Photography Group "Close-up" Project

[Pete Gl]

I'm a member of our local photographic society (http://www.salfordphotographicgroup.org.uk for those that may be interested), at our last meeting night we have planned a "close-up" night for Feb.

I'm presuming, but don't know for sure, they mean "macro".

This has got me quite excited as I've never done this before and really eager to give it a go, particularly as I've had my new 50D less than a month, and looking for a few pointers from the ever helpful guys on this forum.

I've trawled a few threads in this macro section for ideas, but, they seem to be predominently bugs and flowers, which, in Jan and Feb, are rarer than rocking horse excrement, (yeah there are winter flowering things I've heard people rabbiting on about, but my hobby is photography, not f**ting around in the garden, nothing flowers in our garden at this time of the year).

So I'd love any suggestions, my lenses are Canon 50 1.4, Canon 24-105, Sigma 10-20, and perhaps the best for this, Sigma 70-300 APO Macro, along with with a decent Manfrotto tripod and head.

Some things have already got me thinking like, I've seen very narrow depths of fields with macro photography, which I find quite impressive.

I suppose the usual comes into play like a large aperture, but don't things like distance from lens to subject have a bearing too?

Any and all advice, particularly suggestions for subjects, would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

Pete

 

[33L]

the sigma is not ideal! you have to be miles away to get anywhere near the 1:2 mag ration it gives.
best bet is to get some ext tubes and put it between the 24/105

 

[animal168]

and whats wrong with bugs and flowers ? i like them
Seriously there is plenty of scope this time of year to play with macro indoors. Use the search function and have a look through the various threads in the macro section. There is a plenty of stuff being done in black/white boxes atm. Fruit, smoke art, droplets, toy cars, watches etc. you name it some macro junkie is togging it in a lightbox. Have a search

 

[daft_biker]

I'd go with the Sigma if it gives you the highest magnification images. Being miles away from the subject makes lighting easier, especially if using available light rather than flash.

To get really shallow DoF use the largest aperture you can and go as close as you can. The lower the magnification the more DoF you will get - you're quite right there too.

A tripod is really handy too. Sounds like you've got a good idea of what you need to do and just need to find something to try it on. Whilst there are trees in blossom in parks near me I'd suggest trying an indoor subject first so you can avoid the problem of wind moving your subject.

Do you have a TV remote control? I've used them to try things out on....there all sorts of labels and buttons you can try to focus on just so you can get familiar with how accurate you need to be. Normally I'd set the lens to minimum focus and focus by moving the camera back and forwards but if you are using a tripod and don't have a focus rail you may need to shoot at slightly less than minimum focus and adjust the focus ring to fine tune focus after you've shuffled the tripod as near as you can. Once you've got that sussed see what else you can find to point the camera at

 

[Pete Gl]

33L -
Thanks for the suggestion, but as it's only a one off for a photography group night, I don't really want to be spending any money YET, you never know I might get hooked!

Dave -
Thanks for the suggestions.

Andrew -
Thank you very much for this advice, this is exactly the sort of information I was after! And you're right, the only flash I have is my onboard flash, so I'll be dabbling with available light, but we've got quite bright spots in the kitchen, so I'll experiment in there. Superb suggestion about experimenting DOF with the telly remote.

Thanks again guys

Pete