Macro photrograpy question

[STEVE DIAS]

Quick question on macro photography, which I really really want to learn real well, and love to do. If I use a reversing ring or a coupling ring with another lense. Which is better. A lense with or without a appature ring, and why? 50mm f/1.4 being reversed. Thank you for any feedback. I have so much gear and no skills.

[Elmo]

I have never coupled two lenses together , but used to use one reversed. In that case an app ring is required to control app. I suspect if one used a coupler the second lens would not need one. Just my thoughts

[Cola]

I shoot reversed lens macro (as can be seen in my Flickr link in my sig) As mentioned above it is necessary to have an aperture ring for your reversed lens. Reversing your lens make you lose any contact with the camera, so that ring becomes the only way you can control you aperture. If you are using a coupling ring then the reversed lens at the end of your mounted lens has to have an aperture ring but the one connected to the camera does not.

When shooting a lens into another lens it is best to zoom the lens connected to your camera as close and you can because you will be shooting through the aperture diaphragm of the reversed lens and in many cases you will end up with vignette since you want the higher f stop on the reversed lens for the most DOF.

You may also want to look into get some cheap manual focus extension tubes (such as Zykkor ones found on Amazon) and a reversal ring and reversing your prime on the extension tubes. I have found that using just my 50 prime gets me sharper photos. If there's anything that your confused about or that I can help with, just let me know!

Happy shooting!

[ravncat]

It's best to, if you can - place the aperture, in between the two lenses you are connecting. This is because it becomes a center of the optical path.

Otherwise, I'm not sure -but I think it's usually the front lens left open and camera lens stopped down.

[STEVE DIAS]

I have 2 Nikkor Macro lenses ( 60mm, f/2.8G ED AF-S micro)( 105mm, f/2.8G IF-ED micro) bit still trying to get even closer. How about one of these lenses with the extention tubes and a Raynox DCR-250macro conversion lense. =2.5x mag. I also have a (NIKON SPEEDLIGHT (R1) to light up the subject. How about a bellows? Like I said. I have a lot of gear but no clue on how to use it. I've spent thousands on equipment I don't real know how to use, because I didn't want my learning to be limited by lack of equipment. Thank you for your previos answers and any others.

[Cola]

Bellows work well, it will act like tubes that you can change easier on the fly. Generally speaking, the more glass you have the less sharp your image will be. My personal opinion and choice is to use a single lens, preferably a prime, to get the sharpest image.

Using tubes or bellows and reversing the lens on the end will get you a lot closer but the farther you move your lens from your camera, the more light you will need to not only focus on your subject (constant/ambient) but the more light you will need to light your subject for the photo itself.

If you are something stationary that WILL NOT move and you have your camera on a STURDY tripod, then you can do a long exposure and use your constant/ambient light, otherwise you will need a flash on your subject.at a pretty high power.

After you get comfortable with your gear you can look into focus stacking.

[STEVE DIAS]

I posted my question in the wrong forum to begin with. If I had posted it here,I would have found the wealth of information in this forum as I just have sitting here waisting comp. time. ( opps my bad: should'nt have said that) The answers to all my questions and more. Thank you all who responded to my original question. I wish I had more time to get to know this site.

[Cola]

Originally Posted by STEVE DIAS

I posted my question in the wrong forum to begin with. If I had posted it here,I would have found the wealth of information in this forum as I just have sitting here waisting comp. time. ( opps my bad: should'nt have said that) The answers to all my questions and more. Thank you all who responded to my original question. I wish I had more time to get to know this site.

Confused by what you mean here, but good luck to you.

[STEVE DIAS]

Focus stacking? Great. Havn't heard that term before. Now I got to go look that up. THKS. I posted the original question in the general chit chat form.

[Cola]

Oh ok I understand, at first I thought you meant another forum being another website.

Here's a quick rundown on focus stacking. When you shoot macro you are working with a shallow depth of field, in most cases a millimeter or 2. When you use bellows, extension tubes, or a reversed lens (or any combination of these) you get a VERY small DOF to work with. Focus stacking is putting your camera on a tripod and taking multiple photos of a subject, each time focusing on a different area, then combining all the photos to have one, very detailed photo.

For example, lets say its the head of an ant. Your first show could be the ends of the antenna, next shot more of the antenna, next shot base of the head/ front of the eyes, next shot more of the eyes, and so on. Once you have all your shots, you use a program such as Helicon to put all of your photos together to have one detailed photo.

To show you an example of this, here is a shot taken by a Flickr friend of mine Johnhallmen. His work is stunning and continues to inspire me and amaze me again and again. This is a studio stack he did using 170 shots to get a highly detailed macro photo oh the head of a hoverfly.

Studio stack: Hoverfly, objective test | Flickr - Photo Sharing!