Here are a few recent images from a couple days ago shot using my DIY diffuser. 1 2 Jumper...jumping. A first (and likely last) for me. 3 4 5vhttp://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4549569709_a0c0b98ff4_b.jpg Black carpenter ant in an entryway 6 Very tiny black ant 7 Swatted/stunned Eastern carpenter bee...he was asking for it! 8 9 Paper wasp collecting building materials 10 11 An ugly (stacked from two images) 12 Another... 13 Jaws (Cadelle) in protective mode (stacked from two images) 14 15 16 17 Tiny Orchard Orbweaver 18 19 Jumper [Phidippus audax] 20 Tiny Wolf spider? 21 Eastern Forktail (F) 22 Think this may be a newly 'hatched' female. 23 And a newly 'hatched' male. 24 25
I think you're curing my arachnophobia. I saw the spider pictures and couldn't help but think how fluffy and cute they looked Great shots
Impressive set of shots, very impressive lens collection too, lots of L! Are most of these taken on your sigma macro? What sort of rig do you have for adjusting the focus? The depth of field on some of them is minuscule. Do you have link for the home made diffuser? I just bought a light ring, funnily enough for taking pictures of LEDs, tried to make small lighting rigs a couple of times but never really had much success.
Appreciated, Fellas Stone, Jumpers have so much personality, and some even seem to generate expression. It's quite comical shooting them. Kev, patience is an important part, but its a non-issue when you love what you're doing. Phenoptix, Yes, these were all shot with the Sigma 150 in conjunction with a 1.4x TC and a 36mm tube. I'm not sure what you mean by "What sort of rig do you have for adjusting the focus?" but I use MF, generally with my left hand DOF at and past 1:1 becomes very thin--most of these were actually shot at f/13 with a few exceptions. Here are a few quick snaps of my rig with a short description. Diffusion panel: Top/Front 9", Depth 9", Bottom/Rear 4.5" The diffusion panel is made up of only two elements: A section of plastic from a one gallon water container and a sheet of vellum. The housing is comprised of cardboard lined with tinfoil, clear box tape and gaffer tape. Note the large size. With longer working distances comes the need for more light and a larger apparent light source. The larger the light source the softer the light.
By rig I meant do you have anything special to adjust the camera's position to move the focus position. I have bit of kit where you can adjust the camera in the x and y so you don't have to use the focusing ring, once you have a focus point. I remembered seeing someone with a heavy wooded set up to do the same thing, also that way any adjustments didn't transfer massive amounts of shake to the camera. I have various bits of cheap kit, seems your set up is very professional so I expect we wouldn't have the same problems.
I'm extremely arachnophobic (screaming and hitting ctlr+f4 even if its a photo on Wikipedia) and kill that eight legged ******* of nature or leave the room very quickly. No problem with jumping spiders though. I'd take one as a pet tbh.
Vers, excuse my ignorance of Canon stuff, but when you say, Tube, do you mean, extension tube ? Doesn't that not allow auto focus anyway or if it doesn't it hunts ? Or are you using MF out of preference ?
What you describe sounds like a focus rail. I don't use one, in fact 99% of my macro work is done hand held. I only use a tripod for studio work.
Yep, Extension tubes. I use the Kenko DG version, which while they allow for AF I don't use it--MF all day long
There's just one question. How will two maine coons (getting one next summer, second coming later) and a jumping spider get along? I'm thinking "nom".
There is minimal light loss, specifically in the VF, but not enough to make a noticeable difference. The 1.4x is where I lose a stop.
