Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
  
My 1st macro phtography
Posted By: ts357, 12-20-2014, 05:15 AM

Hi All,

just wanted to know what you think about these two images.

Taken with a K-5iis, reversal ring with Pentax-m 75-150 f4 Lens.

as i am in no way a pro, just got back to photography two weeks ago, would love to know how i can improve...

Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 

Views: 3,694
01-03-2015, 10:10 PM   #31
Forum Member




Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 51
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by baro-nite Quote
OK, so the flash should eliminate camera shake as a factor (it looks like the flash is indeed overpowering the ambient light). So I'd say the issue is choice of aperture. It's rare to find a lens that performs well reversed and wide open. I'd try stopping down from 2 to 4 stops and boosting flash power and/or ISO accordingly. You'll get a sharper image with less chromatic aberration and greater depth of field. Experiment to see what aperture is best.
Thanks...

01-04-2015, 04:45 PM   #32
Veteran Member
old4570's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Melbourne
Photos: Albums
Posts: 2,551
Hmmm

QuoteOriginally posted by ts357 Quote
one new photo,
for some reason it looks a bit messy.

F4 / ISO100 / 1/180


DOF will be next to nothing due to F4 and the lens being reversed ...
The only thing you can do to soften the image is a diffuser ( With those settings ) , or don't use a flash ..
As for DOF , the aperture is at the wrong end of the lens ...


Your Focus point will need to be spot on as you don't have much to play with . This will be hard , even in a studio environment .
01-06-2015, 11:05 AM   #33
Senior Member




Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 211
QuoteOriginally posted by Doundounba Quote
In my experience, this is just spreading FUD around, and I invite others to try it for themselves to determine where they put the line. Simply stating you couldn't get good shots at F/16 isn't exactly saying much. I recently went from K-01 to K-3, and while I agree that the K-3 is more exacting, I have a number of shots that are sharp enough at F/22 and even F/25. They might have been even sharper had I been able to get several stacked F/11 frames with no subject movement - which often is just not going to happen - but they're still perfectly usable and plenty sharp, IMHO. Advising people to stack several F/11 shots instead will mean that they mostly just won't get a usable shot at all. SOOC, pixel-level sharpness is not the be-all and end-all of (even macro) photography.

p.s.: My photo stream is in my signature. See right here for a retrospective of my favorite 2014 K-01 macro shots. See here, or here, or here for recent, decently sharp, F/22+, K-3 shots.

I said: my experience. Not 'god said it is so'. Well done going straight into attack mode.

Pixel size on the K3 is what - 4 to 5µm? Airy disk at F22 is 30µm.

Just to put it into perspective.

Very nice pictures btw. But why did you scale them down by a factor of 2.4? Or was that crop?
01-06-2015, 12:56 PM   #34
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Montréal QC
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,351
QuoteOriginally posted by Volker76 Quote
I said: my experience. Not 'god said it is so'. Well done going straight into attack mode.
This is a thread where a macro beginner is asking for advice. IMHO, it is ill-advised to recommend to someone like this to not go beyond F/11. Note that I simply invited others to try it for themselves and see where they wish to put the limit. (I do wonder exactly how big would one need to print a 24MP K-3 image for pixel level sharpness to become a humanly noticeable issue?)

QuoteQuote:
But why did you scale them down by a factor of 2.4? Or was that crop?
I don't usually crop very much, and when I do, there's usually an indication of how much in the description. For me a heavy crop is 12MP on the 16MP K-01 or less than 18MP on the 24MP K-3. After that, I definitely scale down significantly - to usually less than half of the linear resolution of the original. That is because I offer my Flickr pics (un-watermarked) under an IMHO generous Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA). Under that license, I prefer to not offer the original, full-size file.

That being said, I'm trying to be as open as possible, posting links to my stream and samples, which so far I don't think we've seen from you. Anyway, in that spirit, here are two 100% crops from SOOC K-3 jpegs. These shots might not be "pixel-sharp", but I suspect you could print them quite large, as, again IMHO, even the 100% crops don't look too bad. Of course, YMMV.

