Fuji S1 macro shots

[Brian C. Idocks]

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox--See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Here's a sample shot:

I hope this link works! First time in-lining an image!

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Ok no good, lets try again.

I hope this link works! First time in-lining an image!

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[50mm]

Just copy the link of the image here. Make sure the file end up with .jpg
Here's one of your shot. Very impressive.



xin

I hope this link works! First time in-lining an image!

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Mike Flood]

Ok no good, lets try again.

That really is a great shot Brian. I wish I could figure out what to whisper to birds and bugs to get them to hold still like that.

Mike

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Mike,

I tell them that something really big is just behind me and they get scared stiff, then I take their picture!

Actually what you see are the result of dozens of failed pics, like this one.



He kept going into the flower. I only got 1 shot that was useable and its in my gallery.

Dox (Brian)

Ok no good, lets try again.

That really is a great shot Brian. I wish I could figure out what
to whisper to birds and bugs to get them to hold still like that.

Mike

 

[Robert M28897]

Dox,

Those are excellent pictures, especially given the equipment you used (not bad at all, but usually the more close-up lenses and extenders you use, the more the quality degrades).

I still haven't done a lot of macro shooting (a little more cumbersome with an SLR than with one of the small prosumer digicams with macro modes), and getting little critters to stay still and learning not to scare them is something I'm getting the hang of. Here's my first dragonfly shot ever...not as good as yours, because I just had to react with my 70-180mm Nikkor (no extenders, close-up lenses or tripod) as quickly as I could when this guy decided to land on a rock near me...this was as close as I was able to get before it flew off.

Nice job!

Robert

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Dave Starke]

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

Hi Brian,

Nice Web Page and Macro shots! Very sharp and good exposure. Were these shots taken with exisitng light or did you use flash for any of the shots? Were these shot in manual or automatic? Are the exposures taken directly from the camera or do you have to make adjustments in Photoshop other than using your set of actions?

In automatic mode, I am finding I have to make exposure adjustments in Photoshop. As far as the actions you recommended, which is the "I" Channel. Also when you say 500% I am assuming this was an error and you really meant 50%. By the way, thanks for sharing the actions!
Regards,
Dave
PS-I hope you don't mind my asking all the questions.

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Robert,

Actually I like your shot better. You have compositional elements mine lack. The colors are awesome!

I'm working on getting a Sigma 105mm macro lens. I hear it's excellent. As for macro being harder with an SLR, I don't think so. I had a Nikon Coolpix 950 and a 990 and I think the Fuji gives more consistent results, plus it's more controllable.

Brian

Those are excellent pictures, especially given the equipment you
used (not bad at all, but usually the more close-up lenses and
extenders you use, the more the quality degrades).

I still haven't done a lot of macro shooting (a little more
cumbersome with an SLR than with one of the small prosumer digicams
with macro modes), and getting little critters to stay still and
learning not to scare them is something I'm getting the hang of.
Here's my first dragonfly shot ever...not as good as yours, because
I just had to react with my 70-180mm Nikkor (no extenders, close-up
lenses or tripod) as quickly as I could when this guy decided to
land on a rock near me...this was as close as I was able to get
before it flew off.

Nice job!

Robert

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Dave,

First, ask all the questions you want. If I know the answer I'll gladly share it with you. If I don't know, I'll try to find out.

Ok, they were existing light except for the red dragonfly. I used on-camera fill flash to bring out his color. All of those shots are in manual or aperture priority. I never use Auto or Prog Auto. I normally use Aperture Priority unless situation calls for a little more control. I want to know what I'm shooting rather than let some computer figure it out for me.

There were some slight exposure adjustments made. For example, the larger dark colored dragonfly on my site was a little underexposed. I used Levels in PS to bring out some detail hidden by shadow on his body.

As for the actions I mentioned in your post. For the Luminance or L (l) channel, I did mean 500%, as long as the radius is .5 or thereabouts. Keep in mind most of my pictures go to print so I have to sharpen a bit more to allow for ink "bleed" on the paper. When I do a shot for the web, I skip the "b" and "a" channel work unless there's a lot of noise (eg. high ISO's). I resize the longest dimension to 600 pixels and use Unsharp Mask at amount 350%, radius .5 or .7 and threshold at around 5. I also saturate the color by about 15% because my monitor is calibrated for Adobe RGB 98 color space and most others aren't. I then "Save for Web" and adjust the compression between 35%-55%. Hope this helps!

Sorry for all the babbling!

PS. Here's an early macro shot I did like 3 years ago with a CP 950 by Nikon. I don't remember exactly what I did to it but I remember a lot of work to make it look even this good--blown highlights and all!



