To create something artistic by chance

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:46 pm

The first one wasn't prepared by postprocessing, simply handheld, long exposure, apreture f/22 and without flash. I wanted as much as possible DOF but forgot to relese the flash.

The second one is with flash, still daylight, room condition about 1.5m from window.
The flowers are about 35mm wide.
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM and Extension Tube EF25 II.

Model Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL
Date/time original 17.03.2007 15:22:25
Shutter speed value 1.599998 s
Aperture value f/22
ISO speed ratings ISO 100
Flash Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal length 85 mm

Model Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL
Date/time original 17.03.2007 15:32:10
Shutter speed value 1/3 s
Aperture value f/10
ISO speed ratings ISO 100
Focal length 85 mm

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:12 pm

Not to sure about the first image, that one leaves me scratching my head

However, that second shot is really nice.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:07 pm

The first one is very dreamy

The second picture is a little hot but the flowers are beautiful ( I love orchids you know)

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:41 pm

Pretty flowers!

Nikola, I have to ask: why the long exposure? Long exposure risks getting ghosts from movement (like you have even in 2nd image). But it usually does not add value with flash unless you have unflashed areas that you want to preserve some detail in.

My 300D likes to try setting a long exposure, when it sees dim light and a small aperture.

But I force it to do what I want by using manual mode to set both short exposure and small f-stop.

Then comes only the question of whether the flash does what I want also. The 300D has problems with auto flash and lenses that it can't control, so I generally run my external flash in manual mode also and just set whatever power works for the magnification and distance. (Hhmm... Manual shutter, manual aperture, manual flash, manual focus... And then I wonder why shooting macro makes me feel a bit nostalgic?

)

--Rik

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:06 pm

Your just a manual kind of guy there Rik but I got to agree with you, manual control of the camera is the only way to go. I never have liked this Auto stuff, even when it first came out on film cameras, Canons AE 1 for example and the Olympus OM series cameras. Though those were all excellent cameras by the way. The best camera I ever owned was a 35mm Contax SLR, I had a complete set of Carl Zeiss lenses for it too, wide angles, portraits, and telephotos. You know what? I SOLD IT ALL!

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:51 pm

Thanks folks!

Rik, SLR is still a very new experience for me and I'm in adaptational and experimentation phase.

All is much more complicated than my old pocket "idiot" point and shot camera which focus fast and proper in most situations even if I do not look at display or through viewfinder. I'm much slower reacting with this and often very hard to focus properly. I'm affraid the most subjects will not wait till I set all manually.

After all I'm trying to do macro with non macro dedicated lens. I hope it would be much better when I get my true 100mm macro lens.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:34 am

MacroLuv wrote:All is much more complicated than my old pocket "idiot" point and shot camera which focus fast and proper in most situations even if I do not look at display or through viewfinder.

Yes (sigh...). There are lots of reasons to like big SLR's, but spontaneity is seldom on the list.

I'm not sure why the compact cameras seem to be so much faster/easier to operate. One reason is that they do macro at short distance using wideangle lenses. This greatly increases the ratio of DOF to shooting distance. It also increases the ratio of subject distance to any object in the background. Both of these probably make life easier for the focusing mechanism. Wideangle also reduces how carefully the camera has to be positioned, to get the subject in the frame. Being off by a few degrees when you're up close has a lot less effect than being off by those same few degrees when you're 5 times farther back! Is there more to it than these? I don't know...

Nikola, I'll be interested to hear how things start working when you get your true macro lens. You're pretty much our ranking expert on use of compact cameras for bugs and flowers, so you'll be in a better position than any of the rest of us to compare these techniques!

--Rik

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:19 am

Nikola,

The old rule of thumb for hand holding an SLR camera/lens combination on full frame 35mm was no slower shutter speed than the focal length of the lens. Therefore for a 105mm macro lens, no slower shutter speed than 1/105th of a second and for a 200mm macro lens no slower than 1/200th of a second.

However with the smaller APS sized digital sensors you now have to remember the lens takes on the characteristics of a longer lens on 35mm, having a 1.5 crop factor in the case of Nikon, and 1.6 I believe in the case of Canon? So multiply the focal length of the lens by the crop factor to find the recommended hand holding limit.

Therefore a 105mm on a Canon APS sensor would behave like a 168mm on 35mm full frame, so preferably hand hold at no slower shutter speed than 1/168th of a second, and a 200mm would behave like a 320mm so no slower than 1/320th of a second if you want blur free images.

DaveW

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:59 am

Thanks Dave!

I'll have in mind your advice.