Macro tryout

[sutats]

Idle hands are the devil's workshop. So today I thought I'd make my first venture into macro photography of my most favourite watch (that I own. lol), the 2013 GMT-Master II 116710BLNR.

The watch was shot in as-is used condition apart from having to relentlessly wipe dust off the lens and bezel so they wouldn't appear in the shot. It was an endless task.

I used a basic Nikon D3300 DSLR camera with the kit lens (which is my only lens) mounted on a tripod and a remote shutter to take the picture. To keep dust and fingerprints off I used a squeaky camera lens cloth, a camera dust blower and a cleaning cloth.

No visual edits were made to picture apart from cropping it down.

Please feel free to post yours, criticise, praise, punish or offer advice and suggestions.

[EddyG]

nice picture, was you using a tripod?

[sutats]

Originally Posted by EddyG

nice picture, was you using a tripod?

Thanks very much Eddy. I sure was. I forgot about that. I'll add that to my original post. Thanks.

[cop414]

Great shot, screensaver worthy!

[Hairdude1]

Great pic

[BNA/LION]

Looks good!

[sutats]

Originally Posted by cop414

Great shot, screensaver worthy!

Thanks for the huge compliment Tim. You raise a good point as I will have to consider the aspect ratio for those kind of pics.

Originally Posted by Hairdude1

Great pic

Thanks very much Alex.

Originally Posted by BNALION

Looks good!

Many thanks Leon!

[Kevan]

First class, I always get specs of dust everywhere, this morning I have had 30 minutes play. Took a photo with WB set for sun as it was taken in natural light. I have been reading about setting custom WB. Photographed a piece of paper and set it as the white balance in custom settings and the second shot taken.

But respect re your photo with no editing.... and no dust.

[Kevan]

It obviously only took 90 seconds to do and the colour difference is incredible.

[sutats]

Great shot Kevan! The second pic is stunning and the difference is massive. Getting the white balance right is an art in itself. Nice to see the comparisons.

Thanks a lot. The pic I posted is as close as my lens could take me. All I did was a crop and resize to our forum-friendly size. And as for ridding dust, trust me it felt compulsive. The blue lens cloth that came with my new and very cheap 3 pieces lens cleaning kit really made a difference. I think it had a very slightly rubberised compound that made it squeak and lift the dotty dust specks off. The dust blower that came with it also helped overall.

[Kevan]

D U S T

[sutats]

I'd probably see it too if my lens could take me that close. lol. What camera setup did you have for those pics? For newly settled dust a camera dust blower works reasonably well.

[Kevan]

Originally Posted by sutats

I'd probably see it too if my lens could take me that close. lol. What camera setup did you have for those pics? For newly settled dust a camera dust blower works reasonably well.

A Canon 550D body and a 60mm 2.8 Canon lens... oh and definitely a tripod. Sunlight and no Photoshop.

But I struggle with the "glossy" product.

[Kevan]

Crest cropped.

[sutats]

Thanks Kevan. I have no idea what the numbers on a lens mean but I just ordered one for tighter macros after going through some reviews. lol

Sunlight is a super tricky. That's something nobody can't control even if it the sun only shines once a year here. Anything done outdoors is difficult come to think of it.

[Psmith]

Nice shots

[brandrea]

Well done

[matthayes3741]

Good shot. I like your choice of lighting. It may be a little close on the top right but I'm not an expert.

I have a Nikon D5200 and recently purchased a Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens for macro photography. I like taking pictures of close up details... Watches especially. I LOVE the lens.
I had purchased the Nikon 105mm f/2.0D Auto Focus DC-Nikkor lens but found it was more of a portrait lens (i.e. you need to be 6 feet from the subject to get great focus). I could not get up close (6" and get a zoom or focus).

I like to use aperture priority- the higher number aperture, the longer depth of field, longer shutter speed, the more in focus things will be. Lower aperture is shallower depth of field, allows you to blur background.

Use higher ISO for darker shots. It will be a little grainy but is more sensitive to light and will allow a faster shutter (reducing blur if not using tripod). In well-lit places use lowest ISO (base ISO) to get truest picture.

Those are my notes.

