Macro Photography (#2)
Last post I talked a lot about some less expensive methods
for creating some macro photography. Today I want to talk about the set-up that
I use most of all. There are extension bellows that can be purchased. They
range in price just like all things do, from around $50 to somewhere in the
range of $500 and up (Yes, and up, I love that expression, especially when
stores use that as a sales pitch. “You will at least spend $60 on anything here”).
As with most things, the more expensive something is, the more features it will
typically have. I had an “Extra” fifty bucks so I thought I would give it a
try. I purchased a little extension bellows from eBay and when it came in the
mail, I was a little disappointed, not in the quality of the product, but the
size of it. It was just tiny. Keep in
mind though, I had come from using a large format view camera for my bellows,
so anything smaller than that was bound to be a size disappointment.
in different range of prices as well. This one is about as basic as you can get.
Since my bellows was on the cheap side, it basically had two
things that it could do, attach a lens and a body, and extend. That’s about it,
but that’s really all that I needed.
One more thing, there is literally no electronics in this
piece of hardware. Because of that, it severely limited the type of lenses I
could use and still maintain some degree of control.
I tried using my Sigma 400mm f4 manual focus lens, and it
worked, but I was still about 3 feet away from my subject and it was very
difficult to compose my subject. So I opted for a manual focus Nikon zoom film
lens (43-86 mm, don’t ask me why such random numbers, that’s just how it came
from Keh.com). This was a completely manual lens, and I was able to use it with
my new extension bellows.
I like this set-up the most for one main reason, speed. The
extension bellows was the quickest set-up with the best results. I was able to
change my focus quickly and compose with ease.
You may recognize this little guy from the movie Cars, it's Guido. My son loves squinkies and he just had a birthday and got a ton of them. So naturally after he goes to bed, I play with them. But they also make an excellent subject for Macro photography. This little dude is close to a centimeter high, and you can see the scale compared to my index finger tip.
Yet another squinky, this time using a AA battery for scale. Here I have my lens set to f22 and a shutter around 1/4 second to get the right exposure. It's a little more difficult to compose at the smaller apertures because it's like composing in the dark. Using brighter focusing lights is a good idea at this point. Here I just used a shop light to help light Yoda. I also like the addition of the sinister Sith Lord in the back.
Reverse Lens Macro Set-up
There is one last set-up and believe me it’s about as ghetto
cheap as you can get. Here are the parts
and tools required
-Camera
-An old lens
-a body cap
- a lens filter (not important what kind, just as cheap as
you can get it)
-epoxy
-dremel tool
So here’s the idea, if you reverse a lens to where the
mounting of the lens is in the front instead of coupled to the camera body, you
can essentially create a macro lens. If you do it right, you can use this lens
in regular mode, and macro without ruining your lens.
For your first try at doing this, grab just any lens. You
can pick up a cheap used lens on www.keh.com for
less than $30 and give this a shot.
So here is the set up. Read all the directions before
proceeding:
1. Take
the body cap, and the dremel tool and clear out all the plastic in the middle,
so that you just have a circle to attach to your camera body.
2. Grab
your lens filter (fit to the size of your lens) and remove any and all glass.
The only part of the filter that we need is the screw mount. That’s why it’s
not important to buy a very expensive filter.
3. Epoxy
the lens filter and the dremelled body cap together making sure that the
threaded edge is facing out. Allow the epoxy to dry for the recommended time
(and then some, it can’t hurt to give it as much time to harden)
4. Screw
the lens in to the lens filter.
5. Attach
the lens to your camera body using the body cap.
6. Ta
da, you now have a macro lens.
Things to remember
A: It is important in
this set up to pick a lens that allows full manual controls, especially focus
and aperture.
B: Be Careful of
weight distribution. Just because something is epoxied does not mean it will
not fail (I know from experience). This is especially important if you are
using a heavy lens that might add considerable strain to either the lens mount
or the plastic body cap.
C: If you can come up with a better solution, I’m all for
it, just let me know.
I hope this has proved informative and will lead to some
amazing photography. Like I said, Macro photography is one of my passions and I
love the miniature world. If any of you have questions, feel free to comment on
this or any post.
Thanks
Andrew
No comments:
Post a Comment