Decided to try some macro with my new Lumia 1020. Now I know macro is not any phone's strong suit, but I'm just having fun taking this cameraphone to the next level. So I scotch taped a cheap POS Tiffen closeup filter and went looking for bugs. (You can buy these macro filters for pennies on ebay) The filter smashed a lot of detail, and then I loaded them into Lightroom and as I pushed the exposure, I could see some artifacting showing up around edges. I exposed for the highlights (typically set the Exposure Compensation to -1.0) so I wouldn't lose highlight detail, hence the need to push the exposure. Then I cropped the pictures even more, so it's definitely not the cleanest, but still amazing considering this is a phone!
Let it be said that I am NOT a serious macro shooter, I am a portrait and commercial/industrial shooter, so I'm by no means a macro expert, nor do I take amazing macro photos. So take this all with a grain of salt. Just having fun with the crazy camera on the Lumia 1020.
I have tried macro on previous phones but it never worked well due to the fact that the equivlent focal length of the lens was always around 28mm or wider, which sucks for macro! But with the zoom feature of the Lumia 1020, I can get around a 75mm equivalent field of view, which is a decent length for macro work! So I figured, I'd give it a shot!
1. I found this guy and realized one of his legs fell off! It was hobbling around like it was injured. Thought I'd try a head-on photo, which was really hard because it kept moving closer to the lens and going out of focus! (As a reference, this guy is probably a little shorter than an inch)
2. It seemed to be stumbling, so I tried to help it up onto a leaf it was climing, and another leg fell off! WTF?? It must be dying or something (or on it's last legs... LOL!). Oh well, it made it easier to take pictures of him at this angle as he wasn't moving fast.
3. Bronze Leaf Disease =( Poor Swedish Aspen. Hope it survives.
4. Closeup of a Dandelion
5. Another one
6. I'm no entomologist, I have no idea what kind of bug this is, but it was about 6mm long, so pretty tiny.
7. But it changed colour drastically...
