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Category Archives: Macro

Tinkering with macro set-up: 50mm reversed on tubes vs 50mm + tubes + Rynox

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

The never ending tinkering with my macro set-up continues.

I’ve been mixing it up with my standard 50mm + tubes + Raynox vs 50mm reversed on tubes vs. Raynox on 200mm.

I’ve got a downsizing ring for the Raynox on the 200 that should arrive this week so more to come on that.

Here are a few things to consider:

These are 50mm reversed with slight crop in LR (about 20%). Aperture was set manually before removing from camera and reversing.

The things I like about this set-up:

at f22 the dof is nice
its a bit less contrasty than other set-ups
working distance is greater than 50mm + tubes + Raynox (about 6cm vs 4cm)

The negatives:

at f22 its just too dark and the miss rate is subsequently much higher
the flash ETTL system seems to miss calculate the lighting more often.
All in all the results is great when it hits but the reliability is poor compared with the 50 + tubes + Raynox.

This is same set-up (50mm reversed on tubes) @ f14. easier to see but still harder than the 50mm on tubes + raynox.

This is from 50mm on tubes + Raynox

Same but with contrasty processing

Which do you prefer?

More to come so watch this space!

Matt

Emerald eucalyptus chafer (Xylonichus eucalypti)

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

I’m trying to improve my very poor knowledge of formal names of insects. I think this is correct. Found in Sydney Northern Beaches, September 11 2016. Local trees Angophora Costata. It looks like the beetle in these links however the locations conflict:

www.jungledragon.com/image/37057/emerald_eucalyptus_chafe…

biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/Xylonichus_eucalypti%3bXylon…?

Any supporting info would be much appreciated.

cheers

Matt

Photography info: Canon 7D, Kenko Tubes & 50mm 1.8 coupled with my home made lighting setup.

Flies

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

Fly 2 - Matt Tinker

Flies get a pretty raw deal when it comes to reputation.

They get swatted, sprayed and are used as the bad guys in many repellent commercials.

In reality flies are really cool. They help to pollinate flowers, clean up waste, and are a great food source for many animals.

Best of all, flies are great to shoot. They have big eyes, amazing colours and really interesting faces that would make an awesome Halloween costume.

At the end of the day flies are really quite tolerant of big lenses being stuck in their faces which makes them perfect for learning macro photography.

Put out some organic plant fertilizer and pretty soon you will have an array of subjects to shoot.

Macro

Mantis with some new processing

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Matt Tinker One comment

065 - Backyard bugs - 20151121-Edit

I’ve recently started playing with the Nik Software straight out of Lightroom. I’ve used Niksoft software for years (pre Google purchasing it) but I’ve really only used it when editing in Photoshop. The Nik collection works quite well out of Lightroom to add a bit of puch to the dynamic range of images. Probably the biggest limitation is things can get a bit noisy in the shadows, especially if things are pushed too hard. Each of these images received about 1min of post production in Lightroom 6.

044 - Backyard bugs - 20151121-Edit

Canon 7D, Kenko Tubes & 50mm 1.8 coupled with my home made lighting setup.

048 - Backyard bugs - 20151121-Edit

Macro

Jumping spider in the nasturtium with new lighting setup

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

Jumping Spider 20151024 - 04 These are form the same set of jumping spider shots from the post about my new snoot set-up.

This little one was jumping around in the nasturtium flowers in our herb garden. The orange and yellow from the flower created fantastic background colours but the down side was quite a bit of colourcast to deal with tin post production.

Shot with my usual 7D with an array of tubes and close-up filters.

Macro

Macro set-up tutorial

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

I get a lot of questions about my macro setup so I’ve put together a short tutorial with video clip that will hopefully be helpful to those getting started. I will be adding more to this in coming weeks.

All the info can be found here

Jumping spiders are the coolest to shoot

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Matt Tinker One comment

These little guys are so much fun. At about 3mm long they are far from menacing. They just jump around looking like they are having fun in the flowers. If you could go as far as calling a spider cute it would have to be a jumping spider.

Canon 7D, Kenko Tubes, 50mm 1.8 + macro diopter filter, coupled with my home made lighting setup.

Macro

Macro background colour

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Matt Tinker Leave a comment

One of the things I love about macro photography are the colours. Not just the subject colours but the colours in the whole image. When shooting macro I always look for anything in the local environment that can be used in the background. A flower, a leaf or even a rock.