Project 52 by Bill S (ktuli)

[ktuli]

I'm technically running behind schedule here, so I'm using photos I should be using for Week 07, but I processed these first and the photos I should be using for Week 06 will get bumped back a few days and end being Week 07. Confused yet?

Anyway, here are some more super macro shots I took today (assisted by my new macro focusing rail that my wife bought me for my birthday!)...









Yep - no guessing game this week with the super macros... those are indeed individual snowflakes. Each of the shots were taken at 5x magnification. The exercise was fun - even if it was freezing outside (18F with windchills of 0F).

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Hi Bill,

Not getting snow and ice where I live your subjects make for pretty interesting subjects from my perspective. I'm not so sure about the composition and the sharpness of the subjects though. The snowflakes don't seem to be as sharp as they should be so I think it's affecting how each photo looks.

What are your thoughts?

[ktuli]

Mal,

I agree about composition and sharpness. Most of this exercise was determining whether it was even feasible and just to see what I could get, so composition was probably pretty low in my mind - to some extent, I kind of had to work with what I was given. Also, as I said, these shots are all at 5x magnification and uncropped, and so the frame is a mere 4.46 x 2.98 mm. Any adjustments whatsoever make a huge difference. I used a macro focusing rail for this, and it helped dramatically to be able to setup a shot without every muscle in my body aching after 5 minutes of trying to hold perfectly steady. However, even touching the focusing rail adjustment knobs made the whole setup vibrate enough to cause blurring - I had to adjust, release, wait, review, repeat as needed. Add to that, my subject was literally vanishing before my eyes. The middle shot there is a 10 second exposure, and I took two of them back to back and you can definitely see a significant amount of melting between the two (despite air temps below 20F!). I also wonder if that isn't part of why the sharpness is suffering - yes, 10 second exposures where probably too long, but when I tried using my macro flash, I was not happy with the results (ie: it made basically a negative image of what you see here).

So does anyone have any recommendations for how I can improve my sharpness at this magnification level? I'd definitely love to see tack sharp results of subjects like this.

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Well, melting brings in a whole new dimension too things. About the only thing I can think of is bouncing a speedlight off a diffused reflector so that the light doesn't overpower your subject while still allowing you to increase your shutter speed.

[ktuli]

Yeah - the melting certainly makes this a challenge - and calls into question whether the lack of sharpness is due to the fact that the subject itself is no longer sharp (ie: the edges have already melted, causing a smooth edge instead of a sharp one), and everything is coated in a microscopic layer of water.

Let me complicate things further. The lens I used is Canon's MP-E65mm - and while it gets ridiculous magnification, the working distance is painfully small - at 5x magnification, the working distance (from subject to front edge of the lens) is something like 1.5 inches. In fact, while using the Canon MT-24EX dual macro flash (which mounts to the front of the lens), the flash was actually hitting the glass that these snowflakes were on - which basically makes bouncing light into that space to get it diffused is going to be a challenge.

Granted, I was using a (relatively) fast shutter speed at 1/250s when I was using the flash. Perhaps I should have tried some compromise middle ground and tried something like a 1/5s shutter speed, which would require less flash output.

Additionally, I purchased some clip-on flash difusers that go on the front of the MT-24EX flash heads, but now that I think about it, they might actually not work if they cause the working distance problem where they are banging off of the subject surface before the lens is getting to its focused working distance. Guess I'll see in a couple days when they arrive.

So while I really want to get sharper results, I know it will be an uphill challenge, and I am happy I got what I got so far.

- Bill

[ktuli]

This past weekend, my wife and I took Friday off and made a long weekend for my birthday. Since it was for my birthday, I got to pick the activity, so naturally I chose photography. It has been far too cold for anything extended outdoors, and we had just recently been to the local conservatory, so we opted for the Aviary....

More (as well as originals) will be posted on my blog in the coming days - http://www.ktuli.com/photography/ - if you are interested in checking them out too.

I know I made tons of mistakes (too narrow of a depth of field, some poor compositions, etc), but we ended up purchasing a membership, so we'll definitely be visiting again soon, so I can try and correct my mistakes next time (and probably make all new mistakes!).

- Bill

[ktuli]

Ok - since I have a multitude of photos from this outing, I figured I'd post a bonus photo.

I really liked this B&W conversion, and wondered what folks here though of it.



