Eats Like a 2 Year Old [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

View Full Version : Eats Like a 2 Year Old

Dalantech

23rd of January 2009 (Fri), 14:51

Shot at four times life size with a Canon MPE-65mm macro lens. I got a lot of light bouncing off of the flower -acted like a reflector...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3355/3220301185_fe325b49cb_b.jpg

alliec

23rd of January 2009 (Fri), 16:20

Stop it :-)...ive got nothing to shoot round here lol. Wonderful shot John, love the yellow colours.

liewwk

23rd of January 2009 (Fri), 16:56

alway .. good one

LordV

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 00:38

Good one- a very messy eater :)
Brian V.

CamDiver

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 00:58

Just like me with porridge !!

ngn8dogg

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 01:00

Super nice shot. How do you get such nice shots? How far away from him were you? I got a 100 macro but every time I get close to something they fly away in seems! damn bugs

Dalantech

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 01:35

Thanks folks :)

...How do you get such nice shots? How far away from him were you? I got a 100 macro but every time I get close to something they fly away in seems! damn bugs

Tutorial here (http://dalantech.deviantart.com/art/Left-Hand-Brace-93226846).

Now I'm gonna say some stuff that usually gets me in trouble: A lot of macro shooters will tell you that you need a lot of working distance to shoot insects, and that some lenses are better "bug lenses" than others. IMHO they are wrong. Most insects have a "comfort zone" -and area where you are so close to them that they either stop viewing you as a threat or you are so huge in their field of vision that they have a difficult time seeing you move, or both. If you can get into that zone and keep your movements to a minimum then the critter won't care. My working distance for that shot was 1.7" (4.3mm). Keep in mind that for every critter you see me post I probably tried a dozen times to get close and failed. You have to be patient and keep trying...

Since I'm holding onto the flower's stem I can increase my odds of getting a good shot: I can rotate the flower to keep the critter looking at the lens, I can tilt it to get different angles, and I can keep my movements and the subjects movements to the bare minimum so that it's easier to freeze what little motion is left with the flash. A lot of macro shooters will tell you that the flash duration is always short enough to freeze the motion in the scene and it's a myth. Minor movements, as little as the width of half a pixel, are enough to rob the detail in a high magnification image. It will manifest itself like diffraction...

jhn

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 04:18

Mmmm? No cropping? Moving & focussing an insect while holding on to a piece of plant & focussing the MPE 65 while the insect moves around at X5 magnification? Well done! I could never do that - easier for me to walk on water.

Dalantech

24th of January 2009 (Sat), 04:55