Chthonic Wildlife Ramblings

Thanks guys- I'm glad people are still stopping by to visit.

I use a dedicated macro lens to take these pictures. These have optical formulas that allow getting close to the subject without generating image quality loss. Macro lenses are also (typically) very sharp. I also experiment with boosting magnification with either a raynox adaptor or coupling another lens to the main lens.

The lens I use a Tamron 90/2.8. Sigma also make a 105/2.8. Both tend to be cheaper than the branded versions. The cheapest macro lens around is the Cosina 100/3.5 or the 'plastic fantastic'. It does surprisingly well, but it's not up to the standards of the more expensive lenses.

Some tricks to get macro on the cheap is to reverse a lens or to couple any (decently) sharp lens with another.

I tend to shoot at around f16. Once you go wider, the depth of field gets even narrower. Above that, you start to lose image quality as diffraction occurs stopped down.

The other (almost) mandatory tool is an external flash. You need a lot of light to reveal details that would otherwise be lost in shadow.

Yes, the flash is very useful for macro photography- sometimes so useful I fire two of them simultaneously! Any number bigger than zero .

If you're interested, I also took some shots with a 50mm lens coupled to the 90mm macro- the depth of field shrunk drastically. OTOH, you get a lot of magnification.

Image- link