizontal platform out of some shelving. I've got a cheap x-y stage mounted to the board, and the stackshot on top of that.  I then have a second x-y stage on the vertial board to attach the subject to. I've since replaced the specimen holder with some flexible arms, and different lighting, but the platform is the same. I keep thinking about replacing the platform with a vertical setup like this one. It's hard to position very small subjects (1-2 mm) with my current setup, but with a vertical setup I could just set them on a piece of paper.
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May 17, 2015 16:04
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Tried out some focus stacking on a Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle. And because the fuckers are everywhere, a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.   
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May 18, 2015 16:57
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May 23, 2015 20:35
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May 24, 2015 07:23
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Jun 5, 2015 15:37
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That is a kickass picture of a kickass critter. Crossbones pose and everything. Gotta close down that aperture though, the eye is way out of the dof.
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Jun 5, 2015 20:12
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seravid posted:That is a kickass picture of a kickass critter. Crossbones pose and everything. Yeah, unfortunately didn't have flash on me. Also picked the photo where antennae was sharpest since it's so funny looking. Cockchafer, horrible pest 
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Jun 6, 2015 07:49
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I've been testing some new household materials as waveplates in my microscope. These would probably make great power ties, if nothing else. MgSO4 (Epsom Salts) in Polarized Light  MgSO4 (Epsom Salts) in Polarized Light  MgSO4 (Epsom Salts) in Polarized Light
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Jun 6, 2015 13:33
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Just picked up a Canon 180mm macro and tried it out on my way home from the camera store. 5B4A6323 by Jason the Hutt, on Flickr 5B4A6317 by Jason the Hutt, on Flickr 5B4A6386 by Jason the Hutt, on FlickrComing from a bird photography background, I had NO IDEA macro photography was so difficult.  This is the first camera lens that's ever made me feel totally confused on the technical side of how to use it well. I guess my next step is to rig up a yogurt cup diffuser for my flash.
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Jun 6, 2015 18:02
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Was playing around with my Macro Stuff the other night My Little Housemate by Shrieking Muppet, on Flickr  Helping Hand by Shrieking Muppet, on Flickr
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Jun 13, 2015 15:31
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Still learning how to do macro. Here's a cricket (it's on a book forwarded by E. O. Wilson - I was hoping it would pause near the name, but no such luck). Green bush cricket by Jason the Hutt, on Flickr
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Jun 29, 2015 04:37
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Went camping at Mount Madonna state park (redwood forest). Neat bugs there! It's too warm around my house to catch them sleeping like this in the morning, so I was happy to have some new opportunities. Sleeping wasp  Snakefly
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Jun 29, 2015 05:21
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This is awesome! What's your lighting setup like?
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Jun 30, 2015 02:11
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Bubbacub posted:This is awesome! What's your lighting setup like? Thanks! This shot was using a canon MT-24ex twin flash with diffusers from a guy on ebay. I think they're the best commercial diffusers for the MT-24. You can do better if you rig stuff up yourself, but in my experience this commercial solution is more sturdy and portable than what I've rigged up in the past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq0hDgj8mXw
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Jun 30, 2015 21:50
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Starting my annual photo-a-day for July and had to dig out my Tamron 90mm with SB-600 and RayFlash combo to get a photo of an allium in the back garden as it's been the hottest day of the year (and the last six years) here in the UK.
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Jul 1, 2015 22:24
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I've had some extension tubes for a while but hadn't used them much. I recently purchased a new body and have been playing around with everything and took a bunch of macro shots seeing what lens combo worked best with the tubes. The 50mm 1.8 got the closest and easiest to use, but only stopped down to F16. The 70-200 wasnt as close at 70mm but can stop to F32, but was more awkward. Here are a few test shots. DSC_0918 by Ian McEachern, on Flickr DSC_0887 by Ian McEachern, on Flickr DSC_0709 by Ian McEachern, on Flickr DSC_0923 by Ian McEachern, on Flickr
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Jul 2, 2015 07:16
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Is it a moose?
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Jul 4, 2015 02:02
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