Pretty humble, but I am finally on my way. 50mm, 20mm tube, handheld. I seem to have gotten some diffraction softening. Next time I shoot at a lower ISO and aperture.

good first shots, like 2nd shot best. both too central in frame though.
looks like a lot of noise and quite soft.
have you altered exposure much in ps?

phil

No, not much exposure monkeying in post. Thanks for looking. I like the crops, but agree with you totally about the technique. These were shot at f/22; that plus ISO 400 plus handholding plus use of a non-macro lens plus crappy technique are probably all responsible for the softness. I went out again just now and hopefully got some better ones... shot at ISO 100-200 and lower f-stops. Will post.

using f22 is probably not helping, try f8 which is usuall sharpest on most lenses.
phil

Okay, here's the first shot PPed from the second attempt. I think it's better on sharpness and lighting, although obviously no work of art. ISO 200, f/14, 50mm, 48mm of tubes, handheld:

How does my lighting look on these? Here's another, same settings. I figure this little guy was about 2-3 millimeters long.

I think now it may be a pygmy locus, on the order of several millimeters long. But I know very little about these things.

i like the second one.

Look very good for first tries- esp like the hopper shots - light looks very good on a difficult exposure shot with that bright yellow background.
Brian v.

Thanks very much for looking and commenting. I am hooked already. I think the funniest part of this is that already it's hard to walk by a single bush without stopping to take a look.

My next steps are to muck with my lighting a bit, and try shooting at ISO 100 and maybe a bit wider aperture. I don't have the money to afford a tripod right now, so will have to go strictly handheld for a while. Again, thanks to all for the pointers and encouragement.

jvarszegi wrote:
Thanks very much for looking and commenting. I am hooked already. I think the funniest part of this is that already it's hard to walk by a single bush without stopping to take a look.


soon you will be combing each leaf of every bush

jvarszegi wrote:
Thanks very much for looking and commenting. I am hooked already. I think the funniest part of this is that already it's hard to walk by a single bush without stopping to take a look.

My next steps are to muck with my lighting a bit, and try shooting at ISO 100 and maybe a bit wider aperture. I don't have the money to afford a tripod right now, so will have to go strictly handheld for a while. Again, thanks to all for the pointers and encouragement.
Quite a few people on this board don't use a tripod for outdoor work - a monopod or even a pole works great. Save your money for a flash setup if you don't have one already.

And btw, I like the hopper shots - it's always a treat to see an insect in their environment, similar to a mini diorama.

Shows you don't need to spend a fortune on equipment to get good shots, the locust ones are very good. Agree with other comments about tripod use, I hardly ever use one for macro personally. Others will disagree of course

Adrian

Thanks a lot for the comments and tips. I do have a monopod, a Manfrotto type with the little legs to make it a quasi-tripod. I will start using that.

locust shots much sharper.
shooting on yellow flowers quite difficult to get exposure correct.
yes you do tend to look on every plant to see whats there
phil

Thanks a lot. Luckily the hopper stayed mostly still, unlike most of the critters I tried to shoot today. Barely got one of this daddy longlegs: