In the church grounds - mid November

GardenersHelper

GardenersHelper

In Memoriam
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Name
Nick
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Yes
Single-capture shots using a pair of 2X teleconverters with a Laowa 100mm 2X macro lens and Venus Optics KX800 twin flash. Processed with DXO PhotoLab, Adobe Lightroom Classic and Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI.

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1827 28 2020_11_11 DSC01587_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1827 09 2020_11_11 DSC01249_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1827 35 2020_11_11 DSC01625_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 095 2020_11_12 DSC02310_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1828 09 2020_11_12 DSC01744_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICMedHi by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1827 01 2020_11_11 DSC01184_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1827 22 2020_11_11 DSC01572_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo-AISStab18,0 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1828 01 2020_11_12 DSC01655_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICMedHi by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


Some more in next post.
 
 
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The Ant shot is really cool, how you`ve caught the pattern on the body is very nice.
All great shots anyway Nick.
 
Graham said:
The Ant shot is really cool, how you`ve caught the pattern on the body is very nice.
All great shots anyway Nick.
Click to expand...

Thanks Graham. I'm getting more success with ants with the setup I'm using now, although as you can see I'm still getting horrible flash reflections from their shiny bodies (other ants with less reflective bodies are not nearly so bad). I've tried and tried with different flashes and different diffusers, but haven't got anywhere with it, and I've run out of ideas. :( Still, on the positive side, I'm having more luck with tracking them and getting them in focus as they move around. I'm starting to get sequences of.them while they are on the move. The one in the first post was from a sequence of 10 shots. Here are eight from a sequence of 14.

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1826 003 2020_11_12 DSC01964_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 004 2020_11_12 DSC01966_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 005 2020_11_12 DSC01970_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 006 2020_11_12 DSC01974_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 010 2020_11_12 DSC01984_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 012 2020_11_12 DSC01987_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 013 2020_11_12 DSC01988_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

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1826 014 2020_11_12 DSC01989_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAICLoLo by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
Great sets Nick, cracking detail in the Ants (y)
 
Lez325 said:
Lovely set as always Nick-
Click to expand...

Thanks Les.

Lez325 said:
you seem to have a passion for all things tiny :)

Les
Click to expand...

Yes, that's a recent thing. It started in the summer when I was having trouble getting any even half-decent photos of some very small flies around our tiny pond. I'd never had much luck with them and decided to get serious about it and try really hard, and keep trying. It didn't work.

I then started experimenting with different kit, using macro lenses instead of close-up lenses. I had been using autofocus for more than 10 years with my close-up lenses and I wasn't really comfortable having to use manual focus with the macro lenses, and the macro lens setups were heavy too, but I started getting some results that were better than I'd previously achieved. This was one which made me think that using a macro lens might work. (This one was with a Laowa 25mm 2.5X to 5X macro lens, and a full frame Sony A7ii. Up until then I had been disappointed with the Sony, not having found any use for it. I bought it to try to improve my photographs of flowers etc, but that didn't work. And my initial experiments with insects etc weren't successful.)


1642 13 2020_06_02 DSC02305_PLab3 SP9LR 1300h-DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

That initial glimpse of what might be possible was followed by four months or so of experiments, both with different combinations of kit and with post processing (these images are quite difficult to handle because of all the softening from diffraction). A lot of it was done with very small subjects like barkflies and springtails because for the most part that was all I could find, especially as we moved into autumn. And as I got more success with these very small subjects I became more enthusiastic about photographing them. And now, I'm quite keen on them, which I never was before because I found them so difficult.
 
Nick, On Facebook there is a group for diffusers, I took these 2 photos to give you a fair idea, they seem to work well and as you can see in the 2nd shot, they have a LED light inside to give them that "Model lamp" to help light up the area in front of the lens to see the subject better, A bit clumsy for tight areas but they work.
I think a small battery powered lamp would do or a LED strip.Diffuser.jpgdiffuser 2.jpg
 
Graham said:
Nick, On Facebook there is a group for diffusers, I took these 2 photos to give you a fair idea, they seem to work well and as you can see in the 2nd shot, they have a LED light inside to give them that "Model lamp" to help light up the area in front of the lens to see the subject better, A bit clumsy for tight areas but they work.
I think a small battery powered lamp would do or a LED strip.View attachment 298944View attachment 298945
Click to expand...

Thanks Graham. Unfortunately a snoot on a camera-mounted flash doesn't work with my current setup, which has a very long lens arrangement (unlike the very compact Olympus 60mm macro with Raynox shown here); it leaves the light source is too far from the subject and because of the inverse square law of light intensity I can't throw enough light on to the subject for the very small apertures that I use (I am at around the limit of possibility, and already using quite high ISOs, with the flash heads at the front of my lens setup.

I've had a lot of discussion with and help from John Kimbler (Dalantech), who is really good with flash diffusion, but I still have problems with reflective subjects.
 
GardenersHelper said:
Thanks Graham. Unfortunately a snoot on a camera-mounted flash doesn't work with my current setup, which has a very long lens arrangement (unlike the very compact Olympus 60mm macro with Raynox shown here); it leaves the light source is too far from the subject and because of the inverse square law of light intensity I can't throw enough light on to the subject for the very small apertures that I use (I am at around the limit of possibility, and already using quite high ISOs, with the flash heads at the front of my lens setup.

I've had a lot of discussion with and help from John Kimbler (Dalantech), who is really good with flash diffusion, but I still have problems with reflective subjects.
Click to expand...
John Kimber, Ive seen some of his photos, I think he was/is in Italy ?
 
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