the bigger flies came out this evening so i got another chance to take some closeups. i need a lot more practice with handholding techniques coz i'm really struggling to maintain focus on the eyes. damn, these flies are ugly!
you are spring and we going into dull wet autumn, then snowy winter... Extraordinary captures !! real nice photos.
i'm a photography hobbyist i only just started with macro photography since i recently bought a macro lens. before that i was interested in badminton photography. i don't have any other pics of small animals yet but i'm practising whenever i find small bugs around. so far i'm only getting 1 decent picture out of every 5-10.
if you already have a telephoto lens and don't want to shell out for a macro lens then you can get by with a closeup filter attached to a telephoto lens. i'm tempted to get a closeup filter for my macro lens so that i can get even more than 1:1 magnification.
Close-up lenses are positive lenses that are mounted on the front of the lens like a filter. But quality is not great and the magnification is limited. For quality close-up work macro lenses are best as they are optically corrected to provide the best image quality at close distances. If you still want bigger magnifications from macro lenses always use bellows or extension tubes, not close-up lenses as the latter will degrade image quality. Or you can try to do it on the cheap. See if your lens can be mounted by reversing the lens. If you can get an adapter to attach the front of your lens to your camera body, you may get "free" close-up capabilities, which will be sharper than using close-up lenses or filters.
I wonder if a reverse ring can be used together with a macro lens! Isn't the front element too far away from an object when using it reversed?
Close-up pictures are often taken with the front of the lens towards the film or sensor, the rear towards the subject, just the opposite from the way it is usually positioned. This is because when the image is larger than the object many lenses work better that way around. Normally the subject is much further from the lens than is the film/sensor. The closer you photograph, the shorter the subject distance and the longer the image distance, until at life-size magnification they are equal. Image distances are longer than subject distances when the magnification becomes greater than 1x and this is the only time when reversing lenses can improve the image. BUt whetehr and how much it helps also depends on the design of the lens. With most symmetrical lens design, it is not necessary. A macro lens will be great on a bellows which gives you a range of magnifications instead of just one. Even better, reverse a macro lens on either just the body or on a bellows attached to the body. But can your lens aperture be manually set? If not, then it is just a moot point.
A bellow will work very well on 50mm or some wide-angle or even macro lenses. Coz the distance between the rear element and the film plane can be adjusted. And so does the front element to the object distance. By adjusting both. We can always get an object in focus! But as for using a reverse ring on a macro. Since the distance between the real front element and the film plane is fixed. And the real front element will be further away from the film plane. I m just not sure if we can get an object in focus with this set up.
Reversing a lens is mainly for the very near distances, measured to a few mm, and of course it cannot work on infinity. This is the way to go for huge magnifications. The focusing ring's use will be very limited. It is best to move the camera mounted on a tripod to focus. With the same lens you can always revert back to the normal way of mounting to take normal pictures.
