some days it is hard work.

[Sushigaijin]

Today I put three hours and about four hundred frames under my belt - it was the first time I've been able to shoot in weeks, and it was nice to get out in the sun. The bugs wouldn't cooperate, and it was only in the last half hour that things came together. In fact, no bugs larger than a pencil lead would stay still long enough to compose, focus and open the shutter - but finally I found a place where some VERY small hoverflies were; these were maybe as large as a letter "i" in number 10 font. If only the whole day had been as good as the last half hour!! The first two shots are my favorites, followed by some other ones that are good enough.

[polarbeardiggers]

great shots,i like them all,the flies are they not called deer flies,?i always thought the horse flies are the very big ones that take big chunks of flesh,i'm getting off topic,great macro shots,how did you achieve the dark background for the flower shot ?.also wandering how much adobe photoshop you use in your post processing,?

[Sushigaijin]

great shots,i like them all,the flies are they not called deer flies,?i always thought the horse flies are the very big ones that take big chunks of flesh,i'm getting off topic,great macro shots,how did you achieve the dark background for the flower shot ?.also wandering how much adobe photoshop you use in your post processing,?

Thanks!

I don't know exactly what the flies are called, but I've always heard them called hoverflies because they can stop and hover in flight. I've also heard them called not-a-bees, but that is obviously for lack of a better name.

the flowers were each the size of a dime. the dark background is achieved by shooting something in bright light - here also with fill flash - in front of an area that is very dark. the trick is to use a fast shutter speed to force the dark background into black without underexposing the bright foreground. Simple enough when it works, hard to get right outside though. This was just a test shot, checking DoF and exposure before I stalked the bugs. I liked it enough to keep it. You can get similar results using a high shutter speed and flash indoors.

I use photoshop as it is needed. In this series, I used a digital grey card because I royally messed up the white balance, the crop tool to get the aspect ratio to 3:2, and some smart sharpen in various ways. Pretty simple stuff that applies to ALL digital photos. If it is going to take over ten minutes to edit, I usually don't take the time and simply move on.

[polarbeardiggers]

i have the sony h5 as well, are you saying that you set your aperature at 100 f/8.0 and your 1so at 80, with a focal length at 71.70mm - how do you know what it is on this camera or is that just a finished product detail, i try to set my ev at 0 as much as possible with the aid of the histogram, i have the telefoto lens and three close up filters in my arsenal bag,but still very unclear about your lighting,can you explain how you used,?because the i find the built in flash is way to strong most of the time.

[julsoph]

That first shot is really terrific, Erik! And lol...I call them not-a-bee's too.

Emily

[Sushigaijin]

i have the sony h5 as well, are you saying that you set your aperature at 100 f/8.0 and your 1so at 80, with a focal length at 71.70mm - how do you know what it is on this camera or is that just a finished product detail, i try to set my ev at 0 as much as possible with the aid of the histogram, i have the telefoto lens and three close up filters in my arsenal bag,but still very unclear about your lighting,can you explain how you used,?because the i find the built in flash is way to strong most of the time.

I shoot in manual mode, so I set all the settings myself. from there you can use the histogram and the light meter (EV) to judge exposure. I use "spot meter" so that I can test various areas of the frame or scenery to find the exposure I want.

The flower was bright white, in full sun and about a foot from the lens. The background was dark shaded bushes, about three feet away. This means that there are at least two totally different exposures here - expose for the background at f/8 and 1/100s, or expose for the bright white flowers at f/8 and 1/1000s. Either way I choose, I will lose the other - at 1/100s I lose the white flowers - they would totally burn out. At 1/1000s I lose the background - not enough light for any detail to be seen. There are ways around this, but that's a whole different paragraph.


in order to keep the detail in the bright white of the flowers, I set the aperture at F/8 and the shutter to 1/1000. at this speed, the much darker background was WAY underexposed - so much that it turned black. I turned the flash on, set to (-1) ev and shot through a diffuser made from a milk carton. The point of the flash was just to keep the shadows from being too harsh, not to provide the main light source. The sun is the main light source in these. For fill flash, set the exposure before you even think about the flash. The flash will do it's own thing, it is smart and works well. Make sure to turn it down a tad, especially at under three or four feet working distance!

I almost always shoot at ISO80, unless i just can't get away with it - for instance, getting really fast shutter speed for birds at high telephoto on a grey day. In that case, the highest I am comfortable putting the H5 is at ISO200. ISO400 is useable for stuff like concerts and plays, but is much too grainy for any real macro work.

These were shot with the VCL-M3358 close-up lens. The lens screws onto the front of the lens adaptor like a filter. It is rated at 3.3 diopter. Close-up lenses are best when used at high zoom - they don't make anything bigger or closer, they just let you focus at a shorter distance. Without the lens, at full zoom, the minimum focus distance is about 3 feet but with the lens I can focus at about 11 or 12 inches. That distance fills the frame with objects about an inch and a third wide, as opposed to five or six inches without the lens.

The advantage to using a close-up lens is that you get a little working distance from your subject - the native lens has a great macro function, but you have to get REALLY close to something to use it. That can cause all kinds of problems with lighting (camera is in the way) and you can scare off your subject. There are times when the native macro is better, but that also is a whole different paragraph.

I apologise if this response is overly technical. As you get to know the camera and solidify technique, you won't even think about the settings or the exposure, you will just know.

I really like my H5, I think it is a capable camera and at $350, i would like to think that it is definately the "sleeper" on this forum. I look forward to seeing some of your shots soon!

[Knight]

Superb series Erik , well worth the hard work you put into taking these

[Loupey]

I really like my H5, I think it is a capable camera and at $350, i would like to think that it is definately the "sleeper" on this forum.

Never! Your macros always amaze me

I like #2 for its technical quality and #4 for the "airy openness" and the sawtooth pattern of the weed.

As a child, I always referred to these generically as "sweat bees".

[polarbeardiggers]

thanks for your very informative answer,those are the ones i like the best,you have really made me look closer at the camera than before,i will make myself a diffuser for my fash as well,will try zooming in on the macro filters that i have,curious do i need to gointo my camera 2 settings and for the conversion select close-up for my filters, i have three optex filters +4,+2,+1 they all can be screwwed together,i have the telephoto,and the uv filter as well, but just wandering about the conversion selection for close up filters ,or just shoot straight with out any adjustements? thanks for all your food for thought,i will transfer your message to my pda,thanks again.i love my h5.