Macro togs in here!

James J

James J

James J

Soldato
Joined
4 Dec 2002
Posts
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Location
North Lincolnshire
I was wondering who else likes to dabble in macro photography and to share tips and reviews of gear to try and help people approaching this area. I view macro shots and general close ups as probably my favourite style and type of photography and I intend on taking this further if the funds allow in the next year or so!

I have the following gear:

Canon 5D mk ii camera with a Sigma 150mm F2.8 EX DG APO macro lens (true macro 1:1)

I use a manfrotto tripod with a ball head but don't (yet) own a sliding macro head for it, which is on the hit list! I also own a cheap £30 macro flash (ring LED) which I bought from ebay, made by yongnuo, to fill the gap until I can afford to buy the canon one to give me ettl and ultimately more control.

Any owners of the Sigma 180mm or 105mm lenses? Same with the Canon 100mm or specialised MP-E lenses? I'd love the later but I still need to improve my technique before I even consider buying one as mastery of depth of field is required before buying one as its reportedly one of the hardest lenses to get a nice result from due to the 5x magnification past 1:1!

Few sample images from me to kick the thread off!


Fender Bokeh by jjohnson2012, on Flickr


Feed Me! by jjohnson2012, on Flickr


Macro structures by jjohnson2012, on Flickr
 
Personally I just play with the kenko tubes & the canon 50mm f/1.8 every so often.. iirc it goes slightly beyond 1:1 (edit: 1.5x apparently) with all the tubes on but you have to be about 3cm away. I think I just like seeing things close up and always surprised at the amount of dust & tiny hairs hanging around on these little insects

The main problem I have is lighting as the aperture needed for any sort of depth of field tends to be about f/13. I think the flash tends to run out of power when I bounce it off the ceiling.. I was using a bit of foily card before but I must have lost it somewhere :(

A few examples.. nothing special


The Feast by TheRealZogger, on Flickr

Mr Lizard Visits the Beach by TheRealZogger, on Flickr

IMG_4947.jpg by TheRealZogger, on Flickr

IMG_4900.jpg by TheRealZogger, on Flickr

IMG_4631.jpg by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
 
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Those kenko extension tubes are a really good idea and bargain basement prices. The canon equivalent ones are very expensive. Can you still autofocus via the tubes or are you having to use manual focus? Seems that anything past 1:1 is usually a manual focus job otherwise you need the patience of a saint.
 
You can still auto focus with the Kenko tubes, but as you say, once you start stacking them it's a manual focus job regardless.

Out of all the money I've spent on camera gear, the Kenko tubes are have definitely been the best fun per £. I'd recommend them to just about anybody.
 
theheyes said:
You can still auto focus with the Kenko tubes, but as you say, once you start stacking them it's a manual focus job regardless.

Out of all the money I've spent on camera gear, the Kenko tubes are have definitely been the best fun per £. I'd recommend them to just about anybody.
Click to expand...

I think I'll pick some up and see what they do with my 150mm Sigma macro lens. I'll let you guys know either way :)
 
Got a Canon 100L Macro last month but not had much chance to play with it yet. Haven't a clue what I'm doing yet of course so first attempts aren't that special but I need to get some practice in! :)

IMG_7642.jpg


IMG_7690.jpg


IMG_7797.jpg


IMG_7842.jpg


IMG_7944.jpg


IMG_7999.jpg
 
Really like the 3rd and last photo vertigo. I was planning on getting the 100L until I noticed a bargain on the MM for the sigma 150 I have instead. So far I haven't needed the image stabilisation either which is a bonus! If I went down the nikon route instead of canon I'd have probably bought the 200mm macro lens which is just over £1000 :O
 
Got the non L Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, together with the Canon MR-14EX Ringflash, Macro tubes and my latest purchase the Canon Angle Finder C. Use them all on my Canon 50D.

Macro work is good fun. It is amazing what you can see if you just stop and examine your surroundings carefully. It can be quite difficult to get good crips shots on occasion but when you do it is tremendously rewarding.

