Tag: Macro

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Week 5 | Warmth

Week5

The warmth of a hug from a loved one..
The warmth of the morning cuppa to wake you..
The warmth of a sunset celebrating the days end..

OR a self portrait, sparkle/shine macro, dreamy sunset all set in a triptych about warmth. That wraps January in a bow šŸ™‚

Self Portrait:
Nikon D5100
18-55mm DX Kit Lens @ 18mm
ISO 100
f/3.5
SS 1/15 sec

Speedlight on body, set to bounce at an angle.

Sparkle/shine Macro:
Nikon D5100
50mm FX prime lens with +4 macro filter
ISO 100
f/1.8
SS 1/60 sec

Off camera speedlite remotely triggered with fairy lights in the background to twinkle in the bokeh.

Dreamy Sunset:
Nikon D5100
35mm DX prime lens with a +9 ND filter
ISO 100
f/22
SS 30 sec

No additional lighting.

This shoot was basically “Use ALL the toys” as it’s the first time I’ve broken out the remote speedlite controller, the macro lens, used Pam‘s nifty fifty and the ND filter. Along with all the gear I usually use (such as my tripods, remote shutter controller, pad controller software).

Out of all the images I feel I rushed the portrait a bit (especially in adding the fake bokeh background I’ve accidentally given myself a much needed haircut, but missed a chunk at the front) and I struggled to find a good spot in Pyrmont for the sunset, but given the time I got out of work it’s all I could get (and at least we had a sunset today as it’d stopped raining finally!).

I’d’ve liked some ‘wisps’ from the cuppa too but I think they bokeh’d out as they were definitely there when shooting.

Oh well, just glad I managed to get all five themes into one picture (this is going to get more difficult as time goes on šŸ˜‰Ā ).

Week 5 - Behind the scenesA little behind the scenes, top image is the selfie set-up and the bottom is the cuppa – I figure a camera on a tripod for the sunset is fairly standard and folk know what that looks like :p

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

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January Bonus Challenge | Macro

Jan

Hmm, each month there’s a bonus challenge, the submission with the most likes gets to be the Facebook forum banner for the next month, I voted against the idea as I felt competition may bring out the nasty side in people – now, do I feel a little bit of a hypocrite saying I wasn’t interested in competition but still taking part in the monthly challenge? Yes, a bit, though Macro is something I wanted to “have a go” at and I was interested in the monthly challenges before that! (my excuses sticking with ’em :pĀ )
I’ve actually got some magnification filters on order from Amazon but not sure if they’ll make it from the US to Aus in time so tried my hand at reverse free-lensing. Benny was kind enough to step in and model for me as it’s about three am and everyone else is asleep, I also figured such a precarious set-up didn’t lend itself to nature photography, especially the wee critters staying still long enough as I got so close to them!

Nikon D5100
35mm Prime Lens
ISO100
f/1.8 (manually held open all the way)
SS 1/80 sec

I lit him with my ring flash set-up off camera as a permanent light so I could get the depth of field right, it’s very small, only enough to cover his left eye and not even reach all the way to the right – which is incredible when you contemplate how large a Lego head is!

So this was fun, looking forward to doing it more ‘properly’ when my filters get here and I can shoot something a little more interesting! #Spaceship

Jan Behind the scenesSo set-up on the kitchen counter with Benny and the ring flash, plus me balancing the prime lens the wrong road around single-handedly whilst holding the aperture switch open with my index finger.


I found the camera would only shoot in manual mode as it wasn’t getting the aperture information through, both Shutter priority and Aperture priority refused to fire (I guess the latter being fairly obvious why)

Link to the original Facebook thread here.

[edit]

Actually, it’s just occurred to me I never thought about the focusing ring whilst doing all this, it will’ve been in the position I last shot in, not sure if I’d’ve got a greater depth of field if it’d been focused all out/all in – maybe something to play around with later.