Night macro with Olympus + (mostly) M.Zuiko 60mm/2.8

These photos look amazing.

How did you get that clear black background in the woods?

Did you use Photoshop to edit them?

altruistic 123 wrote:

These photos look amazing.

How did you get that clear black background in the woods?

Did you use Photoshop to edit them?

The subject is lit by flash ,you can do that in the middle of the day ,you dont need night.

Don

altruistic 123 wrote:

These photos look amazing.

How did you get that clear black background in the woods?

I may be teaching my grandma to suck eggs, but here goes:

With your macro lens on...

Put your camera on M for manual. For macro you want a high f number for depth of field. So put it to say, f11 to f16.

Put your shutter speed to 1/250 (max flash sync speed).

Choose base, or a lower, ISO.

Focus on something.

You'll likely end up with a totally black frame, (often even in daytime).

Now, add flash to taste to illuminate your subject.

Your background will be homogeneously dark as long as there are no objects within the gradient of the light fall off from the flash.

DrHook59 wrote:

I'm sure Petr knows that.

It's possible that he was shooting at night. Oh, wait, he was.

Perhaps it's possible he had to shoot at night - subject appearance might be more natural, and perhaps he has some constraints on his time. Something anyway, where he was shooting at night. Which he said.

But most of all, did you have to find something to put his work down with? You and Harold, what the hell is the matter with you both? Can't you just appreciate the work, and say nothing if you have nothing nice to say?

Hnuuh??

I was replying to Altruistic123 who ...was wondering how you get black backgrounds...

Petr Bambousek wrote:

joeletx wrote:

Wow just wow! Thanks for the tip on saving camera settings via O.I-Share. I am going to dig into this for my E-M1 II.

I am not sure but this will work with E-M1 III at this time. Also possible with E-M1X but not with E-M1 II - it is not supported camera for direct sownload the setting to mobile phone app. Hopefully in near future will be added as this is amazing feature for me.

Are you sure this function is available on EM1x? I was not able to load my camera settings on to the app, but I was able to do it with the EM1 M3. Anyway, thanks for the tip. It saves a lot of plunder in the field just to load the settings from the app. Keep up the good work Petr!

I must say how refreshingly enjoyable it is, to read someone who is obviously enjoying their gear, sharing the results, and not stressing about miniscule differences in size, weight, longevity, value for $$$, etc etc etc. Really well done. Keep enjoying those tools that very obviously work very very well for you.