posted this so I’ll do it again here in the critique section.
This past month I borrowed a 16mm extension tube and tried my hand at macro photography. It has been very exciting. As I began to get more involved in the process, I started to notice that it was as though I was taking pictures of landscapes. I was seeing a topography, a whole world of nuanced shape and form. I began to get the sense that getting closer doesn’t change the essential quest – to clear away the noise and get to the essence of my own experience. Anyway, here is one of my favourites from this experiment. I would appreciate any feedback that might help me take this further.
EXIF: Fuji Xt2, Fujinon 55-200mm, ISO 400, 90mm, f/14, 1/60 sec.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
I like this a lot, Kerry. The leaves have a wonderful glow. I also like the depth in the image that you got by not trying to get the entire depth in focus, yet keeping the main leaf nice and sharp-a very good choice of f-stop. The only suggestion I could make would be to leave just a bit more room around the main leaf on the left , top and bottom, particularly the top. It just feels a bit crowded to me.
Kerry, this is a fine macro look at these wet leaves, with good dof on the main subject, nice colors and lots of details. A tiny bit more room at the top would be nice, but framing in macro/close-up work is always a challenge. You don’t say what focal length your lens was set at. That makes a difference because when working with extension tubes, the simplest way to think about how much more magnification the tube(s) provide is to look at the ratio of the extension length to the focal length of the lens. For example with a 100mm lens, 16 mm of extension would increase your magnification by 16% assuming that you had the lens set to focus at infinity. It gets more complicated when your lens is not focused at infinity since the extension tubes allow you to focus much closer than the normal lens does. The one caveat is that you don’t want the extension tube length to be more than about 1/2 of the focal length setting chosen on the lens. (The optical design of the lens starts to degrade at higher magnifications resulting in softness throughout the frame.)
To be honest, Mark, I really don’t understand the mathematics of all of this. I’m just getting a feel for where this particular lens focuses best with the extension tube and work from there. For what it’s worth I think I noted in the EXIF data that this 55-200mm lens was at 90mm (aprox. 135 mm equivalent) for this shot.
Hi Kerry - This turned out very nicely! The water drops add a lot of interest and I like the color of the leaves. It makes me look forward to wet autumn days later this year. Overall, I think the composition works well. The only thing that catches my eye is the spec of green at the top. In this case, I think it distracts a bit from the rest of the scene because it is so different. You could consider cloning out the green specs or cropping a bit off the top of the frame. Otherwise, a great start to your journey with macro photography.
Wow. Good eye, Sarah. I never noticed it but, of course, now I do. I am loathe to crop as it is already tight so I tried to deal with it using frequency separation. Does this help or make it worse?
Kerry: Getting into macro many years ago has helped to keep me motivated with my imaging. There are always subjects close at hand and the challenges of composition and capture are always stimulating. I think you did well here and the slight adjustment in the repost is a nice touch. Keep 'em coming.>=))>
