Dandelion

This is a dandelion weed head, was trying out a pentax - nikon adaptor, Pentax 28-50mm, Pentax extension tube, Nikon D90

My first attempt at macro and using the tubes....struggling i think, what are your thoughts? c&c welcome.

For a first go, I think you did well. I always find yellow harder to capture well. I think the yellow throws off the meter or something.

eccs19 wrote: For a first go, I think you did well. I always find yellow harder to capture well. I think the yellow throws off the meter or something.

Thanks.....no metering, pure guess work, the pk-nikon adaptor doesnt let u use the meter, had to guess at shutter speed and leave the lens wide open as its a pentax lens on a nikon

Not too bad at all for a first time!

orion wrote:

eccs19 wrote: For a first go, I think you did well. I always find yellow harder to capture well. I think the yellow throws off the meter or something.

Thanks.....no metering, pure guess work, the pk-nikon adaptor doesnt let u use the meter, had to guess at shutter speed and leave the lens wide open as its a pentax lens on a nikon

You should just send that lens to me then so it can be used properly. (Kidding of course)

The color brights my morning, but its just a plain flower sitting there, its not an appealing flower to enjoy ...the macro lens is placed in the wrong direction , photo looks more like a snapshot than a professional photo...Along with that its an "out of focus" shot along with no angles to it, ..Shooting from the top can make a huge difference...

boriqua latina wrote: The color brights my morning, but its just a plain flower sitting there, its not an appealing flower to enjoy ...the macro lens is placed in the wrong direction , photo looks more like a snapshot than a professional photo...Along with that its an "out of focus" shot along with no angles to it, ..Shooting from the top can make a huge difference...

Thank you for your honest opinion Adriana... yes the color is bright, but looking at it i think its too bright, its not a flower its a garden weed and i agree not very appealing lol, i might have another go and shoot from the top as you suggested, its the depth of field is one thing im not happy about. See what another day shoot brings...Thank you for your honestly, thats what i like.

The problem is that (as you mentioned) your using a Pentax lens wide open, and you can't control that. Your DOF is going to be horrible as long as it continues to be wide open. Under your conditions, not much you can do.

The Pentax lens has no aperture ring?...I've shot scads of macro shots using lenses that won't meter with my Nikon D70s. It really isn't hard at all Most of the images in my gallery were done that way. Now that I have a D300, I can meter with older manual focus lenses, but still find myself shooting entirely in manual mode.

Screamin Scott wrote: The Pentax lens has no aperture ring?...I've shot scads of macro shots using lenses that won't meter with my Nikon D70s. It really isn't hard at all Most of the images in my gallery were done that way. Now that I have a D300, I can meter with older manual focus lenses, but still find myself shooting entirely in manual mode.

It does have an aperature ring, but if i close down to say f8 i cant see anything in the viewfinder - its too dark, the advert on ebay said that the pk-nikon adaptor will work in A or M mode. In A mode, nothing happens, and in Manual, i guess what the shutter speed should be and its way out...Scott - do you have any suggestions how to get a "descent" shot?

orion wrote:

boriqua latina wrote: The color brights my morning, but its just a plain flower sitting there, its not an appealing flower to enjoy ...the macro lens is placed in the wrong direction , photo looks more like a snapshot than a professional photo...Along with that its an "out of focus" shot along with no angles to it, ..Shooting from the top can make a huge difference...

Thank you for your honest opinion Adriana... yes the color is bright, but looking at it i think its too bright, its not a flower its a garden weed and i agree not very appealing lol, i might have another go and shoot from the top as you suggested, its the depth of field is one thing im not happy about. See what another day shoot brings...Thank you for your honestly, thats what i like.

Use a tripod for when you reshoot it, so it wont be out of focus, some shots that are out of focus tend to work for you while others dont...you becoming observant as well indeed, tooo bright hurts my eyes , yes of course its a garden weed lol but i tend to call everything a flower, must be the fastest way of writing it here... "i always say all it takes is one shot take it like its ur last one, even if u new at macro or any subject you never know where that one picture might take you....just put in a lill more effort... keep up the good work"

It's going to be a "Trial & Error" way to shoot as you have discovered when using adapters. It's kinda like the old focus wide open & stop down to meter scenario except that you are not getting any metering. To make things more convenient, I'd suggest getting lenses in Nikon F mount. At least that way you would still have the aperture held wide open until the shutter was released, saving you a bit of inconvenience...Macro shots taken using a flash or ring light allow you to stop down your aperture, thus increasing your DOF. Plus shooting from a different angle with more of the bloom in parallel to the sensor plane will get more of it in focus

Great first time!