There are some AMAZING macro photos on here of bugs, it's something I'd really love to do (especially of bumblebees) but mine are never as stunning as the ones I've seen on here.
I would love any tips on this and also whether it is possible to do better with my current camera and lens or if I need a special lens? (I have a Pentax K-x)
@scuffer Wow.. love yours :)) Never got still sitting butterfly ...
As @jtrudell said, you need a lot of patience. But a good macro lens (got mine today, hooray!) helps a lot!
Before I got my macro lens, I tried a reverse ring to attach the lens backwards to the camera. Have you thought about a reverse ring? @scuffer@jtrudell It's easier having the lens fixed :)
@tandem02 I love that, this is exactly what I mean. However, I don't understand what you mean about the reverse ring thing. I'd love a macro lens but looking at them online I think I'm going to have to save up for one!
@scuffer a reverse ring is an adapter that attaches to the body of your camera that allows you to use the lens backwards (i.e with the lensepointing in towards the camera ,this reverses the optics giving you a macro effect. If you cant afford a macro lens though you could always invest in a set of macro filters they are pretty cheap and give some pretty passable macro shots
@scuffer I love your butterfly...! I do know what you mean though... exactly like @tandem02 Kathrin's! I wish mine looked like that too!!! I think that I need to attach my camera to my tripod or gorillapod more often than I do. I think that is helpful ... cos my hand isn't the steadiest in some of the situations I am in trying to get shots lol.
@scuffer No....the reverse ring should fit your camera body and hold a lens of a specific diameter. You are probably looking at an adaptor ring, which is designed to attach certain types of filters to a lens.
I did some searching and I found the ring that attaches two lenses together.....have not heard of that technique and I'm not quite sure if it would really work well. You would have to adjust the aperture and/or the focal depth of both lenses and that would reduce the focal plane to almost nothing in most cases.....I would try this ring to reverse mount one lens, macro filters or extension tubes before I would try that way....I'm no expert though, so please search out more info.
Nice article here on reversing your lens. This is his 3rd article on macro photography. If you scroll near the bottom you will see some "bookmark articles" there you will find lessons 1,2 &4. Good read.
I myself have thought about getting a macro lens but again they are kind of expensive. I have not tried to many bug shots, but I do use an extention tube which just screws right onto your camera lens and works great.
This photo was taken with the extention tube (but no bug I know)
Macro lenses are expensive.. I bought extension tubes for about 3 pounds off Ebay. They are not nearly as good as the lens and they are difficult to use because the aperture has to be manually operated, but I think they are a good substitute for the lens, as a temporary cheap option.
Here is a needle and thread using extension tubes;
The detail you can get is pretty fantastic, but the DOF is extremely shallow so you might have to take a couple of shots and stack the focus. This is just one shot of a fly(not focus stacked). If you can tell, the top of the fly is out of focus...
And here, with a little more patience, time and better light, using £3 extension tubes on a standard 18-55mm kit lens, a more focused photo of le fly. SOOC
I've just bought a set of magnifying filters from Amazon - about £10. Much cheaper than a macro lens, which I would love but can't afford the one I want. These will do for now!
Macro lenses don't have to be expensive, depends on what you get. My first macro lens was under $200 and my current one was I think $250, though they are going for more than that now (it's become a cult lens).
I've done a number of different things to increase magnification - my cheapest way was to take a very poor quality 2x teleconverter that had belonged to my father and take the glass out. It was a K-mount, so had the lever to stop down the lens when you take the picture - makes seeing the focus easier. That made a very nice extension tube.
My next cheapest way was to get a ring with male ends on both sides, allowing you to mount a lens reversed in front of another. My macro lens is an A lens, so I keep the auto exposure capability and can reverse my old SMC M50 f1.4 or 1.7 lens in front of it. I've also reversed the 50 in front of an old 135 (longer than the macro) and have found it offers more magnification. The one thing is that when you get this type of magnification, the dof becomes really small.
I tried one of the close-up filters/diopter add ons and wasn't impressed with the one I had. However, my first macro lens did 1:2 by itself but came with a matched adapter that allowed it to focus to 1:1. It was excellent, and that changed my mind about add-ons. The Raynox 150 seems to be well-liked and not that expensive. I would stay away from the cheap diopter filters as they can have poor optics.
There's lots more that can be said about these alternatives to macro lenses, each of them have advantages and disadvantages. A dedicated macro lens is certainly the easiest to use - all other methods make your photography a much slower, more fiddely process. That's not a bad thing, but would drive some people nuts.
Small update, reverse ring for lens arrived yesterday so I've started playing around with it, so far I have some very blurry shots. I shall keep playing but I can see it's going to be a hard skill to get the hang of!
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Patience. All I use is a fixed 50mm lens held backwards up to my DSLR lens. I got so close to this bee I tapped him with my lens.
As @jtrudell said, you need a lot of patience. But a good macro lens (got mine today, hooray!) helps a lot!
with reverse ring:
@ozziehoffy Thank you, some of the photos are so gorgeous, I just love the detail people can get.
http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Filter-Reverse-Adapter-Samsung/dp/B003Y6184E/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1342797598&sr=8-7&keywords=reverse+macro+ring+pentax
I did some searching and I found the ring that attaches two lenses together.....have not heard of that technique and I'm not quite sure if it would really work well. You would have to adjust the aperture and/or the focal depth of both lenses and that would reduce the focal plane to almost nothing in most cases.....I would try this ring to reverse mount one lens, macro filters or extension tubes before I would try that way....I'm no expert though, so please search out more info.
Here's all the search results:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/187-0907320-9981947?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=reverse+macro+ring+pentax
http://digital-photography-school.com/reverse-lens-macro-close-up-photography-lesson-3
This photo was taken with the extention tube (but no bug I know)
Here is a needle and thread using extension tubes;
The detail you can get is pretty fantastic, but the DOF is extremely shallow so you might have to take a couple of shots and stack the focus. This is just one shot of a fly(not focus stacked). If you can tell, the top of the fly is out of focus...
Hope that helps...
I've done a number of different things to increase magnification - my cheapest way was to take a very poor quality 2x teleconverter that had belonged to my father and take the glass out. It was a K-mount, so had the lever to stop down the lens when you take the picture - makes seeing the focus easier. That made a very nice extension tube.
My next cheapest way was to get a ring with male ends on both sides, allowing you to mount a lens reversed in front of another. My macro lens is an A lens, so I keep the auto exposure capability and can reverse my old SMC M50 f1.4 or 1.7 lens in front of it. I've also reversed the 50 in front of an old 135 (longer than the macro) and have found it offers more magnification. The one thing is that when you get this type of magnification, the dof becomes really small.
I tried one of the close-up filters/diopter add ons and wasn't impressed with the one I had. However, my first macro lens did 1:2 by itself but came with a matched adapter that allowed it to focus to 1:1. It was excellent, and that changed my mind about add-ons. The Raynox 150 seems to be well-liked and not that expensive. I would stay away from the cheap diopter filters as they can have poor optics.
There's lots more that can be said about these alternatives to macro lenses, each of them have advantages and disadvantages. A dedicated macro lens is certainly the easiest to use - all other methods make your photography a much slower, more fiddely process. That's not a bad thing, but would drive some people nuts.
I'm going to start saving for a macro lens too.