Macro-photography

I use a Sony Cybershot Bridge Camera for outdoor targets of opportunity. The built-in lens has basic Macro and image stabilisation, so it's sometimes possible to get good shots. Outdoor photography is uncooperative though: I wobble, plants move in the breeze, and insects won't sit still and fly off. The camera has to be close to the subject, which most animals and insects dislike.

Indoors and outdoors I have a Sigma 70-300 DG Macro on a Canon EOS600D; it's handy for zooming in on nervous subjects from a distance. Trick is steadying the camera for which I have a monopod, or lean on something, or pull the strap tight around my neck just as the shutter is pressed. Any indignity necessary to reduce camera movement is suffered!

Indoors, I mount the camera and lens on a weighted tripod and work the shutter with a remote release. The object is staged on a table top, often lifted an inch or two on the end of a pin to blur the background, with the camera located overhead. Fair bit of care needed with lighting, and a LED ring light on the camera is helpful.

I probably do most macro work with a 50mm lens and extension rings. By quirk of physics, it's cheap and easy to make really good 50mm lens. Other focal lengths, zoom etc, involve more engineering and compromises that push the price up. An extension ring magnifies by putting empty space between lens and camera, and introduces no extra optical distortions. Simple spacers work quite well, but it's worth buying rings compatible with the camera, ie they connect the lenses electronics to the camera as normal. This allows the camera to do it's usual clever stuff with exposure settings and whatnot. Mine are 'Kenko' brand.

The problem with rings is they make focussing very tight - hard to adjust, and only correct over a very narrow range. To overcome the adjustment problem the camera is mounted on a rail and moved finely with a worm drive. Several pictures of the same object are taken each focussed sharply on a different plane. (So when the top is in focus the bottom is a meaningless blur.) Then the photos are loaded into a computer package that does focus stacking. Basically, the computer looks at each image and erases anything that's blurred. The sharp parts of each image are then combined into a single composite image that's in focus from top to bottom. Obviously this technique works best on subjects that cannot move.

Choice of SLR can make a difference. I bought an EOS600D specifically because its mirror can be locked, which minimises camera movement when pictures are taken. Not all SLR's can lock their mirrors, and this type may be at a disadvantage when mounted on a macro-rail or microscope where every tiny movement matters. They perform well with an image stabilised macro lens, just not on a microscope or with extension rings.

Dave

Not a Hydra, (though I've got a snap of one somewhere), it's a protozoa, a Vorticella just as MichaelG says. I'd have to be very thirsty to drink pond water now I've looked at it through a microscope.

Nor is the water droplet a burst shot, just a single shot with my EOS600D and macro lens. The trick with that one is a tap adjusted to drip slowly into a bowl about 50cm below. I watched the drip form on the tap until it releases, then press the shutter release. The release is connected to an Arduino programmed to trigger the camera and flash 'n' milliseconds later. The time taken for the drip to fall 50cm is calculated and plugged into the Arduino; it won't be quite right because my reaction time and the camera response have to be factored in, but it doesn't take long to catch drops at almost any stage of the impact and rebound. Repeat until a good one is captured. Actually a failure: I was trying to get a Corona shot (nothing to do with the virus) like this example off from dreamstime.com:

More success with an air-pistol:

The shattering glass photo was taken in pitch darkness with the camera in 'B' - shutter open. A microphone was connected to an Arduino programmed to fire the flash and close the shutter shortly after a loud noise is heard. The pistol was pre-aimed in a clamp. Firing the pistol made enough noise to trigger the camera, then it's just a matter of adjusting the Arduino delay for best results. This one is quite dangerous. I took considerable care to make sure neither I or the camera would be damaged by ricochets or flying glass, and that I wouldn't end up wounded alone in the dark.

Dave

Thanks for the explanation Dave. Im sure I will try your water technique at some point. You have a great set up for triggering your flash. Im relying on the basics for now. Got to try some creative lightning at some point. Macro is such an interesting field in photography. Fun and at the same time frustrating to get it right but very rewarding once you got your desired shots. Im trying my best at hand held shooting as most of the interesting stuff is out side the controlled environment though you can produce some dramatic shots indoors and in a properly rigged set up.

Cropped images.

I use Pentax DSLR's with a Sigma EX 50-2.8 (1:1) and a Tamron 90-2.8 (1:1) usually manual focus. The 50 gets used for most of my album photos hand held. I also have a Samsung compact with a useful macro feature, its only shortcoming is not having a viewfinder. I used to have a Cosina 100-3.5 manual focus macro lens (1:2 plus additional lens for 1:1). It goes by the nickname "plastic fantastic" the build is very plasticky but optically wonderful.

doubled up posting as usual

Edited By old mart on 15/05/2020 16:27:37

Some really stunning pictures above.

I use photographs regularly to illustrate points in reports - one of the necessities of good photographs is the lighting (and of course the focusing!). I take my photographs these days with my iPhone - sorry to all the photo geeks here but it is always available (in my back pocket).

Below are some photographs taken of a dry sump pump from a race car engine which was losing oil pressure at high rpm. The analysis showed the pump was cavitating and the result was loss of pressure and damage to the big end bearing shells. The cavitaion damage is visible on the gear tooth crests and on the tooth flanks, the spalling caused the scoring damage to the housing.