I also did a quick write-up regarding White Balance/Color Temperature on my blog using several versions of this photo as a comparison to illustrate the effect changing the color temperature has on a photo if anyone is interested - http://www.ktuli.com/photography/

Enjoy!

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

It's pretty good detail you've managed to capture given the tight cropping you've done while having the lens wide open. Your subjects certainly stand out from the background very well.

The whole temperature scale of colours is always something that I find difficult to explain to other people. I mean, who really thinks of colour in terms of temperature? But the examples you've placed in your blog do a good job of providing people with a reference point. Good job!

[ktuli]

Looking at these photos, they don't look nearly as sharp as I would like them to be. Perhaps it is from my Kenko 2x teleconverter, perhaps from the dramatic magnification (these are at 10:1), perhaps from the (quite literally) razor thin depth of field. Regardless of why, it is certainly something I'll have to and to the list of things to work on figuring out and fixing in subsequent weeks.

Though that difficulty certainly makes me somewhat unhappy with these results, I'm still including them here as an example of thinking of a potential shot and seeing it through. I'd been thinking of things I could shoot in super macro to show them in a way you'd rarely ever see.

So like last time, have fun guessing what these might be...









- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Kerry thinks they're toothbrush bristles - you had me stumped

Agree with the issue on sharpness with these captures but at least they make you think!

[ktuli]

Well - Kerry is one smart cookie. That is exactly what they are. The blue and green color is produced by shooting the flash up through the colored plastic handle of the toothbrush as is illustrated here:



When I originally came up with the idea, I was hoping for a bit more of an interesting shot. I originally wanted to only do 5x or lower magnification by taking a bunch of the bristles and bundling them together, but that was not really a feasible task. So I tried the 10x magnification to isolate just one bunch of the bristles at a time. While it helped to fill the frame with them, I believe it exacerbated my sharpness issues. Additionally, I was hoping for something more dramatic with the light traveling through the bristles - I may try and track down some fiber optic threads and retry this at a later date to see if I can get any better results.

As it stands, these shots ended up making me think of the scene in the Superman movie where he went and was able to talk with his father...

Thanks for viewing.

- Bill

[KTHXBAI]

I was going to guess it was the supermans fortress of solitude! Nice shots bill. Your macro studio looks similar to mine.

[ktuli]

I was going to guess it was the supermans fortress of solitude! Nice shots bill. Your macro studio looks similar to mine.

Yeah - thanks for the idea.... I borrowed it from your example.

[kezmal]

Yesssss!!!!!!!!!! Its very well done, not many would guess it was toothbrush bristles

I was going to guess it was the supermans fortress of solitude! Nice shots bill. Your macro studio looks similar to mine.

LOL, Thats what my husband Mal said

[ktuli]

Well, I'm in rapid fire mode with my P52 posts as I managed to get Week 09 done well earlier than my usual.

As you may have seen from my spiders thread post, my wife brought me a jumping spider to work with. And though I normally just try to get full frames when I'm shooting, I did break down and do some cropping on this batch. In particular, I tried a crop I rarely use (I normally tend to stay with the 3:2 aspect ratio imposed on me by Canon) with a square crop. Given the subject, I felt it perfectly fitting.

WARNING!!!!!! If you don't like spiders or bugs, you might not want to keep scrolling.... I'm going to put in some blank lines to give you a chance... scroll past this, and it is at your own risk. (Though I really hope you do check out the photos because I think they're really cool!)

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Thanks for viewing if you made it this far...

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Really impressive Bill. You got him to pose

[ktuli]

Really impressive Bill. You got him to pose

HAHA! Not really. He got me to work on my focusing techniques to be able to get a couple shots off in the microseconds that he stands still...

Actually, he was much better the second day after I'd fed him - I think the full belly and more time in front of the camera, realizing it wasn't a threat really helped.

I still have him here, so I'll probably try for some more shots before releasing him (plus he still has crickets to eat).

- Bill

[Goldcoastgolfer]

How large is he? Our jumping spiders are usually about a third of an inch long down here.

[ktuli]

How large is he? Our jumping spiders are usually about a third of an inch long down here.

Yeah - this guy is about that size.

[gregj1763]

Amazing photo's Bill, Something I hope to be able to produce in the future.
Cheers Greg