Macro photography 101

[Billy Burroughs]

i realize that i have to get the film developed no big deal to me im not lazy seems this has become a staple for the american way of life but meh anyways so what kinda lense would i need to take pictures such as these

really after thinking about this for a few seconds the developing thing isnt really the issue i suppose but pictures such as these im sure theres a high failure rate so out of a 24 picture roll of film what would the garbage to good quality pics be like im no professional photographer nor am i an amateur lol ive owned this camera since college if that tells ya anything haha anyways i plan on buying a body that will already work with my lens' i have already so what kinda lense do i need to take these pics

 

[Hammerhead]

Your absolutely correct I take 100's of pics on 1 thing then I need to go through all of them to pick out the ones that need further evaluation. I only end up with maybe 10 that are worth keeping. To translate that to Film would to me be a nightmare. There are Lot's of lens to choose from if you want a dedicated lens for close up look for a MACRO lens. The ae-1 accepts any FD or New FD (FDn) lens. It is not compatible with Canon's later Canon EF. If you can find a place that will let you demo the lens would be very helpful. This is a good choice.
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

 

[l33t]

Hammerhead,
I answered your Q about the 60mm vs 105mm over pm but I will post what I wrote here as well so others can read the info if they are interested.

The 60mm vs 105mm have these basic differences:

First of all the 105 will give you a longer working distance.Good thing if you work with things like moving bugs on the field.
Say you want to include the whole plant in the shot, with the 105mm you can do that from say 3+ meter distance while with the 60mm for the same framing you need to physically be closer to the subject. This can be either good or bad, depending on how you like to work or better say how you can work and with what you work with. Ie inside a small growtent you would find it impossible to shoot a whole plant with the 105mm. Ideally in such a case with a small working space you'd go with 50mm lens or even less (ie 28mm) in order to be able to have a greater Field Of View so you can capture the whole plant or whole garden.

The 105mm has a nice advantage over the 60mm.
It will help you 'isolate' the subject from the background more easily. As the angle of view is narrower you only incorporate a small percentage of the background in your shot behind the subject.Here is an example:http://www.tamron.com/lenses/assets/...fund_chart.jpg
You can see in these pics that by using a narrower FOV(Field Of View), meaning longer focal length , you only use a smaller part of the background.This means you have the ability to 'isolate' the subject better from its background as you don't include a big part of the surrounding scene (that often has distracting objects that are not part of your subject).

Another good thing with the 105 over the 60mm lens is you get less perspective distortion.This is basically why for portraits , mid-telephoto or telephoto lenses are usually what the photographer will go with.
The shorter the focal length the more the perspective distortion in general. With shorter focal lengths you get the 'big nose' effect (where areas of the subject closer to the cam seem bigger while areas further away from the cam seem smaller).This effect is more noticable with 'very-short focal length' lenses , ie with fish eye lenses.

Now for canna shots you don't really need the 105mm in my opinion. The 60mm Micro Nikkor is a great lens , I ve used it a lot in the past and was very happy with the quality of the results.

BTW The 60mm has a great advantage over the 105mm if you go macro shooting.With the 60mm you need almost half the extension to reach the same magnification levels.

Regarding teleconverters and their high cost:
Basically, a teleconverter is a lens , and a good lens has a high cost as you know. Good teleconverters can have high quality optics and the ones that have many glass elements (up to 7elements) are usually kinda more expensive but give better results.
There are cheap ones out there made by third party companies that work with Nikon mounts but you get what you pay for like with most things in life.These will give poorer image quality but still some will be very good.You can always buy one second hand ,ie off ebay, at a very good price and get a very good model.

I got my cheap x2 teleconverter off ebay second hand for under 20 dollars but I use it for my non Nikon cam , don't know if there are any for Nikon so you do a search on google and see if there are any.This one I had bought was a very cheap teleconverter but not a bad one regarding the image quality it gives.But the good teleconverters are basically great optics and they can give really great results with no noticeable quality loss and all this costs so if you decide to buy one choose wisely and look for a good bargain on 'used' models so you can get a very good one at an affordable price.
---
Super telephoto vs high power zoom lenses..:

A super telephoto lens is a telephoto lens with a very long focal distance , ie 600mm-5000mm.
A high power zoom lens is a telephoto lens with again long focal distance but the focal distance is not fixed, , its variable , in other words you can adjust the zoom, ..zoom in or out in order to fit/frame your subject in the shot.

All zoom lenses have the advantage that you can zoom in precisely as much as you want (within the limits of the lens , ie a '50mm-200mm' zoom lens can zoom-in 4 times).This is useful when you want to work with a variety of subjects during working.

Now,..due to optics design limitations/restrictions its impossible to create a great all around lens that will perform excellent at all different focal lengths (the more the range the more difficult). So the problem is that 'prime' (fixed focal length) lenses give always better image quality as they are specifically designed to give the best results possible for that specific focal length while the zoom lenses basically have their design as 'a compromise' so you can have descent quality throughout the zoom range(at different focal lengths). Thats the cost of the versatility offered by zoom lenses..
There are some excellent zoom lenses that perform great at all different focal lengths they are capable working at, but these can be very expensive and image quality is usually again lower than that of good prime lenses at those focal lengths. Thats one of main reasons why you see photographers usually carry different lenses with them instead of just one all-around zoom lens

hope this helps

L33t

 

[Hammerhead]

Great info I really appreciate your help.

