Saturday, August 13, 2016

Purple Haze

Well it has been a month or better since I wrote/posted in the "Darker Image”, this is mainly because I have been a bit disappointed in my results over the last several years, not in all aspects, just mainly in the Macro end of my shooting. This summer while Roger and Helene, our dear friends from the cold lands to our North (Quebec to be exact) were visiting Roger and I got a little more serious with my Canon 100mm Macro

NEW BODY: The 5Ds R was the first step, increase the pixels available, get a deeper crop (larger subject that is). Got it! It IS worth the money, and that is a fact. Either one of them is a monster of tries in a small(ish) bag.

NEW TRIPOD HEAD Next, my tripod: the legs are good strong enough and ridged enough, the head, well that was another matter, hard to use, sags with my 70-200mm Zoom on it, and just generally lame. So, more money 22lb Monfrotto ball head, smooth and ridged, an absolute necessity for macro work.

RAIL FOCUSER: I did a bit of studying, as my macro work is a self taught thing, Were there any tricks out there that Roger had not showed me, or that even he did not know? Enter the rail focuser, I did not buy the most expensive, but I bought a decent one. Why a rail focus tool? Well I found that under certain kinds of conditions a rail focuser can really bring the tack sharp aspects of an image. The trick is to set our camera at the 1 to 1 ratio that the lens is capable of, then go manual focus and use the rail to move the camera in and out to adjust the sharpness of the exact part of the object that you are shooting. For instance you know that the “In focuser plane is approximately 1/3 in front of the plane of focus, and 2/3rds behind. so you focus on the eyes of the bug and you wast part of your DOF on air in front of your subject. With the rail focuser you can take the focus point and move it a mm behind the eyes and get the eyes AND more of the body behind. It is also an excellent tool for precise Focus Staking.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Lens: L glass, always a good bet. Well, one of the few exceptions to that IS the 100mm Macro standard lens, that is an awesome lens, if you did not get a bad copy, like I did. So, anyway, I got the new lens to replace the old lens, and in this case the “New Boss is NOT the same as the old Boss” looking good so far.

The weather has been way to windy and I was not going to go out after work and try to do some good work, fighting for the last of the good light, and hoping to to get a lull in the wind. So I went out today: Lousy light VERY overcast, and still 15+ mile per hour winds, but hey I had the time to sit there and just shoot (Live view), so I did.

All of this is by way of introduction to the first Macro shot I am putting up for your viewing pleasure, it defiantly qualifies as a Darker Image. Called simply, “Purple Haze”.

James Longster, © 2014

Purple Haze:

3 comments:

  1. Appropriately enough: you're making me blow my mind…

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  2. I call this one a Georges de La Tour image from elsewhere, though the source of light is not shown as de La Tour often does. But yes, you work like de La Tour as far as use of light is concerned. I am moved by this image that seems to come from the depths of the ocean, a strange creature that emits its own light in the surrounding darkness.

    This is, above all, a piece of art where the subject appears as something totally different.

    A stunning image. By Jove you still have a bit of work to do on noise, I dare say it. I would use Noiseware a bit more aggressively but NOT on the point of major interest. A very small thing to correct, and I will give you a 10 instead of 9,5.

    Oh so moving…

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  3. I thank you both for your kind comments. This is the next place Roger and I are going to visit. A long lens would be appropriate, as my 200mm was not enough for the water fowl and the various Kingfishers I saw.

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Feel free to comment on the image or my comments about my image.