Snack Time

[drivebyshooter]

Also seen here. Watchathink?

[subrataofkris]

Hi drivebyshooter

The shot has a tremendous drama and anticipation. Its a brilliant subject but the focus has robbed the beauty. I do not know what camera you are using or any other technical details. If you are using macro or closeup setting in point and shoot, try to get a sharper focus on the ant. It picture should be like a black hole in which the any ant is getting sucked in.

A very good subject

[epeyton@tampabay.rr.com]

Originally Posted by subrataofkris

Hi drivebyshooter

The shot has a tremendous drama and anticipation. Its a brilliant subject but the focus has robbed the beauty. I do not know what camera you are using or any other technical details. If you are using macro or closeup setting in point and shoot, try to get a sharper focus on the ant. It picture should be like a black hole in which the any ant is getting sucked in.

A very good subject

I would have to agree with Subrata all the way

[igor.yermak]

I like the vibrant colors however you should have used a macro lens if you had one

[melanie2457]

This would have been a great shot if the ant had been in focus.

[jiminyClickit]

drivebyshooter,

Could you give us an idea of what camera and settings you used, and what time of day and under what kind of light (cloudy, shade)?

[drivebyshooter]

This was my first stab at macro photography and I used a reversed lens. I wrote about this and posted photos of my setup on my site.

Notes on the setup in general:

• As I mentioned, I made a makeshift macro lens by reversing a regular non-macro lens on the camera. I had the camera sitting on the table with the lens sitting on a roll of duct tape and a microfiber cloth.
• I stopped my lens down to f/16 (f/22 in some shots) to try and increase my DOF.
• I lit everything in the series (the shot attached included) with 2 CFL bulbs and a small mirror.
• Since I didn't want to move the camera and the lens, I moved my subject back and forth to get it into focus.

This specific shot:

• I was shooting the flower you see here - you can see what my focus was for the shot.
• As I was shooting, I saw the ant in the frame. It looked sharp enough in the viewfinder - obviously, I was wrong - so I just kept shooting until the ant walked off the frame.

Specific for melanie2457: Yeah, I would have loved this if I had better focus on the ant...

[jiminyClickit]

drivebyshooter,

Time spent on your site didn't answer the question that brings me back: are you overworking this Macro setup? The camera you're holding could be any one of a hundred that have a Macro setting. The shot you posted looks like one I might have been lucky to get with my $75 Fuji FP S3100, earlier this year.

Normally I dislike seeing a poster put one of their photos in another's thread. To make a point this one time, though, consider the following: using the Fuji in Macro, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/450sec., using the last few minutes of sunlight of the day (August 5), this was the result



What is the chance that some part of reversing your lens is not allowing you to focus accurately? It does not make sense to me, as your action figures seem sharp.

[melanie2457]

When you reverse mount, you generally get a VERY narrow DOF. It does allow you to get closer to your subject and get some nice shots, but sometimes you lose something too. I think part of the problem here could be that there wasn't enough light, you had your aperture stopped all the way down, and the ant was moving. With a reverse mount there's no play room in the focusing, so if the ant moved a tiny bit after you focused you'd lose it.

[drivebyshooter]

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

What is the chance that some part of reversing your lens is not allowing you to focus accurately? It does not make sense to me, as your action figures seem sharp.

The action figures were shot with the lens mounted normally, so my DOF was fine and I could focus normally. In my reverse lens setup, I didn't want to touch my camera to focus. Instead, I moved the subject back and forth until it was in focus.

Some others have mentioned that a reverse lens setup gives extremely shallow DOF. I'm not entirely sure why yet, but I guess that, along with the size of my subject, was my problem here. I had an area of focus less than 1 or 2 mm deep, I think.

As for your shot, I'm wondering if the difference in our cameras (specifically sensor size) is what gives you more latitude (with DOF) than my reverse lens setup. You had your aperture wide open, yet the whole ant was in focus. I don't think I could have gotten that with my setup.

I'm also wondering how much latitude I can get with an actual macro lens. Like melanie mentioned:

Originally Posted by melanie2457

With a reverse mount there's no play room in the focusing, so if the ant moved a tiny bit after you focused you'd lose it.