Close-up/macro but showing more background possible?

[Landscrape]

Hi everyone, I'm planning a macro shot of an egg giving birth to a diamant. I need a macro shot because I want the diamant to be impactful and big enough in the image. As a result of macro shooting I'm lacking room to show some background in the frame. Can I overcome this by stitching several images together and make a nice crop from that or will the cropping be the same as zooming out again? It might sound like a stupid question to some, but it's quite complicated to me; not my strongest point. I'm not sure if stitching and cropping can be a solution to my problem.

I'll experiment tomorrow when I get my new tethering cable, but maybe get some input from here to start with . What are your thoughts? Is it possible or a contradiction? Thanks!

 

[Lester Lefkowitz]

First I had to look up "diamant." Now I know it's the French/German word for diamond.

I think I understand what you're after, but maybe not.

How much of the background width shows will depend on the focal length of the lens. Shorter focal lengths will show more background in relation to the subject, longer focal lengths less.

Depending on the front-to-back depth of the scene, you may need to focus stack to get everything in focus. If the egg and the diamant are relatively large, f/22 may get you adequate DOF.

"Stitching several images together" I assume you mean stitching a panorama. First you would have tremendous problems with parallax if you just pivoted the camera left-to-right. It would work if the camera (or subject) were moved accurately parallel to the camera. But how much background you would see directly behind the subject, again, would depend on the focal length of the lens.

Shooting at a lower magnification and then cropping will definitely provide more DOF, so the background will be more in focus, but you will not "see" more of it for a given focal length.

Rather than shooting at eyelevel, raising the camera up a bit and shooting down at the subject should allow the background to be more visible

Lester Lefkowitz, author of The Manual of Close-Up and Macro Photography, Volumes I & II

www.MacroPhotographer.net

 

[meow]

A staged photo with a diamond coming out of an egg or are you talking about some (unknown to me) animal being hatched?

Anyway, if you use full frame there is always this lens.
https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-15mm-f4-wide-angle-macro/
Sample images towards the bottom of the page.

Being on MFT myself, the widest I've been able to accomplish, and not really macro, more closeups, is a Raynox on a 17mm lens. It doesn't vignette.

 

[Landscrape]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I meant a diamond. Sorry for the confusion. To get the picture: It's a staged image of a diamond coming out of an egg (thanks @Meo) Let's keep it simple and leaf the depth of field out. I was going to panorama stitch focus stacked images. But maybe not because you are telling me the parallax effect makes the panorama stitching faulty... and you will most likely be right! Hmm.

To be really honest I'm still not sure if it's possible to show more of the background by panorama stitching and cropping (if DOF and parallax are left out of the discussion). But I might well be missing the answer of course.

@ Meo: I'm talking full frame indeed btw. The Laoa 15mm Wide Angle Macro lens could be what I need! Unfortunately I won't buy any gear soon because I just switched to mirrorless + extra lens, so that's enough for now . Nice lens though!

Edit I might try a nodal slide rails

 

[meow]

@ Meo: I'm talking full frame indeed btw. The Laoa 15mm Wide Angle Macro lens could be what I need! Unfortunately I won't buy any gear soon because I just switched to mirrorless + extra lens, so that's enough for now . Nice lens though!

Yeah, isn't it? I'm fascinated by that kind of photos.

If you have a wide angle lens, you could try the Raynox option. They aren't that expensive. But the risk is you'll get heavy vignetting. I didn't buy mine for this, was just lucky it worked with a wide lens I already had.

The Raynoxes are quite small (diameter), so that come into play too. My 17mm is a tiny Laowa lens. On my Olympus 12-40 I get vignetting even at 40mm. Not so bad and mostly in one corner, but it's there. So I think there is no way to tell if it will work or not.

 

[Landscrape]

It's very hard to tell in advance how a lens will work out for a particular shot. For example; I had a picture in my mind but it didn't work out as planned. But with some experimenting I will get there. But that wide angle macro is seems to be calling my name, hahaha. That's quite a find of yours!

 

[meow]

It's very hard to tell in advance how a lens will work out for a particular shot. For example; I had a picture in my mind but it didn't work out as planned. But with some experimenting I will get there. But that wide angle macro is seems to be calling my name, hahaha. That's quite a find of yours!

It's been calling my name for years. But I don't have the camera for it. You'll have to enjoy it for both of us.

Look for a used one! I can imagine it's kind of lens many buy and then don't use much.

 

[Lester Lefkowitz]

A Raynox close-up filter on a wide-angle lens will get you very little additional magnification from a prime lens. They're best used on normal and longer-focal-length lenses.

You CAN get closer with a wide-angle lens by adding a very thin extension tube. Depending on the camera brand, and extension tube brand ("thinness"), you will be able to use a 35mm lens, a 28mm lens and possibly a 24mm lens.

Example: A 12mm tube on a 24mm lens will get you to about 0.7X with the lens at its closest focus, but working distance will be VERY short.

Lester Lefkowitz, Author of The Manual of Close-Up and Macro Photography, Volumes I & II

www.MacroPhotographer.net

 

[Dave981]

If your background is fairly nondescript, you could possibly extend it in post with some generative fill.

 

[meow]

A Raynox close-up filter on a wide-angle lens will get you very little additional magnification from a prime lens. They're best used on normal and longer-focal-length lenses.

Yes, it won't bring you into macro land. But it does take you a bit closer.

This is with a Laowa 17mm (MFT) at its closest focus distance, which on the focus ring says 15 cm. The chili flower is about the size of the nail on my pinkie.



Never mind bad focus and so on. Slopppy snaps of a plant on my window sill just to show the difference.

Naked lens.





With Raynox DCR-250.