These are really amazing, visually. They get great abstraction from the close-up-ness, and even more from the raindrops.
I would love to know what is the "special lens" that he uses. The lower one seems to have unusually deep depth of field, with normal lenses you can only get part of the insect sharp.
Update:
Andreas pointed at Helicon Remote, software which will automatically run the camera and make focus braketing, ready to be combined with Helicon Focus software. And indeed, some of their samples are macros of insects.
11 comments:
These are really amazing, visually. They get great abstraction from the close-up-ness, and even more from the raindrops.
Yeah; see?! You should go out and discover the macro world! 'Tis COOL, huh?! :-D
I would love to know what is the "special lens" that he uses. The lower one seems to have unusually deep depth of field, with normal lenses you can only get part of the insect sharp.
Askim :-D
The special lens seems to be Canon's 65 mm MP-E.
Lens design has very little effect on depth of field, however. I'd guess these critters keep that perfectly still due to the cold that it's possible to apply focus stacking.
Oooh, yes, that could be a possibility, good call.
Hmm, I wonder if there's any way of doing focus stacking with ten rapid shots or if one always have to adjust focus manually between shots?
There definitely are automated solutions (Helicon Remote is included in the Helicon Focus software package for example) which can adjust either the focus of AF lenses or drive motor controlled focus rails. But it's been a while since I played with a beta version, can't really say anything about how fast that automatic focus bracketing works now. IIRC Helicon Remote actually calculated the optimum spacing between the shots for your given min. and max. focus distances...
Thanks. I looked it up, very cool software.
http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconremote.html
"The program works with Canon and Nikon DSLRs that support Live View mode."
Not exactly cheap, though, about $400 including the Focus processing software (which you need), depending on how you licence/buy it.
Where did you get that price? I see the "Pro" license at 200$ unlimited or 55$ for a year. Each license allows installation on up to four computers, as long as they're not used simultaneously. And you might even score a free license with an interesting article for their site ...
Yes, but you need both the Focus software and the Remote software to get use of Remote. And if you want to keep it, that's 2 times 200 bucks.
> Yes, but you need both the Focus software and the Remote software to get use of Remote.
That's a misunderstanding - actually the desktop version of Remote isn't even available as standalone purchase, but only included in each Pro licence for Focus.
(Remote for Android devices on the other hand is indeed sold separately, but for at most 29$ unlimited.)
Aha, okay! That's much more reasonable. Though I don't see why they don't sell it on its own. If one already has other software or a shorter licence, it'd be nice to get Remote for a reasonable price on its own.
But that's their headache. Imaging software is often pricey in my opinion, like Nik software filters for example, I just wanted one single filter, but it was only included in a package at 150 Euros or thereabouts.
There used to be a nice software package to make drawing out of photos, Photo Art Master, now gone bust. I met the guy behind it, very nice man, but he never responded to my complaints that the price, I think it was like five hundred dollars, was way, way, too high.
In my first solo art show, I had at first set my prices at many hundreds of dollars per drawing/painting. But when it was pointed out that it was too high, I dropped them dramatically even during that same show, and I sold two, which I definitely wouldn't have done otherwise.
It's funny, when i saw the pics, my first thought was not :
what lenses did the photographer use?
But
Who did he make the insect stand still? :)
I guess that would be the more obvious question! For all the weirdo non-lens addicts, at least.
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