Shot #1 (Tamron 90mm @ F/25 plus Raynox MSN-202):




100% crop from SOOC jpeg:



Shot #2 (Tamron 90mm @ F/25 plus Raynox DCR-250):




100% crop from SOOC jpeg:




Last edited by Doundounba; 01-06-2015 at 01:06 PM.
01-06-2015, 01:09 PM   #35
Forum Member




Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 51
Original Poster
Great photos!!! Will try it soon on f11, focus is indeed very hard with a reversed lens. .
01-06-2015, 01:53 PM - 1 Like   #36
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Montréal QC
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,351
QuoteOriginally posted by ts357 Quote
Great photos!!! Will try it soon on f11, focus is indeed very hard with a reversed lens. .
Thanks! BTW, stopping down more and more with a reversed-lens is a game of compromises, even if you don't worry about sharpness (and I don't think you should at this point). On the one hand, as you stop down, you're increasing DoF (very desirable!), but on the other, you're reducing the amount of light that is coming in as you attempt to find your subject and establish focus (problematic). This is because when a lens is installed in the proper direction, the camera will only close the iris to your desired f-stop when you hit the shutter. So you're focusing with the lens wide-open. But with a reversed-lens, as soon as you stop down, the iris on the lens closes. At some point, your viewfinder/viewscreen will become too dark to properly frame and focus your shot. Liveview and focus peaking do help here, and I've made a few K-01 shots where I more or less guessed the subject was in the frame, and relied on barely more than a few pixels "lighting up" from the focus peaking to hit the shutter, but to do this your tolerance for missed shots has to be very high. If you're using a k-mount lens, you can use a finger to physically move the aperture lever and let more light in, but then you need to undo that when you shoot, without your finger-movement to release the aperture lever having an adverse effect on the shot's focus and/or framing... Not easy! That's one reason for preferring diopters on top of a macro lens to reversed-lens shooting for greater than lifesize macro...

Last edited by Doundounba; 01-18-2015 at 12:17 PM.
01-11-2015, 10:09 AM - 1 Like   #37
Forum Member




Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 51
Original Poster
I think i am getting a bit better, here are a few more from today.
still using the reverse ring adapter, changed the lens to my smc 35-70mm.
used f11 as suggested, LED flashlight & pop up flash with DIY diffuser (toilet paper...;-)
The 'model' was released alive and well...

Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5 II s  Photo 
01-18-2015, 08:14 AM   #38
csa
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter
csa's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Montana mountains
Posts: 10,133
Congratulations! That's quite an improvement! I like #1 better than #2; but that's just my personal preference. #1 really "pops"! What "bug" is that? Sure looks mean!
01-18-2015, 02:07 PM   #39
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Newcastle
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,954
the macro bug has bit another .... good work ts357

it won't be long before you start yearning for a dedicated macro. But, as you are starting with reversed lenses it is clear to me that your macro infliction won't necessarily cost you a bomb (you seem competent in manual mode). Lots of very very good manual macro lenses to choose from .....

When your ready I am sure there is a wealth of opinion ready to shower down on you regarding macro lenses, just ask the question
01-18-2015, 02:15 PM   #40
Forum Member




Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 51
Original Poster
Thanks!!! I am allready yearning for a macro lens, but will wait a bit longer. Ordered extension tubes & lens coupler to ease my craving. Btw the bug is a moth, but I am unsure how its called.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
(My 1st) Pentax Wedding HSV Photographic Industry and Professionals 13 11-25-2013 11:19 PM
My 1st few shots with the K5 and my 1st attempt at shooting RAW aaronius Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 5 12-04-2010 12:35 AM
Streets My first Macro lens, the DFA 100mm Macro WR. Here are my 1st few shots with it! aaronius Post Your Photos! 4 04-30-2010 07:23 PM
Short Wedding Phtography session costs? keyser Photographic Industry and Professionals 5 03-20-2010 06:28 PM
Sigma 70mm Macro (my 1st shots) jsherman999 Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 51 07-17-2009 08:26 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:55 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top