The final photo shows an in cylinder pressure transducer sleeve which inserts into the combustion chamber of a race engine to measure cylinder cycle pressure, this is used to optimise the engine characteristics (cam, ignition and injection timing as well as intake volumes/runner lengths and exhaust manifolding) The end is 3mm dia with 3 holes drilled in at an angle, the holes are 1.1mm dia. The sensor sits inside this sleeve and is screwed into the base (internally) by a 5mm thread.

Always good to take photos as a record of work done.

Finally the in cylinder pressure sleeve:-

And the damaged bearings:-

Edited By Oily Rag on 15/05/2020 18:29:23

.

Nice one, Nick

Welcome to the world of the very small

... Your journey starts here !!

MichaelG.

Video at the botom of the page if you want extreme macro imaging. You just can't get the detail with photons.

**LINK**

regards Martin

Hi MichaelG, thanks for your comment. I have actually used this method years ago, not my idea I hasten to add, I just read it in some book or magazine, can't remember which. But of course them days you had to wait until you got the prints back before you knew if it was a real success.

Regards Nick.

Those of you with more than a passing interest in fine optics, look away now!

More and more I find myself reaching for my smartphone's camera in the workshop, both as an aid to see detail my eyes will no longer resolve, or simply as a record of anything interesting (to me!). I wouldn't class these snaps as "photography", but I was pleasantly suprised by the capability of a device I carry in my pocket.

Clem

These are uncropped images from a Samsung Galaxy S8. The last one is/was M8 thread in a gearbox casing:-

Edited By Rod Clemett on 16/05/2020 00:13:52

Edited By Rod Clemett on 16/05/2020 00:15:15

The performance of the cameras in modern ‘phones continues to astonish me, Rod ... and your photos are amazing.

Just think what they were like, only a few years ago !!

MichaelG.

Brilliant idea for a thread.

I do agree with Michael G. that modern phone cameras are quite amazing.

I still don't have one, though. It would mean that I would probably part with

my trusty Nikon D90. The lens I use is the Nikkor 105mm Macro.

I'm no expert, but I do enjoy close up photography.

ATB,

Daniel

Great stuff, Daniel ... and that 105mm will give you much more working distance, and better ‘handling’ than my 55 [which is best used for static subjects]

MichaelG.

Hi, talking about phone cameras, a while ago now I bought this out of Tesco's which was one of their clearance items, for about £3.00.

Gave it a try with my smart phone camera this morning with the sixpence in the photo above with the macro lens, while it gets in pretty close, you can see a little distortion and lighting starts to get a problem, also depth of field is shallow, but overall, not bad for a cheapy and could be used for practical purposes rather than high class photos.

Regards Nick.

Another Nikon Nikkor 105 user here but with the nikon D70.

Oily Rag, Thanks for sharing your close up shots. Cavitation is interesting, the tiny bubbles formed is a force to reckon with. Difficult to imagine those bubbles can cause significant damage to metals.

Thanks for the link Martin. Very interesting.

Nick that's brilliant. I too am amazed at the capabilities of this phone camera nowadays. I remember one of my dermatologist colleague taking close up pictures of skin lesions with this add on lens to his work iPad and thought that's clever and very good image capture. I might look into that. We can all include close up photos of all camera phones here too.

Hi Daniel, lovely composition there of this tiny insects. Love that tiny bee hovering in front of that flower! Don't part with your D90 (I have one also) the crop sensor plus your 105mm will give it a longer reach. Try getting extension tubes or a teleconverter. Did you use any flash on this?

Michael, that 55mm you've got is an amazing lens in my opinion. Wanted to get one also.

Mark, nice macro. D70 is very capable of taking macro. Keep it coming.

I’ve long had an interest in Macro photography. I’ve got a 90mm Macro lens for my old DSLR but things have moved on in recent years. These days Focus merging, stacking or bracketing can produce some stunning macro shots that make “single” shots look pretty poor in comparison. There are several camera makes that offer this facility as one of their settings. Olympus seem to be the most advanced at this. You can get the same result with old cameras by taking several shots in manual focus and then merging the shots with software.

Bit windy but managed to take some pictures today. Not much critters around but managed to capture a few on the sensor.

Winged Aphids

This very tiny spider is swaying in the wind and difficult to get him in focus. I would say life size about 0.25mm, could barely see him.

More Aphids. Most of them have no wings. Noticed the ant nursing them.

I don't know what this critter is called. Looks like a nymph of some beetle??? Looks great. Again very tiny.

Check this very tiny Katydid. Almost invisible to the eye.

One of the big guys a took a shot. This just landed in front of me.

Caught them red handed!

Very tiny jumping spider. This guy is so fast!

Possibly a fruit fly?

A common fly.

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 16/05/2020 14:26:10

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 16/05/2020 14:28:21

Some lovely photos here.
SOD mentioned extension rings but have you also tried a reversing adaptor? I have my father's Pentax with all sorts of kit which is a little old now as he died nearly 50 years ago We used to do colour slide development CR50 I think.
Of late I use my company iphone but cloud upload is disabled so it makes it a pan to get the pictures off.