Art and Photography

>>>post The Latest Picture You Have Taken<<<

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Deal Guru
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Sep 21, 2007
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Hey doughboy you used a zoom lens zoomed out all the way and a 50mm? I was at a camera store and someone showed me that technique awhile back. We tried a bunch of combinations and an 17-85mm @ 85mm and a 50 1.4 seemed to be good. Apparently the wider angle lens (24mm) would have a more macro affect then a 50mm.
"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." -- Edward Land
Jr. Member
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May 6, 2007
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No crop. Used a 35 f1.8. Takes a bit of trial and error to get right, so while it is fun to play around with, its no substitution for a real macro lens.
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Aug 4, 2007
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i know ppl aren't a fan of over done HDR but i think it's best suited for old rusted classics

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Sr. Member
Mar 29, 2008
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GTA
Dougboy wrote: No crop. Used a 35 f1.8. Takes a bit of trial and error to get right, so while it is fun to play around with, its no substitution for a real macro lens.

Why I asked this was as I reversed my 50mm on my 18-55 kit lens and even zoomed out at 55mm there was a lot of vignetting (though I did get decent magnification). If you see my pics on page 654 the last image ($5 bill ) you can notice the cropped vignetting.
Yes, it no substitute for a real macro lens but again its with what you already have and results are no too shabby.
Sr. Member
Jun 11, 2003
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Toronto
Going through my photos from while I was in the Carribbeans a few weeks ago. Consistent 27-32degree weather, not a drop of rain; and greeted with a nice thick layer of snow on the car when I got back :(

.. this is the endangered St. Lucian Parrot, shot through a fence. Magic of shooting wide open, No fence can stop a photographer :)

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Deal Fanatic
Nov 1, 2006
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jayt90 wrote: Try to keep the back of the camera parallel to the subject. It's an old view camera trick.

Ditto. Not just "old" but solid and proven :)
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Mar 29, 2008
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jayt90 wrote: Try to keep the back of the camera parallel to the subject. It's an old view camera trick.
Jimbobs wrote: Ditto. Not just "old" but solid and proven :)

You mean that the lens should be perpendicular to the lens..........right ? One question though (might be stupid)....How would that help ?
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Oct 3, 2007
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I had been in Hong Kong for about a week before my friend Dave randomly messaged me to tell me he was now living there. He promised to take me to a spot, that I've nicknamed Make -Out Point, which allegedly has the most incredible view of the HK skyline. After a short mini-bus ride and a bit of a hike through some thick bush and some former forested squatter areas, we had reached our destination.

To our surprise, there were a couple of others up on the lookout just as we approached. We left before it got dark out, so my guess is the frozen bodies of these three men are still up there.

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5212/538 ... 3359_b.jpg[/IMG]

And one from the Temple St. Night Market...

[IMG]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/538 ... 65f0_b.jpg[/IMG]
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Sep 18, 2009
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puneet wrote: You mean that the lens should be perpendicular to the lens..........right ? One question though (might be stupid)....How would that help ?

By 'back of camera' I mean the focal plane, where the shutter and sensor are located.
To increase sharpness, the flat sensor plane should be parallel to the face of the watch.
Then the only thing affecting edge sharpness is lens quality, and a reversed 50mm or 35mm will have a flatter field than non reversed, or almost any zoom.

You may want to offset the angle of the view, but not as drastically as in your photo.
If offset, you'll need a small aperture to increase depth of field, and it may be sufficient, though never as good as the parallel shot.

To answer your question: lenses are designed to produce a flat field image. Primes are much better at this than zooms, and true macro lenses are among the best.
No DSLR lens can produce a sharp image corner to corner on your Rolex at the angle you chose. If you could shoot at f/128 it might come close, but the image would be degraded by diffraction.
So, the closer you can come to subject and image plane being parallel (or lens perpendicular as you have suggested) the easier it is to achieve sharpness across the image.
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Mar 29, 2008
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Thanks jayt90 for the awesome explanation. But this thing (most of the time) would help If the subject is a flat surface where everything (almost) would be in one plane thus creating an image with maximum focused/sharp detail.
The Rolex picture as Dougboy shot (not me) would be a very close example of what you explained.
Looking back at my pictures I shot with a lens reversing (page 654), I probably (if not certainly) accidently did as you suggested which did help.
thanks again.
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Sep 18, 2009
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For those of us doing small product or food photos, it is worthwhile using or renting a 4"x5" view camera, digital or film, because the focal plane can be placed parallel to the subject plane, and the lens axis adjusted to feed the film plane. The tilt/shift lenses for DSLR's accomplish a bit of this, but they are more suited to architecture.
For the Rolex shot, a view camera would have the film or ground glass surface parallel to the watch, and the lens might be swung downwards.
A moderate aperture could be used, and the watch would be sharp corner to corner.
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May 6, 2007
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Mmmm i love ox tongue.

Messed around some more with reverse-lens macro. I found having the camera parallel to the subject to be too difficult because the whole thing is hit or miss. If I shoot on an angle, at least if i miss one letter, the one "behind" it or "in front" of it will become the focus point so if i do miss, i'll still get something.

[IMG]http://dougboy.smugmug.com/Still-Life-a ... QMWp-L.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://dougboy.smugmug.com/Still-Life-a ... E52Z-L.jpg[/IMG]
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Aug 7, 2008
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Gotta clear the backlog; too many shutter releases and not enough editing.

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May 6, 2005
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My Daisy was on TV yesterday! See her canvas print next to the guy... :)

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