Wee Beasties

[Cathus]

Some shots with the Canon MP-E 65 f2.8 5x1 macro lens.

1. Dead Wasp


2. Dozy spider


3. Preening Ant


The first two are focus-stacked images made up af between 20 & 30 separate shots all taken at different focusing points then stacked together in software to keep all the sharp bits & throw away all the out of focus bits.

The ant is a straight shot showing the limited depth of field of this lens

All 3 shots taken next to the window with the creatures sitting on a plastic box (which used to contain cotton buds)
The shots are uncropped.

[rbarry]

Great dof processing work.

You have to be quite regimented in organising the layers that make up the image. Do you stack them all at the same time or do you work on a few at a time, flatten the image and then add more?

Great result from the time and effort you put in, well done.

Rick.

[rbarry]

Just been reading the tech spec of your lens:

"At 5x and f/16, the MP-E gives a minute .269mm DOF"

That is phenominal!

[Cathus]

I don't process in Photoshop, I use Zerene Stacker to stack the images then create a file which I output as a jpg & then process that on PS for contrast, cropping, cloning/repairing sports.

the minute DOF is why I said in another thread that this is the most difficult lens to use of the ones I own.

[stevef]

No's 1 & 2 are great, I have a trial version of Helicon Focus which I will have a go with but it leaves a watermark across the image

[rbarry]

What aperture did you use to shoot the first two images?

[Cathus]

the wasp was f6.4 @ 1/3sec ISO 200

the spider is f8 @ 1sec ISO 200

[rbarry]

I understand that the dof would depend on the aperture, and additionally by the magnification used.

I've spent the last 3/4 of an hour reading reviews and looking at field examples with explanations of macro work captured using the Canon MP-E 65 f2.8 5x1 macro lens. You have to be very patient when setting up and shooting your stacked images, but it transpires that the donkey work of processing those images can be automised using Zerene Stacker, Helicon Focus, Photoshop etc.

You have managed to expose these images really well and without a dedicated macro flash to boot.

My last question then is, given the difficulty that 5x magnification would have with light levels and aperture settings, what was the magnification of the first two images? The reason I ask is to give me some idea how much of your subject could you have filled the frame with these shots, given that you haven't cropped them.

Mind you, looking at that wasp I hope the magnification was x3 or more, because if that was a 1:1 image I wouldn't like to come across that monster in a hurry!

[Cathus]

to be honest I'm not absolutely sure but I would think around 4x maybe even a bit higher.

There isn't a switch as such where you can just set it to 1x 3x etc, there are marks on the lens barrel, but unless you specifically remember to check after you've composed the shot, you might not realise what the magnification is

[VSS]

Cathus,

Superb shots. Envious.