At the Arizona Desert Museum looking for small insects and found this lay enjoying the flower. It has been pretty dry in Southern AZ
Anything helps
Is this a composite: No
Bright sunny day. 90D 100-400 ii with D500 Closeup lens. 1/320 f/14 ISo 500 HH I dimmed that background my usual way in Photoshop. Selected background used curves and reduced saturation. Used Topaz DiNoise AI
Aw, she’s very sweet. A tad soft, but the light is reasonable and I like the flower she’s on. Nice colors, too. The rich orange is a nice contrast with the soft pink and greens.
Dean, the bee and the flower look good. It does look like your focus was near the rear leg, so her eye and thorax are slightly soft (that softness is only clear in the largest view). The single element close-up lenses add softness away from the center although at f/14 you should have minimized that. Because dof depends on the magnification at the chip, (determined by the focal length, working distance) at the f-stop what we’re seeing here is most likely just the result of your getting close and working at high magnification. Under those conditions, you get to chose what part of the image will be sharp. With a side view like this, you get more sharpness in the subject by getting the back of the camera parallel to the subject (definitely challenging with a rapidly moving subject like a bee).
Thanks @Kris_Smith and @Mark_Seaver for the comments. I need to start taking a notebook with me because I do not recall if I did use the D500 closeup. However, because of the FOV I think I did. I do try to set focus on the eye, but bees move around quickly. One reason I started using this lens with the close-up filter is the speed of the auto focus is very fast compared the 180 macro. That said the 90D is a 30MP camera and cropped so maybe II am better off without the closeup filter and just crop. That lens will focus at 400mm at 3 feet. Any thoughts? I am trying to see what works best with what I have.
Dean, you’ll get better image quality using extension tubes, however, the extra magnification that they give is determined by the focal length of the main lens and the length of the extension. (gain = ET length/focal length, approximately since it will depend on the working distance also). I suggest continuing to work with the closeup lens to get familiar with the problems and benefits. If you like the results but want better quality, then you can move to extension tubes. The 180 macro is much, much better for very close work, but is fairly slow to focus…
Nice capture. Bees are very difficult subjects – fast-moving and a DOF challenge.
A nice job, Dean. I love the BG on this one, making the bee stand out. Nice lighting on him.
Dean: Good solid capture. Not sure if the softness is DOF related or just low IQ from the diopter. I used to use them when I first got into macro but stopped when I got a dedicated macro lens. I considered using them again when I wanted to use a longer zoom lens because I really didn’t like using extension tubes but I eventually got more comfortable with tubes and now find them to be a superior way to get close with a zoom. Still a fine comp and a nicely rendered BG. >=))>
I tried some testing yesterday @Mark_Seaver and @Bill_Fach I noticed the light loss in the extension but a slightly sharper image. I used a tripod on a flower. I am using the Andorma 77mm D500 close up filter. I do see a image reduction but not sure if it is enough. I will have to try something like a cactus or maybe a book with text to tell.
The macro 180 is excellent. However as I got older I shake more. So I need fast auto focus to keep on the subject which is small. I wondered about getting the 100L macro with IS when I can get close. More experimenting.
Dean: I’m not familiar with the capabilities of your system but I’m getting spoiled by the AF performance of my A7RIII and my new 70-200. If I’m hand holding or dealing with a moving subject I’m trying to use that combo with tubes if I need to get close. I’ll set the AF on continuous and then fire a burst of shots instead of trying to get a single shutter release. There are more wasted shots but the keeper count has been pretty good. That said, with my old 200mm macro and the adapter that allows me to use my old Sony/Minolta DSLR lenses the AF performance is fair at best. I love that old 200mm but I’m at the point where I only use it primarily on subjects where I can use MF.
