Lighting is always relative. What matters is not the absolute amount of light you use to illuminate the objects in the scene, but rather, how much light is used to illuminate each object relative to the others. Then the exposure settings in the camera dictates how the final image appears. For exampl...

While we're on UI suggestions, one idea I would like to propose is to have an option to put a small crosshair at the center of the circle for the retouching tool. This would help to locate the pointer's position when the circle is set to a fairly large radius.

Apparently, the meaning of my post has become twisted in a way that was not my original intent. I did not, for example, say "consumer level." I used the word "consumer" to refer to lenses that are available for the general photographer, with a native system mount, as opposed to, for example, a micro...

None of the consumer 100mm 1:1 macro lenses do that well (compared to simpler designs or microscope objectives) using extension to bring them up to 2:1, because the amount of extension needed is substantial. I've personally pushed the Canon EF 100/2.8L macro IS with tubes plus a teleconverter to get...

In my experience, tripods tend to get in the way when doing field macro work. Subjects tend to move about in the field, and it is very cumbersome and time-consuming to set up the shot just right, only to discover that the subject has moved some tiny amount that has negated your adjustments. If stabi...

When I saw the PSF plot, I laughed. Any plot would look good if you choose the scaling of the axes that way. In all honesty, there is no shortage of excellent options for 1:infinity - 1:1 or even 2:1 magnification in this focal length range. I don't see how this lens brings more to the table. Now, i...

Agree with Rik here. Note that when you're using a physical shutter to expose the image, there's a sync speed, usually like 1/200 s, above which one must use a high-speed sync mode for the strobe or else the flash will not illuminate the entire sensor due to the fact that there is no moment in time ...

Typically, magnification determines a step size, not number of steps. The step size tells you how much you need to change the camera-to-subject distance between each shot, but in itself doesn't determine how many shots you need to take. If you determine that for your particular magnification and you...

If I may provide my amateur opinion... the issue with using extension tubes or teleconverters on consumer system lenses that are designed to provide at most 1:1 magnification, is twofold. First, the effective aperture becomes quite small and diffraction is high. Second, the lens is being used in a w...

I think perhaps you might have misunderstood the formula. It isn't the actual physical dimensions of the sensor that is in the numerator, but rather, the size of the image of the subject projected onto the sensor. Let's walk through a thought experiment. Suppose you take a photograph of a metric rul...

Marvelous! I enjoyed searching for the structure you magnified at 10x... it's located about 1/4 from the right side and about 1/3 from the top.

This image so effectively captures the notion of "worlds within worlds."

If you want to do it quickly and don't have intentions to disassemble or rearrange the components, then flock the larger sections with a single piece of material. If you like arts and crafts and enjoy being meticulous, then flock the individual parts like I did. If you have enough flocking material-...

At 1/500 seconds, there shouldn't be substantial motion blur. However, subject movement during a stack can cause problems. A flower can move quite a lot as it wilts, so proper mounting is needed to mitigate this effect. Flocking is more important than you might think, so I recommend that as your nex...

Micromounts and thumbnails generally are not very expensive unless the species is rare, and nice ones can be had for less than a filter ring adapter. Besides, the point is to take photos of tiny things, so a mineral or crystal that is larger than a few millimeters, I find, doesn't have as much appea...