I have been using the 60mm for some time now and I have found that I have to be very close to the subject to get crisp macros and lighting is a bitch to get right being so close. The 105 I don't have to be as close with the same quality pic. The 105 also has Vibration reduction and the 60 does not. I will put some comparison shots up soon.

 

[Billy Burroughs]

Your absolutely correct I take 100's of pics on 1 thing then I need to go through all of them to pick out the ones that need further evaluation. I only end up with maybe 10 that are worth keeping. To translate that to Film would to me be a nightmare. There are Lot's of lens to choose from if you want a dedicated lens for close up look for a MACRO lens. The ae-1 accepts any FD or New FD (FDn) lens. It is not compatible with Canon's later Canon EF. If you can find a place that will let you demo the lens would be very helpful. This is a good choice.
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

thank you im thinking holding back till i can spring for a digi camera i just hate to buy another piece of garbage point n shoot kinda deal like we got now pain in the ass using it under the lights it has decent details n what not but its deffinatelly id want hangin around my neck or anything thanx for the info i havent decided on staying with cannon or going with nikon but a good friend of mines an art major in photography or something anywas gots suyper bad ass nikon the nice mac n photoshope the whole nine yards lol one step at a time one at a time seems like i make it my families fed i gotta roof over my head bills are paid for 4 or 5 months but man do i miss them 1200 dollar weeks that stings when they cut you off them

 

[SweetBOG]

Your absolutely correct I take 100's of pics on 1 thing then I need to go through all of them to pick out the ones that need further evaluation. I only end up with maybe 10 that are worth keeping. To translate that to Film would to me be a nightmare. There are Lot's of lens to choose from if you want a dedicated lens for close up look for a MACRO lens. The ae-1 accepts any FD or New FD (FDn) lens. It is not compatible with Canon's later Canon EF. If you can find a place that will let you demo the lens would be very helpful. This is a good choice.
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

Some Canon cams have the 'Live View' feature that lets you see in a large lcd screen exactly what the picture will look like, and also lets you zoom in 5X and 10X to really see how sharp it'll be. So every picture ya take can be a good one. The number of shots I now take is ten times less than I used to because of Live View.

 

[l33t]

Great info I really appreciate your help.

I have been using the 60mm for some time now and I have found that I have to be very close to the subject to get crisp macros and lighting is a bitch to get right being so close. The 105 I don't have to be as close with the same quality pic. The 105 also has Vibration reduction and the 60 does not. I will put some comparison shots up soon.

Hi hammerhead,

I agree with close up shots the 105 may be more useful for various reasons but if you go over 1:1 mag for macro I would always shoot with the shortest focal length lens on a tripod or on a secure table and have Vibration Reduction off (VR is not recommended when the cam is on a tripod or on a fixed position in a studio as it can have negative effects in the pic , cause the optical elements are basically floating inside the lens).

l33t

 

[Hammerhead]

Some Canon cams have the 'Live View' feature that lets you see in a large lcd screen exactly what the picture will look like, and also lets you zoom in 5X and 10X to really see how sharp it'll be. So every picture ya take can be a good one. The number of shots I now take is ten times less than I used to because of Live View.

The camera he has is not a digital camera. When he gets one he can look for those options.

My D90 has Live View with Zoom but when im at such high mag they dont help.

 

[Billy Burroughs]

lol ya when it comes to photography equipment im still stuck in the 80's but hey its been a damn fine camera captured many unforgettable moments so get rid of it hell no thatll never happen but as soon as i can afford a good digital camera im snatching one up i got a 6.1 megapixel kinda point n shoot deal real user friendly n what not just isnt up to par really but it does the trick makes my journal prettier than it was the link below will take ya to it and theres new pics on it

 

[Hammerhead]

Yes I agree you can get some outstanding photos with that camera and a good lens.

I chose the Nikon for many reasons but the one that stuck out for me is that all of the Lens made by Nikon since 1959 will fit my D90. I think there the only company to stay with the same lens mount for so long.

 

[SweetBOG]

White Widow

 

[SweetBOG]

some purple white widow trichs

 

[Bobby Stainless]

Damn!

You guys have some serious gear.

I've just got a Nikon Cool Pics L6...

 

[Hammerhead]

some purple white widow trichs

SweetBOG coild you let us know what setting you used to capture that pic. Fstop Apature so on and so on. Nice pic by the way

 

[w33dstar]

northern light.5:1 AV light.

 

[SweetBOG]

SweetBOG coild you let us know what setting you used to capture that pic. I.E Fstop Apature so on and so on. Nice pic by the way

Thanks Hammerhead. Canon D50. F3.5 with MP-E 65mm. 1.5 second exposure, +1. no flash, just indirect window light. Focus stacked from 2 images.

 

[bubbleman]

Beautiful shot sweetbog... .llove the natural light trichome shot. Very clear heads as well.

Hadn't taken any macro's for some months, but managed to get over to green supreme's recently and took these...

BUSH HASH:

AFGHANICA

THIS LAST PHOTO IS TRIPPY I PULLED OUT A PISTILITE HAIR AND IT LEFT BEYHIND THIS STRANGE ROOT LOOKING THING... ANYONE EVER SEEN THIS?

A13

peace

Bubble man

 

[GMT]

Nah Bubbleman, I think you're the only guy on here with a 24mp camera, the rest of us don't stand a chance seeing pistil roots lol. Love your shots.

 

[SweetBOG]

WOW bubbleman, that is the best trich photography i've seen. amazing colors and so crisp.

 

[w33dstar]

bubbachunk