How to shot a supermacro with Standard kit.

[popat]

This shot is taken handheld with no flash, just using some standard kit.

I took this shot couple of days back and I was surprise by the result.



Some random details.



How I took it.

My kit:
Camera: Canon 350D
Lens: Sigma 105mm f2.8 and standard kit lens (18-55mm) which came with the camera.

Thats about it.

I use a sigma 105mm f2.8 prime lens and reverse mounted the standard kit lens 18-55mm; kit lens was not actually mounted, I was holding it handheld with my left hand; nothing was attached. I was holding the camera with one hand and reverse kit lens with other.

Now the trick to get the picture sharp in focus.

1. Put the sigma 105mm lens focus to its closest i.e. 1:1. Lens focus range is 0.313ft to infinity so I put it on 0.313ft. By the doing this the lens barrel will be fully extended.
2. Now how to setup the standard kit lens. Zoom your kit lens all the way to 55mm, by doing this you will open its aperture as large as possible. Now set its focus to infinity, that will give you maximum magnification.
3. Put the the kit lens as reverse in front of the 105mm lens.
4. Just move you body back and forward to focus and start shooting.

You can use this trick with any lens combination, try and see what you got. Result and zoom level may vary, depending on what lenses you use.

[PowerPix]

Very good idea. This is a neat spin on freelensing.
I did a tuturial for freelensing recently but had not thought of using two lense to do it!

Ultra Easy Freelensing

[popat]

and if you have 70-200mm lens mounted on camera and a 50mm prime as reverse then magnification would be beyond control. You would be able to see the actual pixels of a Laptop screen live on your camera LCD.

Here is the picture that I took.



goto flickr and view large size to see the level of detail.
Here is the link:
24 in pixels | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[tybo78]

Yes, I read about this on DPS the other day so i tried it out with my 55-200 and 50mm. The DOF was minuscule. Like you would measure it in microns ( I may be exaggerating). Is there a way to control the DOF? I couldn't figure it out.

[wulf]

You probably have a couple of mm DoF rather than a few microns but, even so, it is a significant limit. Unfortunately, that is the way optics works. You either need to find very flat subjects or investigate the post-processing approach called focus stacking if you want to get round that.

Wulf

[popat]

I did managed to pull this photo handheld. DOF is pretty shallow and thats the price you pay.



This is sugar crystal. And this is 100% frame, I didn't crop it. You can view flickr for full size.

[popat]

Originally Posted by tybo78

Yes, I read about this on DPS the other day so i tried it out with my 55-200 and 50mm. The DOF was minuscule. Like you would measure it in microns ( I may be exaggerating). Is there a way to control the DOF? I couldn't figure it out.

You can either decrease the zoom so you have more DOF. you usually use such magnification when you are shooting extremely small object, like in my above reply I posted sugar crystal picture and you can see that even that is 20% in focus, thats how shallow DOF is. But 20% is all you need for such subjects

You can increase the Aperture value or close the aperture but for that you need to use and External flash to compensate the f-stop lost in that. I was already shooting in ISO 1600 (which is maximum on 350D) and f2.8 so was getting just enough shutter value to shoot handheld so if I want to increase the f-value I have to use an external flash.

Why external flash because you will be so close to the subject that your camera flash won't do anything other than casting shadows. And for external flash you need to use it with cable, basically free from camera body so you can position is freely else ring flash will do the job nicely.

Hope that helps.

[popat]

Originally Posted by wulf

You probably have a couple of mm DoF rather than a few microns but, even so, it is a significant limit. Unfortunately, that is the way optics works. You either need to find very flat subjects or investigate the post-processing approach called focus stacking if you want to get round that.

Wulf

Focus stacking is neat but nearly impossible if you are freelesning and shooting handheld. Only way to increase DOF while retaining that insane magnification is to use Powerful External Flash.

Plus I took the shoot of flower and sugar crystal in Hard sunlight for maximum light with full aperture for maximum light and high ISO for maximum light and after all three I still got 1/90sec shutter value.

[WayneW]

Hi Popat,
I remembered reading about that neat trick after I read your description! Thanks for showing us - I had to try it, didn't worry about quality of lighting, just had to do it. The three shots are in my Flickr account, (no cropping was done) if anyone's interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11553617@N08/
Keep shooting,
Wayne

[popat]

Originally Posted by WayneW

Hi Popat,
I remembered reading about that neat trick after I read your description! Thanks for showing us - I had to try it, didn't worry about quality of lighting, just had to do it. The three shots are in my Flickr account, (no cropping was done) if anyone's interested:
Flickr: Colleen58's Photostream
Keep shooting,
Wayne

Nice capture. Just a Tip, use as much light as you can. Try shooting in sunlight, in hard light.