Here are some of my shots from Flickr :)


Purple by Andy2580, on Flickr


Big eyes :) by Andy2580, on Flickr


Snowdrop by Andy2580, on Flickr


Bumble Bee by Andy2580, on Flickr


Greater Butterfly Orchid by Andy2580, on Flickr


Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) by Andy2580, on Flickr


Orange-tip Butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) by Andy2580, on Flickr


Brimstone and Bluebell by Andy2580, on Flickr


Large Red Damselfly by Andy2580, on Flickr


Green Hairstreak by Andy2580, on Flickr


Common Blue by Andy2580, on Flickr


Pearl-bordered Fritillary by Andy2580, on Flickr

One of the best tips I can give is to get up early. Many insects are very slow moving first thing in the morning, particularly Butterflies. You also get a nicer light as well first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. Soft light is much nicer than harsh mid-day sun.

The MPE-65 is quite a specialised lens and from what I have heard can be tricky to get good shots, however some people get some excellent results handheld. One of my Flickr contacts, a nice chap called Phil Corley has some great shots with this lens coupled with Focus stacking. His Flickr stream can be found at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/
 
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James J said:
Those kenko extension tubes are a really good idea and bargain basement prices. The canon equivalent ones are very expensive. Can you still autofocus via the tubes or are you having to use manual focus? Seems that anything past 1:1 is usually a manual focus job otherwise you need the patience of a saint.
Click to expand...

focusing goes totally out the window because it basically makes no difference to the outcome, your focusing range goes from infinity without extension tubes to a few mm with them - so the method of focusing is moving the camera backward and forward in tiny tiny increments. The auto tubes are still very useful over the manual ones though because you can set the aperture... I also have a reversing ring but only ever used it once... too much effort.
 
Here is one of my more recent macro shots that I am very happy with, what do you guys think?

LeafButterfly.jpg
 
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Andy90 said:
The MPE-65 is quite a specialised lens and from what I have heard can be tricky to get good shots, however some people get some excellent results handheld. One of my Flickr contacts, a nice chap called Phil Corley has some great shots with this lens coupled with Focus stacking. His Flickr stream can be found at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/
Click to expand...

Impressed with the focus stacking on real life outdoor stuff. Would like to see thow that works...
 
Zogger said:
focusing goes totally out the window because it basically makes no difference to the outcome, your focusing range goes from infinity without extension tubes to a few mm with them - so the method of focusing is moving the camera backward and forward in tiny tiny increments. The auto tubes are still very useful over the manual ones though because you can set the aperture... I also have a reversing ring but only ever used it once... too much effort.
Click to expand...

Fits in perfectly with what I already do then as I usually move after gaining focus anyway to ensure its exactly where I want it. Definitely gonna look into these extension tubes and see what I can do with them.

Ideally I'd love the MP-E 65 F2.8 and the canon macro flash but they cost a fortune (sadly) and I'd probably end up eating the lens out of anger or something after spending days getting **** shots due to poor technique :D
 
I assume the Kenko tubes would work well with the 85mm 1.8? Would love to try a bit of macro, but have no intention of buying a specialist lens when tubes could make a current one work.
 
Invertigo said:
I assume the Kenko tubes would work well with the 85mm 1.8? Would love to try a bit of macro, but have no intention of buying a specialist lens when tubes could make a current one work.
Click to expand...

Yep they'll work absolutely fine. They'll reduce the minimum focus distance of your current lens so you can get closer to the subject, increasing the magnification via that.
 
Couple I've taken. Currently struggling with my lighting and it's something I'm looking at. There's a juice bottle the in the house and once the juice is done I'm going to try improving my diffuser. I enjoy macro pics.

4.jpg


4.jpg


Edit: Images not linked properly it seems, just off to work but will sort later.

Edit 2: Think it's sorted, hopefully they should show up now.
 
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Invertigo said:
I assume the Kenko tubes would work well with the 85mm 1.8? Would love to try a bit of macro, but have no intention of buying a specialist lens when tubes could make a current one work.
Click to expand...

bear in mind the longer the focal length of your lens the less of an effect they'll have
the maximum magnification of the 85mm f/1.8 is 0.13X
adding all 68mm of extension tubes to an 85 mm lens adds 68/85 = 0.8 to that,
meaning it reaches 0.93X - almost 'proper' macro but not as much as you would get out of a 50mm lens.
(although often I'm only using one or two of the tubes on the 50mm anyway so it's not hugely different - just for an example that purple flower in my post is 0.87x, while the moth below it is 1.5x - didn't record the amount for the others unfortunately)
 
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