Brian

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

Hi Brian,
Nice Web Page and Macro shots! Very sharp and good exposure. Were
these shots taken with exisitng light or did you use flash for any
of the shots? Were these shot in manual or automatic? Are the
exposures taken directly from the camera or do you have to make
adjustments in Photoshop other than using your set of actions?
In automatic mode, I am finding I have to make exposure adjustments
in Photoshop. As far as the actions you recommended, which is the
"I" Channel. Also when you say 500% I am assuming this was an error
and you really meant 50%. By the way, thanks for sharing the
actions!
Regards,
Dave
PS-I hope you don't mind my asking all the questions.

 

[Robert M28897]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your nice comments...I did get lucky in that the dragonfly landed on rocks that, in combination with the late day sun, made some nice shapes. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, as they say.

You're probably right that an SLR offers the opportunity to be more consistent and more refined in getting good macro shots. I guess my response was out of habits I had formed with my previous digicams (the Canon G1 and Kodak DC290), which were small, light and easy (even with add-on close-up lenses) to set up on a small tripod and get close to a subject...plus in the case of the G1, using the swiveling LCD was great for low ground shots.

With the Fuji, I just have to be a little more methodical, and if your lens is heavy (like the 70-180mm is), the tripod collar has to be sturdy enough or else the whole thing comes crashing down.

But you can't beat good SLR glass...I'm looking forward to seeing more of your macros as you refine your setup. I've heard nothing but terrific things about that Sigma macro lens you're considering.

Regards,

Robert

Brian

Those are excellent pictures, especially given the equipment you
used (not bad at all, but usually the more close-up lenses and
extenders you use, the more the quality degrades).

I still haven't done a lot of macro shooting (a little more
cumbersome with an SLR than with one of the small prosumer digicams
with macro modes), and getting little critters to stay still and
learning not to scare them is something I'm getting the hang of.
Here's my first dragonfly shot ever...not as good as yours, because
I just had to react with my 70-180mm Nikkor (no extenders, close-up
lenses or tripod) as quickly as I could when this guy decided to
land on a rock near me...this was as close as I was able to get
before it flew off.

Nice job!

Robert

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Robert,

I agree that the SLR is a bit more cumbersome, but the results are leaps and bounds ahead of the compacts. I actually found another macro lens to consider, Tamron's 90mm 2.8. It's priced about the same as the Sigma, but I heard it's a bit sharper. Anyone have any advice? I actually have a post about this on this forum.

Well, the weather here in CT should be mid 70's with no humidity tomorrow, so maybe I'll get some more macro shots with my klunky setup ;->

Brian
view my site at http://www.doxphotos.com

Thanks for your nice comments...I did get lucky in that the
dragonfly landed on rocks that, in combination with the late day
sun, made some nice shapes. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than
good, as they say.

You're probably right that an SLR offers the opportunity to be more
consistent and more refined in getting good macro shots. I guess
my response was out of habits I had formed with my previous
digicams (the Canon G1 and Kodak DC290), which were small, light
and easy (even with add-on close-up lenses) to set up on a small
tripod and get close to a subject...plus in the case of the G1,
using the swiveling LCD was great for low ground shots.

With the Fuji, I just have to be a little more methodical, and if
your lens is heavy (like the 70-180mm is), the tripod collar has to
be sturdy enough or else the whole thing comes crashing down.

But you can't beat good SLR glass...I'm looking forward to seeing
more of your macros as you refine your setup. I've heard nothing
but terrific things about that Sigma macro lens you're considering.

Regards,

Robert

Brian

Those are excellent pictures, especially given the equipment you
used (not bad at all, but usually the more close-up lenses and
extenders you use, the more the quality degrades).

I still haven't done a lot of macro shooting (a little more
cumbersome with an SLR than with one of the small prosumer digicams
with macro modes), and getting little critters to stay still and
learning not to scare them is something I'm getting the hang of.
Here's my first dragonfly shot ever...not as good as yours, because
I just had to react with my 70-180mm Nikkor (no extenders, close-up
lenses or tripod) as quickly as I could when this guy decided to
land on a rock near me...this was as close as I was able to get
before it flew off.

Nice job!

Robert

Here's some Fuji S1 macro shots I took yesterday at a reservoir
near my house. You won't believe the lens setup I used!
Nikon 35-70 f3.5 (not "D" type)
Tamron 2X teleconverter ("pro" model)
An old Sigma 2X close-up asphyrical lens

http://www.doxphotos.com/tiny_things.htm

Dox
--
See my site: http://www.doxphotos.com

 

[Eric52057]

Consider Nikon 105mm macro or Nikon 60mm macro. Both are superb lenses

 

[Artichoke #46716]

I second the Nikkor Micro 105...a bit more money but with care it should last a lifetime...excellent for doing bugs as it has a longer focal length and its very sharp

also does excellent portraits

one of my favorite lenses

 

[Brian C. Idocks]

Just in case I don't want to spend a ton of $$$, how are the Tamron 90mm 2.8 and the Sigma 105mm 2.8?

Brian

I second the Nikkor Micro 105...a bit more money but with care it
should last a lifetime...excellent for doing bugs as it has a
longer focal length and its very sharp

also does excellent portraits

one of my favorite lenses