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02-23-2017, 03:32 AM   #1
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Effectiveness of SR in Macro / closeup.

I am going to be giving a quick tutorial on my closeup work at my camera club.
As others are going to be discussing flash I intend to discuss my handheld existing light closeups.
I use a K01 with focus peaking enabled and a lcd viewfinder and find the combination extremely effective.
The thing is I tend to have SR enabled by default and I think it is giving me quite an advantage but I have never made objective comparisons. I don't want to mislead people about handholding if SR is necessary and not available to them.
What do you feel about SR in this situation?
This is one I took today in existing light handheld. It is a very fine cobweb on grass - so fine it just looks like a patch of fog.
Be aware that due to DoF not all drops can be in focus due to the cobweb not being dead flat.
It is 1:1 magnification courtesy of a Rikenon 105mm at 1/180s
Given its magnification at 1:1 I can calculate the largest drop is 0.5 mm across.
I don't think I could achieve this without SR could I?

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02-23-2017, 03:39 AM   #2
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Sometimes with me, if I didn't have SR on, every thing would be OOF. So, I believe SR is essential to macro photography.

What was the DOF here, you didn't say. I shoot at least f8 or less. More often it's f14 to f22. Though sometimes diffraction plays into the shot at f22.
02-23-2017, 03:52 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by photolady95 Quote
Sometimes with me, if I didn't have SR on, every thing would be OOF. So, I believe SR is essential to macro photography.

What was the DOF here, you didn't say. I shoot at least f8 or less. More often it's f14 to f22. Though sometimes diffraction plays into the shot at f22.
f8 or f11 for this one. I tend to work more open because I like to utilise smoother backgrounds and will compromise dof ability to do it (ie my aims are often more aesthetic than technical). At the end of the day courtesy of the dof calculator at 1:1 at f5.6 dof is 0.5mm and f11 is 1.3mm. 0.5mm may be sod all but 1.3mm still almost always guaranties that much of your image will be oof. And that is where aesthetics kicks in.
02-23-2017, 04:00 AM   #4
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I'm not sure I understand why a larger aperture would be best. Here is what I got at f18: And at f14, f16, etc. There are other examples in my flickr, linked in my signature.



02-23-2017, 04:42 AM   #5
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because he is not using a flash and probably wants to keep iso manageable. Nice photo photolady.
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02-23-2017, 04:42 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by photolady95 Quote
I'm not sure I understand why a larger aperture would be best. Here is what I got at f18: And at f14, f16, etc. There are other examples in my flickr, linked in my signature.
I was trying to find an example of that today as well. Here is a Manuka flower at about 1 : 1.5 magnification. One at f11 and one at f4. There is no doubt I have lost sharpness on the flower but the smoother background is a real gain.
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02-23-2017, 04:59 AM - 1 Like   #7
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Why would you not use a tripod for shots like these?

02-23-2017, 05:04 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by GUB Quote
I am going to be giving a quick tutorial on my closeup work at my camera club.
As others are going to be discussing flash I intend to discuss my handheld existing light closeups.
I use a K01 with focus peaking enabled and a lcd viewfinder and find the combination extremely effective.
The thing is I tend to have SR enabled by default and I think it is giving me quite an advantage but I have never made objective comparisons. I don't want to mislead people about handholding if SR is necessary and not available to them.
What do you feel about SR in this situation?
This is one I took today in existing light handheld. It is a very fine cobweb on grass - so fine it just looks like a patch of fog.
Be aware that due to DoF not all drops can be in focus due to the cobweb not being dead flat.
It is 1:1 magnification courtesy of a Rikenon 105mm at 1/180s
Given its magnification at 1:1 I can calculate the largest drop is 0.5 mm across.
I don't think I could achieve this without SR could I?


Using an old manual Sigma 50mm macro lens on a K-5 I did a little experiment on the effectiveness of SR with this lens as it extends to a length greater than that of some old 135mm non macro lenses. Hand held, existing light, shutter speeds around 1/30th second where I expected to see the benefits of SR. My thought being that the length of the lens might affect the SR after dialling in the 50mm.


I found that the SR was more effective if I dialled in 75mm as my focal length and that "SR turned off" seemed to supply results similar to "SR enabled" at 50mm.


No way this is to be used as evidence of whether or not to use SR but maybe you could mention to your camera club that some experimentation might be in order to qualify when SR (with old manual lenses) is most effective, I really should look into this further for my own benefit.


There are many threads on the forum regarding macro lenses (or setups with extension rings, "macro" adapters etc) and maybe a tripod (with SR off) is a better option than hand held where a tripod can be used, shame using a tripod is not always an option.
02-23-2017, 05:33 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sandy Hancock Quote
Why would you not use a tripod for shots like these?
In the field a tripod is more of hindrance than help, Sandy. IMO
02-23-2017, 05:55 AM   #10
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I too have experimented with sr and found that it improves handheld macros. I also found that setting focal length longer than it was worked well on macro shots.
02-23-2017, 06:57 AM   #11
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I don't find it very useful past about 0.25x magnification or so, at this point handheld ambient work starts to become an exercise in frustration SR or no SR (this is a very rough guideline that depends on the light levels, your expectations, required DoF, etc. etc.). There are some borderline cases where it's nicer to have than not, for example if I'm using the ambient light at a stop down for fill, the SR can help keep me under sync speed and maintain handhold-ability a little longer. Or for lower magnification stuff (e.g. mid to large butterflies) on brightish days. But as magnification goes up, it's a tripod and/or flashes for the win if I want to maintain sharpness. It's a compromise, there's no one way to do things.

That said, I always stress that macro lenses (modern ones at least) are not just for high magnification work. They are grand as general purpose lenses, and the 100/2.8 versions can work very well as fast mid-telephoto lenses, and here SR becomes more and more useful. All things equal when picking out a lens/camera combo, I'd take SR every time, but for macros or close-ups I wouldn't be sad to not have it.
02-23-2017, 11:52 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by photolady95 Quote
In the field a tripod is more of hindrance than help, Sandy. IMO
Yes.
In the case of the manuka flower by the time you have found one undamaged , in a pleasant environment and aligned nicely for background you have eliminated 99.9% of them. To then select for accessibility with the tripod would be that much too hard. Yes you can cut the flower and sit it somewhere but I choose not to do that.
02-24-2017, 10:13 PM   #13
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