Subject: macro questions and guidelines
Date: 2009-03-10 14:17:16
From: John Thurston

I usually do "big" scenes with my TL120, but one image I
shot last year (or maybe the year before) was up close and I
like it well enough that I want to try some more like it.

The TL120 can focus down to a bit under a meter but at that
distance, I think I'll have less than a half meter of
depth-of-field to work with. I'm new to this close-up stuff.

I can use a slide-bar to get the lens spacing I need, but
I'm confused about the composition required. What constrains
me? Is it depth of field? Is it on film deviation?

Is 1/2 meter range "macro", "close up" or something else?
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

Subject: Re: macro questions and guidelines
Date: 2009-03-10 16:26:25
From: Harry Calderbank

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, John Thurston wrote:

>
> I usually do "big" scenes with my TL120, but one image I
> shot last year (or maybe the year before) was up close and I
> like it well enough that I want to try some more like it.
>
> The TL120 can focus down to a bit under a meter but at that
> distance, I think I'll have less than a half meter of
> depth-of-field to work with. I'm new to this close-up stuff.
>
> I can use a slide-bar to get the lens spacing I need, but
> I'm confused about the composition required. What constrains
> me? Is it depth of field? Is it on film deviation?
>
> Is 1/2 meter range "macro", "close up" or something else?
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau Alaska
> http://stereo.thurstons.us
>

Hi John,

Last year I tried a few close up shots myself and always meant to do a lot more. I picked up a cheap little close up filter to screw on to one of the lenses and then took the single shots on a slide bar.

My subject for the shots was a flower and taken from about 12 inches, the DOF was only about the width (depth) of the flower itself which was only around three inches. And that was at f22. I tried to fill as much of the frame as possible with the flower but chose to have an "invisible" black background so that all of the available DOF was used on the subject.

Biggest problem I found was lining up the taking lens with the subject. Because the camera is so close to the subject you can't readily use the TL120 viewfinder lens to line it up. Even when focussing, I had to screw the filter lens on to the viewfinder lens to set the focus, then swap it to the taking lens and carefully align the camera to the subject without altering the distance to the subject.

The results were good enough to make me want to try some more but as often happens, I haven't got around to it yet. Worth trying though. Good luck.

regards

Harry Calderbank