Macros

[Jim B.]

Pearl Crescent Butterfly







Ailanthus Webworm Moth



Monarch Caterpiller

[Shadowman]

Great colors and focus.

[rpcrowe]

Great shots, I espceically like the caterpillar munching a meal...

[Steve S]

Great job jim, i like the second and last one's best. If you clone out the bright spot at the top of the last one, i think it would make a big difference.

[carregwen]

Have you noticed a lot less butterflies this year? We have hardly seen any during the summer. Good shots.

[Dave Humphries]

Have you noticed a lot less butterflies this year? We have hardly seen any during the summer. Good shots.

Yes (less butterflies here this year)

Yes (darn good shots as usual from Jim)

[Jim B.]

Great job jim, i like the second and last one's best. If you clone out the bright spot at the top of the last one, i think it would make a big difference.

Thanks,Steve.I'll give it a try.My only complaint using a ringlight,I haven't found a good way to get more diffusion.

[Jim B.]

Have you noticed a lot less butterflies this year? We have hardly seen any during the summer. Good shots.

Lots of butterflies here this year.

[GrimTheRipper]

That's a really great pictures you got there. Now, it got me thinking of buying a good macro len for my Pentax camera. Would it make a big different if I get a macro len and my currently 18-55mm len?

Here's what I took without macro and I had to look real close to it.

[Jim B.]

Hi Alan,

Nice shots! A macro lens will allow you to get closer,but you're minimum working distance(MWD),to reach 1:1 magnification eqauling life size, will be a lot shorter.My 100mm has a MWD of 6".
Not trying to discourage you,but to make it easier to shoot with a macro lens you need, at the very least, a flash unit.
The reason is the "Depth of Field" is going to be very thin and you will find you need to stop the lens down to f/11 or smaller so you're going to need a lot of light on your subject.
You can shoot natural light,but there needs to be a lot of it.Even in bright light you're going to have to crank up you're ISO to combat camera shake especially if you shoot handheld.
A tripod works great if you are shooting static subjects,but for insects you will be doing most of it handheld.
Do a search on macro photography and see what is involved as far as equipment that can be used.Macro brackets,extension tubes,diffusers etc.
Have any more questions, don't hesitate, there are other macro shooters here that will be happy to help.
I'm still pretty new to this type of photography and I'm still learning,but will be glad to share what I've learned so far.

[Geoff F]

You can manage butterflies OK with a 100 mm lens, Alan, but for anything smaller, like hoverflies, I would recommend 150 mm at least.

A smaller lens, with less magnification, does give very good results if you can get close enough to those flighty little critters, but I find that I miss the majority of them if I try to sneak closer than about 18 inches.

So I use a Sigma 180 macro lens; but this is a heavy tripod only lens.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alan,

You're doing quite well there, as Jim says; nice shots, although butterflies are fairly big (as bugs go).

Are these a significant crop from the full image?

Before I got my 105mm macro lens, I was always copping to 1:1, meaning no down sizing for display here, which in turn usually means you have to deal with image noise because it doesn't get reduced during the (non-existent) down sizing.

Now I have the 105mm, which I don't regret buying for a minute, I have to agree there are times when I would find the likes of 180/200mm useful, as Geoff says, for smaller, more 'nervous' bugs. But it does mean I crop less and have better quality.

As Jim mentions, the working distance for 100/105mm is about 6 inches or so for 1:1, that inevitably means taking off the lens hood (or it would be 3 inches), plus (so far) I have only used the on camera flash (and the hood would stop the light reaching the subject!).

Cheers,