Strike a light! - first ever macro shot

[CaptainNH]

I've felt a need to explore the world of macro photography having seen some excellent shots here on DPS.

Disappointingly, Santa didn't bring me a macro lens, so I went out and bought my own today - a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L USM Macro IS.

I had a quick play, the lens is insanely sharp, but quickly got bored with 1:1 and pulled out my nifty fifty to see what I could get out of the combination.

Not really knowing what I was doing, a quick play gave me this result.......


Canon EOS 5D Mark II | 1/250 | f/16 | ISO400
100mm macro with reversed 50mm f/1.8II unceremoniously mounted with sticky tape
Strobe: 2x 580II through white paper | ETTL via pocketwizard

The focus is a bit off, DoF scarily narrow.

Tomorrow I'm off to source a reversing ring and some bits and pieces to build myself a light tent......and catch some ants

[Fred flyfisher]

Totally cool shot. Thanks for explaning how you did it too. I'm going to have to gett a reversing ring I think.

[SoxAddict]

Nice work! Macro is a world that I too have not yet entered!

[CaptainNH]

Thanks for your comments.

When I'm not shooting people, I'm normally thinking at a landscape or streetscape scale.

I haven't had the tools to do macro before so I'm not used to thinking at a small scale. It's quite eye opening when you start exploring the world at that scale.

[audrey-g]

nice - super - macro at that!

[Chewys Dad]

Cool Shot, I like the clarity of it! I have the same lens, I use an extension tube to get similar results, or better yet, I pull out my MP-E-65mm f/2.8 which I can get up to 5 X
The red in you shot really stands out!
Thanks for sharing this
Michael.

[CaptainNH]

Thanks Michael. I considered the 65mm because of the amazing magnification, but I got scared off when I started reading about effective apertures

I'd thought I'd ease myself into macro with the 100L before I have to deal with DoFs in tenths of millimetres!!

I'd love to see some x5 shots

[FoG]

very nice shot