Extension Tube Results
There were two problems I faced today: breezy conditions and sporatic clouds passing over. Because the extension tubes have no electronics, the aperture is fully open and I chose not to use a flash. I decided upon ISO 400 so I could use faster shutter speeds but, because of the constantly changing light, the shutter speeds chosen were kinda hit and miss. Thankfully I shoot in RAW.
I tried the tubes with two lenses: 18-55mm and 70-200mm. The longer lens was first and I was amazed at just how close I could get to the spider but still stay far enough away to not disturb it. The shorter lens seemed to give better contrast and better colours. Also, the DOF seemed to be a little more spread out, leaving more in focus. What amazed me with this lens is just how close I could get to the subject. I found a tiny snail attached to the underside of a leaf. I captured this image with the snail actually touching the glass ... can't get much closer than that. It was in a shady place and a flash in this case would've been useless. I had to brighten the image in order to see it that's why there's so much noise ... wrong choice of shutter speed here (chimping would've been a good idea in this case).
The following sets of images compare the two lenses. The top image in each series was the 70-200mm lens and the bottom image is the 18-55mm. All are uncropped.
Spider:
Stargazer Lily petal detail:
Sure, practice makes perfect but, unless you learn from your mistakes, you are only perfecting your ability to fail.
Great shots though.
Stealthy Ninja wrote: What's with the noise on your pics? Is it the sharpening bringing it out? If you're using LR then try using masking.
Great shots though.
Actually, it was the brightening that caused it. Like I mentioned, the lighting conditions were constantly changing and the shutter speeds, that I was constantly adjusting, were hit and miss. Some were pretty dark. The snail was the worst. I also chose ISO 400 to get faster shutter speeds overall. A good situation for chimping...
Sure, practice makes perfect but, unless you learn from your mistakes, you are only perfecting your ability to fail.
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