# Macro Practice



## Guest (Mar 9, 2009)

I ain't good at taking these, but maybe people here could help me with critique and tips!


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## Jonmurgie (Feb 11, 2007)

The depth is OK if you use it in the right place... such as in the first picture the crown is in focus but it's totally lost by the amount of blurry watch in front of it.

Are these 100% crops just resized or have you cropped a larger image down? Reason I ask is I wouldn't really call these "macro" shots.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2009)

these are 100% with no cropping. I'm strugling with 300mm macro with 0,95m focusing distance on nikon D80 to get something out of if 

EDIT: Corrected the camera model number


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2009)

Here is a shot done by cropping 800x600 area from full shot. Dust particles are quit a problem..


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2009)

And one crop from that first pic


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

discordianist said:


> these are 100% with no cropping. I'm strugling with 300mm macro with 0,95m focusing distance on nikon D80 to get something out of if
> 
> EDIT: Corrected the camera model number


You will always struggle with this type of lens. They are not true macro lenses, as they usually only give a 1:2 ratio, and this facility is accidental to the lens design, not built into it - the lens is a telephoto zoom first and a 'macro' lens a poor second although the marketing departments don't tell you that! The best way to gte good macro shots is to buy a purpose designed macro lens. These are always prime lenses and come in various focal lengths, but something in the 70, 90 or 105mm range would be perfect. Sigma and Tamron do super lenses that are a lot cheaper than the Nikkor lenses but even so they are still pretty pricey.

If you want a cheaper option I have heard of people who buy a standard 50mm f1.8 lens and a macro bellows and get excellent results - I'm not certain but I would have thought about Â£100 would set you up for this solution. A cheaper alternative is to use a prime lens on a set of extension tubes or cheapest of all use screw on filters, but these do not give the truly sharp results that a dedicated macro lens will bring.

If you are serious about close-up photography you will have to start saving your pennies. Even used macro lenses don't come cheap and not all will give you full automation but a good, used lens would be an excellent way to start.

Rob

Rob


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## stonedeaf (Dec 3, 2008)

discordianist said:


> I ain't good at taking these, but maybe people here could help me with critique and tips!


Hi, I agree with what's been said before but would also add the following ;_

IMHO you really do need a dedicated lens/extension tube setup for macro and practice, practice, practice to achieve the effect you are looking for.

I find lighting and avoiding reflections by far the hardest problem especially with black dials and curved crystals :wallbash:

Clean, clean and clean again I use a lint free photography duster and a small vacuum brush and still dust gets left when you look at the snaps. :shocking:

Using a good tripod allows you to go for longer exposures, I've used up to 30 secs at f32 without problems and this seems to ease any noise problems a bit.

Focal distance is crucial and it's often easier to move the sublect rather than the camera to achieve this - I often use this method together with manual focus and find this helps me.

Hope this was of some value :cheers:


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## Blapto (Mar 7, 2006)

There are a few different ways to get into macro photography for Nikon.

The most versatile and most suited to taking photos of a watch is probably to buy a dedicated manual focus lens. If you don't want to commit to spending that much, you could buy a manual focus one. Aperture UK are fantastic for service and quality, but there are obviously cheaper deals out there from private sellers.

The longer the lens the longer your working distance will be for the same magnification. I personally use a 105mm f/2.8, but you could certainly do watch photography with a 55mm macro lens.

You could also try using a cheaper lens like the 50mm f/1.8 and adding close up dioptres.

The various other methods (reversed lenses, stacked lenses, bellows) may add a little too much magnification and render them useless for everything but detail shots.

I have quite a bit of photography equipment amassed... If there's much demand I might make a quick Nikon tutorial, involving lighting as well. To be honest, lighting is the most important part.

Dust is an issue, a lot of DSLR photographers have air blowers lying around to clean the sensor, it's worth picking one up. Spend the extra on a rocket blower, they have a one way valve so you're not sucking dusty air in and blowing it out again.


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2009)

Thanks for all the tips! I actually have one old 105mm Nikon macro lying around I think I'll give it a shot when I find it (along with F2 it's currently on if I remember correctly). I've been photographer as long as I remember, my first camera was Olympus 35RC, then moved to Nikons (FG, F2, F3, D80) and I've accumulated quit a few medium format cameras as well. I'm just not used to work with tiny objects, since I shot people (well clothes) for few years and after that I've mostly done art or tried. Digital work is one of the new things I need to learn and how to use Photoshop effectively. I think collecting might make me photograph once more with some ambition  I haven't shot much in the resent years so this might boost it up.


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## Blapto (Mar 7, 2006)

discordianist said:


> Thanks for all the tips! I actually have one old 105mm Nikon macro lying around I think I'll give it a shot when I find it (along with F2 it's currently on if I remember correctly). I've been photographer as long as I remember, my first camera was Olympus 35RC, then moved to Nikons (FG, F2, F3, D80) and I've accumulated quit a few medium format cameras as well. I'm just not used to work with tiny objects, since I shot people (well clothes) for few years and after that I've mostly done art or tried. Digital work is one of the new things I need to learn and how to use Photoshop effectively. I think collecting might make me photograph once more with some ambition  I haven't shot much in the resent years so this might boost it up.


Oooh, medium format, what do you use?. I've got an RZ67 Pro II and a Yashica Mat 124G.

I keep thinking about getting extension rings for the RZ67 and doing some watch macros with medium format!


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2009)

I use Yashica-Mat, Zeiss Ikonta and I used to have mamiya 7 but I sold it while back when I stopped working as photographer. Always were hungry for large format but never found time or right field camera


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## tranber70 (Mar 24, 2007)

I still have an Hasselblad that I use less and less. Waiting huge income to buy a digital back...

Bertrand


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