WORLDWIDE PHOTO WEEK: Part 338 - DOF

Richard, I love your focus stacking shot. Especially with a dedicated macro lens the effect can be really stunning, and this is just that. I do see that Photoshop messed up the stacking in places. But where it didn't mess up: wow!

Those are quite fascinating, John. Beautiful colours and nice examples of DOF.

Thanks Ricardo and Levina

Sibil wrote in post #17219327
John, what are they? They almost look like Jelly Beans. Are they really sand?

Yup, its really sand seen from a macro life-size point of view

Here is the first photo I did for this topic, but when I tried to get the more DOF shot
the drop was gone

Sparkle Drop

IMAGE LINK: http://johnbdigital.co​m/blog/macro/sparkle-drop.htm

^ Wow. Looks amazing!

I thought I would show how DOF changes with distance, as well as with focal length. Everyone here knows this principle of course, but since the theme is DOF I thought I would do it anyway. All shots were done wide open, i.e. f/1.8 with the 50mm, f/4 with the 300mm. And of course they're just for demo purposes, so they're not pretty and hardly processed.

First the 50mm f/1.8 II. FOV is such that I could crop these and put them together in an image. I also converted them to black and white as that was somehow less distracting here.

5D with the 50/1.8
Left shot = at mfd,
Right shot = at 4 or 5 meter away.

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Levina, that is awesome illustration. Great work.

Schooled some more!

Great examples from everyone and some education as well

John, I have a jar of that sand.. The green is from the Olivine

I picked up a macro technique from POTN member Chet this week that involves two lenses: one is mounted normally on the camera, the other is placed in front of that but reversed. There are so called coupler rings for that, which I don't have yet, so I had to hand hold the second lens which was difficult as focusing is hell to begin with because of the insanely shallow DOF. I've been experimenting with this the last couple of days, not thinking of this week's theme, but after seeing Richard terrific macro I thought I could enter one of those test shots with the double lens too.

The red berries again.
Taken with the 5D with the 50/1.8 mounted and the Fujinon 135/3.5 reversed.

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I never thought I would have ever heard those words, Levina!! Learning from Chet!
Wonderful shot though..razor thin DOF..

One can learn *all* sorts of things from Chet!

Some good....

Some not so good...

and some that require massive doses of brain bleach.

joayne wrote in post #17220206
I never thought I would have ever heard those words, Levina!! Learning from Chet!

I've gotten to know Chet a little bit elsewhere and I think he's a really great guy.

joayne wrote in post #17220206
Wonderful shot though..razor thin DOF..

Yes, DOF is incredibly thin, Jo. And it makes focusing very difficult: a millimetre off and you miss focus. This was the best shot of about 10 attempts.

You have some great shots this week Levina.

Just for fun, I tried a reverse lens macro shot like you described. Didn't get anything I'd be willing to post. That is one tough way to get a macro shot!

Thanks very much, Tim.

It is very hard to focus whilst hand holding the reverse lens! But you can buy coupler rings for under 2 dollars on eBay. However, these sellers are in China and it will take a really long time for the thing to get here, so I am at the moment looking for something also really cheap closer to home.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #17219916
I picked up a macro technique from POTN member Chet this week that involves two lenses: one is mounted normally on the camera, the other is placed in front of that but reversed. There are so called coupler rings for that, which I don't have yet, so I had to hand hold the second lens which was difficult as focusing is hell to begin with because of the insanely shallow DOF. I've been experimenting with this the last couple of days, not thinking of this week's theme, but after seeing Richard terrific macro I thought I could enter one of those test shots with the double lens too.

The red berries again.
Taken with the 5D with the 50/1.8 mounted and the Fujinon 135/3.5 reversed.

Well done to you, Levina...and to Chet as well. Now there is a fellow with an oblique view on life, which I admire hugely!

I have tried reversing a lens but found it tricky without a reversing ring. I certainly never achieved a result as good as yours.

Your illustrations of DOF with different lenses and that little wooden figure are interesting as well. Overall this has been an instructive topic and I hope we get more like it.

I also tried using my Lee Filter holder with two adaptor rings, one reversed to hold the second lens, but could not get that arrangement to focus. I think it held the lenses too far apart.