5.5x and focus bracketing in the field?!

Here's an example from this morning early...7:30am here in Central Illinois....Sun had been up for about 45 minutes or so. Blocked most of the sun with a 3-ring binder I keep in my car. I used the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 with the MC-20 teleconverter, the Kenko 16mm tube, the Olympus 60mm macro lens AND the Raynox 250 to get me 5.5x magnification and a field of view of about 3mm.



f4.5, focus bracket mode 1/10, ISO 200, 1/8 second exposures. If I removed the tripod, I would have been at 1/25 second exposures....not bad for ISO200 and the poor lighting conditions

246 images stacked in Helicon, Method C

I cropped the final image to about 2.75mm field of view.

Make sure to open this one full size....it's worth it.

Very nice. You are getting great results.

Nice work!

Dale

oneofone25 said:

Here's an example from this morning early...7:30am here in Central Illinois....Sun had been up for about 45 minutes or so. Blocked most of the sun with a 3-ring binder I keep in my car. I used the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 with the MC-20 teleconverter, the Kenko 16mm tube, the Olympus 60mm macro lens AND the Raynox 250 to get me 5.5x magnification and a field of view of about 3mm.



f4.5, focus bracket mode 1/10, ISO 200, 1/8 second exposures. If I removed the tripod, I would have been at 1/25 second exposures....not bad for ISO200 and the poor lighting conditions

246 images stacked in Helicon, Method C

I cropped the final image to about 2.75mm field of view.

Make sure to open this one full size....it's worth it.

Click to expand...

WOW! You continue to amaze and inspire, Thanks Bill

Outstanding.

Incredible works!!! Yes, need to look at the image in full view to fully appreciate what you are trying to convey.

Doxa750 said:

Incredible works!!! Yes, need to look at the image in full view to fully appreciate what you are trying to convey.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed!

thanks for posting such pleasing work much appreciated over your spider work which whilst excellent creeps me out. i always open you posts with some trepidation.

do you assemble the lens stack first and attatch with the camera off? i have read some reports here that the kenko tubes do not work well. with your work this is obviously not the case,

--
Brian

flbrit said:

thanks for posting such pleasing work much appreciated over your spider work which whilst excellent creeps me out. i always open you posts with some trepidation.

do you assemble the lens stack first and attatch with the camera off? i have read some reports here that the kenko tubes do not work well. with your work this is obviously not the case,

Click to expand...

Not following...are you asking if I attach and detach the lenses in the field? I usually keep this setup attached at all times and only remove the raynox on the end and switch it out for another raynox or no raynox. I don't really use the 60 without the teleconverter.

The Kenko does work - you must push firmly and then turn

Here's a short video I did

Very well done!

You really have perfected this set-up and I truly enjoy seeing your work. The only bad part of it all is that I'm going to need to start saving up for the Oly MC-20. Thanks for sharing and keep 'em coming.

oneofone25 said:

flbrit said:

thanks for posting such pleasing work much appreciated over your spider work which whilst excellent creeps me out. i always open you posts with some trepidation.

do you assemble the lens stack first and attatch with the camera off? i have read some reports here that the kenko tubes do not work well. with your work this is obviously not the case,

Click to expand...

Not following...are you asking if I attach and detach the lenses in the field? I usually keep this setup attached at all times and only remove the raynox on the end and switch it out for another raynox or no raynox. I don't really use the 60 without the teleconverter.

The Kenko does work - you must push firmly and then turn

Here's a short video I did

Click to expand...

you sort of answered the question with the video. you assemble on camera. was wondering if you joined the tc tube and lens off camera then put the stack onto the camera.

Outstanding! Was it natural light?

Pedagydusz said:

Outstanding! Was it natural light?

Click to expand...

yes, just put a 3 ring binder to block the glare some.

oneofone25 said:

Pedagydusz said:

Outstanding! Was it natural light?

Click to expand...

yes, just put a 3 ring binder to block the glare some.

Click to expand...

