Macro on the cheap

I was scouring the internet a few nights back and ran across something I'd read about before and forgotten - using 2 lenses face-to-face to achieve macro photography. The idea wasn't new to me so I didn't save the link, and I'm sorry to say I've lost it.

So, with a nod to those that came before me....

I decided to mount my 24-105 lens on my 7D, mount the camera on a tripod and hand-hold my 50mm lens against the other. Before I go into detail, here's what I shot:


Sweetums! I found him on Amazon a couple years ago while searching for interesting characters to use while practicing photography stuff. He stands about 10" tall and has articulating mouth, neck, arms, waist and legs.

Since he's a monster, I played with some related lighting ideas for the fun of it. This was shot with just the mounted lens racked all the way out to 105mm, 1/25th sec, F/13 @ ISO 1600. I used some tungsten cabinet lights so I could dial in the look before bringing in the camera (the camera tripod had to be finagled around the light stand).

Next, I set the focus on both lenses to infinity, hand-held the 50mm lens against the other (still at 105mm), and moved the tripod in until I got a sharp focus. Unfortunately, being handheld I introduced a bit of vibration. This is the sharpest I could get:


Not bad though, huh?! That's pretty good considering how small his eyes are.

Now, if this was the method I wanted to pursue for macro photography on a regular basis I'd invest in a reversing ring so I could mount the 2 lenses together and eliminate the vibration issue. Using a remote trigger would be a good idea here too.

That's cool, but hand-holding has advantages too. Well, there is if your mounted lens has a larger diameter than your hand-held lens. With a smaller lens, you can shift it off center for some interesting perspectives and effects.

I pulled my mounted lens back to 67mm and got these 2 shots:



With the camera locked onto the tripod, I was still able to shift my perspective by simply sliding the 50mm lens around on the front of the 24-105. And, at 67mm you get a hard vignette that can create an interesting effect as well. But even the vignette can be artistically applied through strategic placement. By aligning the vignette with the shadow at the top of the eye, it effectively disappears.

Cool, huh?!

Hope you enjoy...

Oh Snap: Early light

This weekend was an small, annual hot air baloon event. A handful of balloons do an early morning launch on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning started with clear skies and calm winds. Well, calm down on the ground but not in the air. 3 balloons set up and inflated, but no one launched due to tricky conditions at altitude.

Two things fun about Sunday morning was Tweety, and the crowd. It's always fun watching people with puzzled frowns wondering why no one is lifting off cause they're not aware of the layers in the air above them.

After that, the only balloon of interest to me was Tweety:


Tweety's owner saw me doing some shots of the inflation activity and invited me to stick my head and camera inside the baffle at the top. Interesting perspective, huh?! Not as centered as I'd like, but the darn thing was moving and getting bigger and I pulled my head out before I got caught in the rigging.


I wonder if he sees a Puddy Tat? Sylvester was nowhere to be found but hey, from that height who knows what cat Tweety might spot?


Sun was low enough I was able to catch it between the skirt and the balloon. Pretty cool shot!


Hope you enjoy...

The Quest for Light: Andrew Zuckerman

One thing I appreciate is artists that share their knowledge. Pick a favorite photographer that inspires you, look for them on YouTube and/or Vimeo and sometimes you'll get lucky - they'll publish a "Behind the scenes" video that explains or shows glimpses of their lighting setup.

In the video "WISDOM: How it was made", Andrew explained how he established a standard lighting setup used for every person he interviewed and photographed. The video provides glimpses of this setup from different angles and shows 4 lights as best I can tell: 2 with standard reflectors aimed at the background to blow it out, a beauty dish above the camera, and a ring flash below. He does include a large gobo on each side to block reflections and (I assume) spill from the background lights from hitting the subjects.

I decided to try to recreate his lighting (using my favorite models of course)!  Now, if you've been following my blog and if you're familiar with dog expressions you've noted that my Puddies don't seem real interested in posing. I'm sad to say that's not entirely inaccurate.

Now, Skittles LOVES to jump up on the posing table, and is excited as long as I'm there next to her. But as soon as I move behind the camera to shoot, she gets that bored look we're all so familiar with by now.  Journey, well... he just doesn't like any part of it, and it shows.

This time, however, he did hit a pose that tore at my heart.  Here is a young boy that has spent most of his life in fear - of just about everything. As I studied the picture and reflected on his past I experienced some strong feelings of compassion for what he's been through. A year of good living hasn't erased all of his fear, but he's getting better all the time!

Here's what I captured. You're looking at the quality of the light, not their expression. As silly and animated as I acted, this is the best I got outa my guys...

First, a little setup testing: I set up a white seamless paper background, set a reflective white panel on the platform top for them to sit on. This shot was made with just the beauty dish, placed in front of and above Teddy (ok, he's a dog but he's called Teddy!). Minimal processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, and this shot looks pretty good!



Turn on the background lights and you get this. Note the dark shadow under his chin. In this next composite shot, The ring flash has been added, which provides a touch of fill.

Yes, there's is a color cast difference between the 2 shots. In the first one without the background lights it was easy to select the paper background to set the white balance. However, turn on the background lights, and now there's nothing to select. Since I'm only testing here, I wasn't worried about it.



(Skittles) So, he sucked you into this photography thing huh? Huh? HEY! You awake?!
(Journey) See what you've done John?  You've burned Teddy out!!!

(I should point out that Journey isn't displaying anger or aggression, he's just hanging there waiting for me to release him from his "stay")I


 (ahem) "La La LA LA!!!!"

This was caught as part of a series where I was hovering over the camera (on a tripod), acting really really silly in a vain attempt to get some excitement out of Skittles.  As you can see, it didn't work... (sigh)...




And this is the shot that means so much to me. Journey isn't thrilled about being up on the posing table, and he's looking longingly at Skittles down on the floor. He only had to be up there for 2-3 minutes, long enough to rip off a few shots. 

His expression here is one I've seen many times in the year he's lived with us. I just wish I could catch him when he's showing a little more happiness. One thing I know though, it won't likely be in front of a seamless paper background in any staged lighting setup!!!

Hope you enjoy...