Extreme macro

[Walter White]

I have been practicing my "extreme macro" quite a lot lately. I really want my next lens which has 5x the magnification of my current 100mm 1:1 macro but I promised the wife I wouldn't get it until I have mastered my current lens. While I wouldn't say that I am anywhere near mastered yet I am getting better using some different techniques and just practicing a bunch. Partly I need a better flash and once I get that I think I can start taking some of these shots to the next level

Here are a few from yesterday at the Butterfly pavilion. They are all handheld as they don't allow tripods. A tripod would be nice! Once you start getting in really close even the movement from breathing makes the difference between a really crisp image and just something that's just so so or completely blurry.

Again if anyone is interested in photography and interested in practicing some id love the company. I go all the time to practice usually on Tuesdays but I'm free on Sunday as well..

This set is a progression of the same Owl eye butterfly at different magnifications.

This guy was kind of cool because of the water drops. Wish it had some better colors though.

And this one I included just because I liked it.

 

[aaronsreef]

Very cool!

 

[FinsUp]

HOLY BALLS!!!

Those are some spectacular pics!

 

[Haddonisreef]

Pretty cool for sure!!

 

[BrianH]

WOW!

 

[SkyShark]

Great work kris!

 

[FishTV]

Nice!

 

[SynDen]

Very nice. Some very patient photos in that. Would love to come take some photos with you. Im hoping to get a macro for xmas or my birthday and will be on a photo rampage as soon as I do

 

[Walter White]

Thanks everyone!

Very nice. Some very patient photos in that. Would love to come take some photos with you. Im hoping to get a macro for xmas or my birthday and will be on a photo rampage as soon as I do

That would be cool. It was kind of the same for me. I got the new camera but it just had an average kit lens that came with it so I played around with it then just got bored and it went into my bag for like two months or so and I rarely took it out until I got the macro. Once I had the macro suddenly I was very intrested and started taking a lot of pictures but it was difficult because macro needs a lot of light and the pop up flash just dosnt work for macro for several reasons. I then got a cheap but well made ring flash. Oh boy that really lit a fire under my butt and I feel like I'm just obsessed with it now.

I have been trying to find a local forum for photography like we have here but haven't had any luck. I think it would be really cool if we could just form a small group here and maybe have monthly or bi monthy meetings where we go to someplace to practice and learn from eachother.

 

[Walter White]

Looks like I forgot this one yesterday. Not sharp on the eye parts but there is a lot of detail in the proboscis.

 

[FishTV]

Pretty awesome Kris, are you having to do much post production on these?

I think it would be really cool if we could just form a small group here and maybe have monthly or bi monthy meetings where we go to someplace to practice and learn from eachother.

Great Idea!! I think it would be great just to be able to compare notes. Photography can be an overwhelming hobby in itself, and to be able to see what others are able to do with a range of equipment would certainly be helpful, and inspirational.

 

[Walter White]

Pretty awesome Kris, are you having to do much post production on these?

Oh yeah definitely some post production. Some pics more than others depending on the look I want. The better I get behind the lens the less I need but but there is always some, usually cropping, color correction, and contrast adjustment. A lot of the time I use sharpness and luminesce control as well as correction for lens distortion, fixing chromatic aberration, and cloning out any specs or dust spot on the lens or sensor. The better you can get behind the lens the better the over all effect even with lots of post production work. You can only polish a turd so much!

Using a clone or heal tool is really important for tank shots I think, right up there with WB correction. For those interested if your camera can shoot RAW format its super simple to correct White Balance post production rather than trying to do it in camera and IMO looks a lot better.

I shoot in RAW and do most adjustments in lightroom. Im starting to learn photoshop and photmatix now as well. Im getting better in this aspect of photography as I learn, but there is a lot to learn, more than reef chemistry id say for sure! Just like reefing Im I'm finding in photography there is a ton a ways to do the same thing and its hard to filter through all the information and strong opinions on the web but with enough time and practice you start to learn what works for you. I go back to some of my original photos I thought were processed really well and just see tons of horrid mistakes now in terms of over correction or trying to correct something using the wrong parameter.

 

[Walter White]

This one here probably has some of the most and as I look at in now worst post production processing. You can see a lot of noise in the blacks and dark areas as well as some Chromatic Aberration around the right antenna and water droplets where they meet the darker background. There is also some color fringing along the wing and background. If I was better with post production software I could have probably made this one much better. I might work on it some more. None of this pics here have more than 2-3 minutes worth of work post production, however I'm also starting to understand how to process the pictures I take so it doesn't take me very long any more.

Still a while world to learn, and it would be really cool to learn along side people who also share a love of the reefing hobby. I imagine smaller groups meets where we gather at someones house and practice shooting their tank. I think that would be fun.