Macro gear (insect photography), suggestions needed

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

This is what flickr does for size 1024
Image

and this is what I got fiddling in PS
Image

I'm sure better is possible, to some extent it's a matter of taste. The specialist sharpening plug-ins can do well.

This is f/8. For this size of reproduction, it's not possible to see all the detail in the original image, which means you'd be better with a smaller aperture, more DOF, and more diffraction which wouldn't show.


Looking at Rik's DOF Two Ways
I plugged in Magn = 0.2 ( a guess)
and "sensor width" 1024 pixels
and C of C = 2 pixels (a suggestion)
It says the aperture is right, at about f/33.

Rawsons
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:38 am

Post by Rawsons »

I would like to thank the patience and the help from everyone, and sorry for being such noob :) We were on a night herp trip last night and yea, found the problem. Some people might be able to shoot perfect macro pictures hand held, I am clearly not one of them. The camera (specially close-up) shakes as a 90-year old man who forgot to take his parkinson medications. And I still don´t have a flash on! :)

Guess it is individual for everyone. Thanks again for your amazing help everyone in getting this far, I will update this thread once I have my new tripod and flash unit.

Rawsons
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:38 am

Post by Rawsons »

So I just received my Yongnuo YN-565EX speedlite and my flash diffuser ($1 plus delivery haha). Will have to go out and test it some day, but it looks really promising! :)

Image
[/img]

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8668
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

Your next important purchase might be a cheap flash bracket to get the diffuser much nearer the subject. For testing of course you can just hold it.

You should be able to use a Commander (wireless) trigger mode, but if you have to have the on-camera flash working to do it, that one might need shielding so its light doesn't hit the subject directly. Black tape may be ok if it lets enough IR through.

Rawsons
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:38 am

Post by Rawsons »

I just wanted to check back to this and see what has happened since May. It has been a couple of months and I can see that I am getting there. I still need some gear and I think I will change my D3200 to a D7200 as it is not "enough" anymore in terms of quality. Also I bought a tripod which really helps in my work.

Contradictory to that here is a hand held shot of a bug taken 2 weeks ago, no editing done at all.

(For some reason I am once again unable to upload the image, so I will try and embed it...)


Image

Edit AdminCR - picture displayed was oversize, so I have replaced it with a 1024 version which links to the Flickr page.

by Kristofer Mogyorossy, on Flickr

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