Common garden critters

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Common garden critters

Post by Beatsy »

New camera, new approach. Shooting natural-light macro in a breeze isn't a breeze at all, but shooting close-up in a breeze at 30 fps (all 50 megapixel raws) *is* a lot of fun, and very productive.

Sony A1 + 135GM @ 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500-1600. Natural light. I was shooting plant portraits (not macro) and hadn't intended to take insect close-ups, but when subjects present themselves... well...

Each picture is the best single frame selected from a short 30fps burst (10-40 images) and cropped very hard. The camera is essentially configured for freezing birds-in-flight action, albeit with the wrong lens attached.
a1-2.jpg
a1-5.jpg
a1-1.jpg

pawelfoto
Posts: 90
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:51 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Common garden critters

Post by pawelfoto »

I'm glad to hear you have the great A1. I wonder if you tried speedlite with an electronic shutter. Is it useful in macro photography? I use Godox CP-80 battery pack, which shortens the charging time. With less power, you can shoot in burst mode. I am looking forward to CanonR3, with speedlite+electronic shutter capabilities. Of course, I absolutely had to go to some bank at night first.
Perfect close-ups! I can see you really love it
:smt117 years ago I was also shooting birds. For a year I even had a canon ef 800 f / 5.6l. It was really heavy glass and more expensive than my car. I was a slave to the equipment, which was taking away the joy of photographing nature, so I got rid of it (lens, not passion)
== best Pawel

pawelfoto
Posts: 90
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:51 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Common garden critters

Post by pawelfoto »

I saw other photos of yours that you described "hard crop". They are amazing. Have you tried to compare the image quality after crop from high resolution sensorwith the photos done with A7sii using "small aperture technique" according to Nick "gardenersassistant"? Handheld shooting feels more natural and your results are amazing.
==best, Pawel

Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Re: Common garden critters

Post by Beatsy »

Thanks Pawel,

I haven't got to flash yet - but it's on the list and one of the reasons for getting the A1. It does 1/200th flash sync with electronic shutter (1/250th in APS-C crop mode) and 1/400th sync with mech shutter (only second curtain - the first mech curtain has been removed). A chap on DPReview did some tests with AD200 and got up to 12fps, which is encouraging even at that level. But I hope to do faster - 20fps will be good enough. Ongoing...

I don't think these pics are really that comparable with Nick's. He's going for maximum DoF, I'm working with minimal DoF as part of the image - so we have quite different goals. But in terms of detail in the final images - I think they're about the same at "online scale". I get better resolution from the wider aperture while Nick gets far less using very narrow apertures. But I have to blow (part of) the image way up for viewing (hard crop from a wider FoV), whereas Nick shrinks his quite a lot for viewing (he starts with a more magnified subject filling more of the frame). So the end results in terms of circles-of-confusion and what is resolved (visually) within upload size limits is similar, I think, but the looks are completely different.

My technique has the advantage of working in natural light too, even low-ish light, so I'd prefer it for that. But I readily use Nicks narrow-aperture approach with flash-illumination (when I have to use strobes) but up to a slightly lower point than Nick would.

Here's another shot today - everything else the same as before except I used a 35mm G-Master instead of the 135GM this time. Nice background context with that lens. Thick-legged beetle chomping pollen.
SAO04901_1.jpg

Dalantech
Posts: 694
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:57 am

Re: Common garden critters

Post by Dalantech »

Wonderful light and framing in that beetle shot Beatsy!

Are you stacking frames, or shooting a high speed sequence and then choosing the best single frame?

I know of a few people who are shooting critters, while they are stationary, by shotgunning the shutter while moving the camera through a scene and using an external battery pack so the flash can keep up. I'd use a variation of that technique, but with a camera that can shift the lens focus (if I ever get a camera that has the capability).

Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Re: Common garden critters

Post by Beatsy »

Dalantech wrote:
Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:21 pm
Wonderful light and framing in that beetle shot Beatsy!

Are you stacking frames, or shooting a high speed sequence and then choosing the best single frame?
Thanks. I liked that one too - the wide-ish angle perspective gives it nice depth and context (35mm).
These are all single frames, best of a short burst. But I've been stacking too --> http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 49#p274349

Cheers

Dalantech
Posts: 694
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:57 am

Re: Common garden critters

Post by Dalantech »

Beatsy wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:06 am
Dalantech wrote:
Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:21 pm
Wonderful light and framing in that beetle shot Beatsy!

Are you stacking frames, or shooting a high speed sequence and then choosing the best single frame?
Thanks. I liked that one too - the wide-ish angle perspective gives it nice depth and context (35mm).
These are all single frames, best of a short burst. But I've been stacking too --> http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 49#p274349

Cheers
I like how the flowers in the background create an echo of the one in the foreground -excellent composition!

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