3 ring? That is high technology! :-D

Pedagydusz said:

oneofone25 said:

Pedagydusz said:

Outstanding! Was it natural light?

Click to expand...

yes, just put a 3 ring binder to block the glare some.

Click to expand...

3 ring? That is high technology! :-D

Click to expand...

I used to use a Trapper Keeper, but upgraded

So what's with all the fuss? From what I read everywhere and see on the telly, all you really need is a recent model of a smart phone. No need for all that extra gear or an FAS. </sarcasm>

At first I happily thought this was an image of a nice blue flower, not really being a fan of spiders. Boy, was I wrong! (Although that is a you-know-what web! Didn't think I'd notice, did you? ;-) )

I've got to quit looking at your posts. Serious GAS attacks. My budget allows for either an Oly 60mm macro or a TX, but not both at this time. Need to find more stuff to sell (but maybe need that money for more ant-acid?). Probably get the 60 for now, maybe a Raynox.

Impressive, both technically and artistically. Thank you.

oneofone25 said:

Here's an example from this morning early...7:30am here in Central Illinois....Sun had been up for about 45 minutes or so. Blocked most of the sun with a 3-ring binder I keep in my car. I used the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 with the MC-20 teleconverter, the Kenko 16mm tube, the Olympus 60mm macro lens AND the Raynox 250 to get me 5.5x magnification and a field of view of about 3mm.



f4.5, focus bracket mode 1/10, ISO 200, 1/8 second exposures. If I removed the tripod, I would have been at 1/25 second exposures....not bad for ISO200 and the poor lighting conditions

246 images stacked in Helicon, Method C

I cropped the final image to about 2.75mm field of view.

Make sure to open this one full size....it's worth it.

Click to expand...

My main question is how do you manage so many photos? This is 246 images, how are you managing so many images? Are you stacking the stacked images or do you disregard the the stacked images and only using the sub images? I'm just now starting to get into macro photography but I haven't bee too happy with the in camera stacking for macro, which is likely from my technique.



Any tips into your process would be awesome.

--
I take photos, not particularly good photos, mostly abstract photos. Yeah abstract is what I would call them, you might call them blurry.

So what I do, is I take the 246 images that the camera focus brackets - as I am not doing any stacking in-camera for this shot. I then plug my memory card into my computer, open Helicon, drag the images I want into the Helicon software screen and stack them using METHOD C. This creates the single stacked image that I can then save and do any edits in Lightroom with...(I do not own photoshop),

The camera can do two things with focus bracketed images. It can take up to 999 focus bracketed images and NOT stack them, or, you can have the camera stack up to 15 images IN-CAMERA. The camera does a fine job stacking as long as you have the spacing between the images at the right number. You have to pick anywhere between 1/10 to 10/10 for the step size. Once you start using the Raynox and/or the MC-20 teleconverter with the 60mm macro, the most you want to use is 3/10 for your step size or you will skip detail for your final image, making stripes of unfocused areas. I see it all the time on FB when folks post fly images where the fly eye has stripes of unfocused and focused eye "pixels".

In Lightroom, I just brighten it or get rid of any hot spots, but actually this one was pretty much fine as-it-was except brightening the color some. I did bring it to Topaz sharpen to sharpen things up some. I will post the original file for you to see below.

JustGeorge said:

So what's with all the fuss? From what I read everywhere and see on the telly, all you really need is a recent model of a smart phone. No need for all that extra gear or an FAS. </sarcasm>

At first I happily thought this was an image of a nice blue flower, not really being a fan of spiders. Boy, was I wrong! (Although that is a you-know-what web! Didn't think I'd notice, did you? ;-) )

I've got to quit looking at your posts. Serious GAS attacks. My budget allows for either an Oly 60mm macro or a TX, but not both at this time. Need to find more stuff to sell (but maybe need that money for more ant-acid?). Probably get the 60 for now, maybe a Raynox.

Impressive, both technically and artistically. Thank you.

Click to expand...

exactly, right??!

You did hear that a Pro 90mm macro is on the way, right?