I decided that it was time to really see if the semi soft macros I had from the kit lens was equipment error or user error. I had noticed that when trying to take macro in the field, that I shifted to and from the subject, and also there has been alot of breeze around lately, so I got very few sharp results. I also noticed in a little test I did, there was a seemed to be a slight focussing error on the part of the lens. So I decided to bring the subject inside where there were no error producing elements, used a tripod and shot RAW, just to see what I would get. Here are the results:



Hope you enjoy and all critiques and comments are very welcome.

D

[roentarre]

I decided that it was time to really see if the semi soft macros I had from the kit lens was equipment error or user error.

Hope you enjoy and all critiques and comments are very welcome.

D

Macro is very addictive and easy to do in spare time. This shot is probably taken with a flash with a higher shutter speed (or no flash with shutter speed higher than 1/1000 sec) - hence the black backdrop in the shot typical with high speed flash. Kit lens wide open would have noiser bokeh - not that pronounced here.

The flowers have rich colour and nice details - pleasant to the eyes. I would prefer to include less of the stem above which sort of dissects the image into left and right halves. Maybe tilt the plant a bit diagonally with different angles - just to experiment

Spray some water to creat dews and maybe some playing around with lastolite reflecter instead of flash

Just my humble opinions. No offence intended.

This is a pleasant nice image

Cheers

[dudlew]

Thanks for the comments and critiques roentarre.

However, no flash was used at all. The only light was natural light coming in from a window. The shutter speed was 8/10ths of a second. I actually draped a black shirt over a chair to get the black background The aperature was f8 , using spot metering, and if I remember correctly, exposure compensation of -0.7. I would have loved to try a reflector, but I don't have one at my disposal.

I was also thinking of spritzing the flowers as well but decided to leave that for a different day.

I understand what you said and mean about the stem. Truth be told I don't like it there either and I will experiment when I get the chance to do so again in terms of actually cutting off the stem and trying different angles.

Thanks for the comments again

D

[foxglove]

Yup, that kit lens does okay, considering. Nice image. It might be nicer with a dedicated macro, but this proves that you can get perfectly acceptable results with the kit. That said, don't bother trying to get decent insects macros with it, you'll only get frustrated. It's just not up to the task, in my opinion. I'm spoiled, of course, I have the lovely Tokina 90mm macro. But for larger subjects like flowers and the like (maybe even some larger insects) you can get along with the kit. I assume you focused manually, I find that's the only way with macro. AF is far too likely to misfocus, and the slightest error is really obvious, as you've discovered.

You realise, though, you're going to get addicted to this and eventually get a macro lens...

Julie

[dudlew]

Thanks Julie,

I know the bug will bite sooer or later, but hopefully much later. I actually used the auto focus for this one. I don't trust myself with the manual focus without the split microprism thingy. All of the previous slrs I used had one and I do miss it on the K100D. The image was just too dull in reality to maual focus properly.

Thanks again

D