Another series of Ant shots

[dpastern]

Pretty happy with these shots, #1 is pretty sharp and shows the narrow DOF strip to some extent that I've seen Brian and Rick and others use. #2 has the head blurred as it was wriggling its head back and forth just as I took the shot. #3 I'm stoked with - managed to catch it cleaning its tongue (at least I presume that's what it is!).

Dave

[dpastern]

#3 and a crop.

Dave

[LordV]

#3 and the crop look excellent.
Brian V.

[dpastern]

Thanks!

Dave

[JDUPhoto]

Dave, great tones and texture, but your subject would really benefit from use of a macro lens to get in much closer or at least to make your ant and its surroundings much bigger in the frame. Of course, that would also be much harder to take, but I think the results would be a lot more interesting. Your shots here really aren't anywhere near the macro realm, not that it really matters, except that I think that means they lost some of their potential impact, especially for viewers like me in this forum.

[dpastern]

These shots were taken with a 50mm + 68mm of Kenko extension tubes, for about 1.4:1, which is most certainly in the macro realm I just haven't cropped them super tightly like most people do. As far as I understand, most macro lenses are 1:1, I have been waiting on a Sigma 150, but have had issues with it being delivered etc, delaying myself getting my hands on this wonderful lens. Once I get that, I'll get used to it and then try it with tubes etc, maybe even a 1.4x TC like I've seen a few others do to get closer. I'm trying not to crop too much with the 1D as it can show pixelisation quite badly when cropped tightly due to only being 4mp.

Cheers,

Dave

[JDUPhoto]

Originally Posted by dpastern

These shots were taken with a 50mm + 68mm of Kenko extension tubes, for about 1.4:1, which is most certainly in the macro realm I just haven't cropped them super tightly like most people do. As far as I understand, most macro lenses are 1:1, I have been waiting on a Sigma 150, but have had issues with it being delivered etc, delaying myself getting my hands on this wonderful lens. Once I get that, I'll get used to it and then try it with tubes etc, maybe even a 1.4x TC like I've seen a few others do to get closer. I'm trying not to crop too much with the 1D as it can show pixelisation quite badly when cropped tightly due to only being 4mp.

Cheers,

Dave

Dave, maybe that's a tiny ant then. However, is it possible that you weren't using that combination at its max magnification? As you know, macro lenses that do 1:1 only do 1:1 at the extreme limit of their range and I assume that your 50mm lens + tubes would be similar. Even with a reversed 50mm lens on another lens, the focus distance makes a big difference to the magnification. In fact, with a reversed 50mm lens, the greater the camera's focus distance, the greater the magnification, within the limits of the system's focus range of course. I'm not familiar with the 1D. Your ant is about 3.5/14.5 of the frame height. If the 1D has an APS-C sensor, then the frame height is about 15mm and the ant's image would be about 3.6mm on the sensor, which would mean about 36/1.4 or 2.6mm for the ant itself (as opposed to its image). Maybe I'm spoiled by the abundance of larger ants around here.

[dpastern]

3mm or so is about right for the ants size Tiny ants. Well, there are smaller ants, but these are all I could reliably find locally (so far). As far as I'm aware, the 50mm and tubes is fixed, and will only achieve focus at the arrived magnifcation at a particular distance from the subject - which is non changeable (about 3cm or so). The 1D is a 1.3 crop CCD camera. The sensor is 28.7mm x 19.1mm. Given that the ant is around 3.5mm long, and the frame height is as you said, 14.5mm or so high, which would make the ant's image 4.6mm on the sensor, around 3.2mm in real life by my maths It was a tiny ant. When I get the Sigma, I'll be able to go a bit closer all things going well.

Dave