Bokeh Bee

[RussHeath]

This little fella was a dream subject. He actually held still on that flower for about 10 minutes. I had enough time to change lenses and position a remote flash under him!



The different lenses, focal lengths, and apertures were actually quite a lesson in what makes good bokeh. If there's intrest I might post a series of shots with exif data to illustrate.

C&C welcome.

[wulf]

Yes - gives us some more for the series and explain your observations. That would be great.

Wulf

[ELAY]

Remote flash! Tutorials on aperture/focal length/bokeh! I think it is time you changed your ID -- you're a photo shark circulating among us, only pretending to be a newbie!

EL

[taykuyphotoart]

I love the the shot. The detail in the hairs is quite impressive. I will be looking forward to see some more of your work.

[oriolhdz]

Nice picture! Great detail, DOF, well sharped...as Elay said, you are a pro, and I'm happy I can learn hehehe.
I was shooting bees yesterday and it was real difficult. I will take more photos tomorrow when I have more light. Hope I can post it soon so I can get your c&c!
Thanks for sharing.

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by wulf

Yes - gives us some more for the series and explain your observations. That would be great.

Wulf

Wulf -- I'll get to work. Hopefully I can put together something useful. Not sure if I'll post it here, in the Macro section, or in the "Other Techniques" section.

Originally Posted by ELAY

Remote flash! Tutorials on aperture/focal length/bokeh! I think it is time you changed your ID -- you're a photo shark circulating among us, only pretending to be a newbie!

EL

Elay -- Thanks for the kind words. I'm not sure when photography progressed from hobby to obession for me, but I have not been at it that long. I actually thought about trying to change my username (couldn't figure out how) and decided it would always be a nice reminder that I have more to learn.

By the way, like the new Avatar.

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by taykuyphotoart

I love the the shot. The detail in the hairs is quite impressive. I will be looking forward to see some more of your work.

Thanks! I love macro work, and hope to post more soon.

Originally Posted by oriolhdz

Nice picture! Great detail, DOF, well sharped...as Elay said, you are a pro, and I'm happy I can learn hehehe.
I was shooting bees yesterday and it was real difficult. I will take more photos tomorrow when I have more light. Hope I can post it soon so I can get your c&c!
Thanks for sharing.

Thank you much. I think I'm far from a pro, but I appreciate the sentiment. Look forward to seeing your bees -- it's so fun to shoot the hairy little things!

[baseballboy828]

From your exif I learned that this was shot at f/13. Clearly you understand the shallow depth of field in macro. If you used your 105 f/2.8 macro, you might be able to afford to go to an even smaller f/stop if you were on a tripod. By the way, can you PM me a quick review of the 105 macro VR (f/2.8)? I am considering a future purchase of one. Let me know how it is. Also, remote flash? Your sig says you only have an SB-600. Do you have an Sb-800 too or did you use a slave?

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by baseballboy828

From your exif I learned that this was shot at f/13. Clearly you understand the shallow depth of field in macro. If you used your 105 f/2.8 macro, you might be able to afford to go to an even smaller f/stop if you were on a tripod. By the way, can you PM me a quick review of the 105 macro VR (f/2.8)? I am considering a future purchase of one. Let me know how it is. Also, remote flash? Your sig says you only have an SB-600. Do you have an Sb-800 too or did you use a slave?

Baseballboy -- See my upcoming thread on what I learned from this macro shoot to see why I used f/13. DOF with the 105 f/2.8 is extremely shallow up close, and that wide of an aperture is actually required to get the whole bee in focus.

As to your question about flash -- The D80 is capable of acting as commander to the SB-600, so I was able to use my built-in as the trigger, and the SB-600 as the slave. It's an easy setup, and one that I love to play with.

I'll try to give you more in-depth info about the 105 f/2.8 at a future date, but the short version is: I love it! Money well spent. The lens is so good it's actually beyond my capabilities as a photographer, and challenges me constantly to be better. See the macro set of my photostream (see signature) for more examples. Any pics that were shot at 105mm by exif data were taken with that lens.

[baseballboy828]

First, I was referring to the fact that you shot at f/13, meaning you clearly know what you're doing when it comes to macro. Bad wording. I meant that maybe shooting at f/22 or even higher if the lens allows would allow. After looking at your flickr stuff a lot of macros seem to be at f/13. Any reason f/13 specifically for everything? Also, could the D50 act as trigger? Sorry for be stupid, I just got my SB-600 and haven't had nearly enough time to play with it.