[1210tech]

I have a Nikon D90 and a couple of lenses, one that does f2.8 @ 100mm, but I think one of the easiest ways of capturing macro pics is to use an Olloclip 4in1 lens with my iPhone5s and the Olloclip camera app, pretty much point & shoot

[Kevan]

fast becoming the place to be for macro.

[Kevan]

so let's keep posting.

[Kevan]

pity the plastic was still on...

[sutats]

Originally Posted by Psmith

Nice shots

Thanks Clive. We have really good contributions. Please feel free to post yours.

Originally Posted by brandrea

Well done

Thank you Brian for making it worthwhile. Welcome to post yours.

Originally Posted by matthayes3741

Good shot. I like your choice of lighting. It may be a little close on the top right but I'm not an expert.

I have a Nikon D5200 and recently purchased a Nikon AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens for macro photography. I like taking pictures of close up details... Watches especially. I LOVE the lens.
I had purchased the Nikon 105mm f/2.0D Auto Focus DC-Nikkor lens but found it was more of a portrait lens (i.e. you need to be 6 feet from the subject to get great focus). I could not get up close (6" and get a zoom or focus).

I like to use aperture priority- the higher number aperture, the longer depth of field, longer shutter speed, the more in focus things will be. Lower aperture is shallower depth of field, allows you to blur background.

Use higher ISO for darker shots. It will be a little grainy but is more sensitive to light and will allow a faster shutter (reducing blur if not using tripod). In well-lit places use lowest ISO (base ISO) to get truest picture.

Stunning shots and thanks for your feedback. You're quite right about the light being too close. That bezel gleam was quite unnecessary after all. It's always great to have someone else's perspective.

The lens Xmm and Fnumber is something I don't understand. What do they mean in terms of specs and capability when named with a lens (e.g. 105mm f/2.8G or f2.8 @ 100mm)?

Originally Posted by 1210tech

I have a Nikon D90 and a couple of lenses, one that does f2.8 @ 100mm, but I think one of the easiest ways of capturing macro pics is to use an Olloclip 4in1 lens with my iPhone5s and the Olloclip camera app, pretty much point & shoot

That's a great shot Ian and thanks for sharing. That Olloclip is one serious lens for a smartphone. I've macro DSLR lens and a mobile phone macro lens set on order. I'll test them out when I get them.

Originally Posted by Kevan

pity the plastic was still on...

Nothing wrong with that at all Kevan especially when you have a spare Daytona lying around. It looks spiffy and that's one way of keeping grime off the watch. Also great to see all these contributions.

[1210tech]

Originally Posted by sutats

The lens Xmm and Fnumber is something I don't understand. What do they mean in terms of specs and capability when named with a lens (e.g. 105mm f/2.8G or f2.8 @ 100mm)?

Basically the lower the f-number (eg: f2.8) the bigger the lens aperture which allows a sharp focus on a chosen area of the subject and also allows a quicker shutter speed as the bigger aperture allows more light through the lens: https://photographylife.com/what-is-...in-photography

[matthayes3741]

Originally Posted by 1210tech

Basically the lower the f-number (eg: f2.8) the bigger the lens aperture which allows a sharp focus on a chosen area of the subject and also allows a quicker shutter speed as the bigger aperture allows more light through the lens: https://photographylife.com/what-is-...in-photography

Right on 1210tech!

The chosen area will be in focus but keep in mind if the object takes up a lot of the picture, some portions may be out of focus... i.e. the chosen area might be a small part of the picture and things around it will be considered in front or behind it and will be out of focus. That works well when you are trying to blur the background or foreground but if you are shooting close up and what the whole shot in focus then you will what a larger f number.

[sutats]

Originally Posted by sea-dweller

Looks great!

Thanks you very much!

Originally Posted by 1210tech

Basically the lower the f-number (eg: f2.8) the bigger the lens aperture which allows a sharp focus on a chosen area of the subject and also allows a quicker shutter speed as the bigger aperture allows more light through the lens: https://photographylife.com/what-is-...in-photography

Thanks heaps for the explanation and the link Ian. It was very useful and I did some extra reading too. I now finally understand what the lens mm means and the F-number in relation to depth of field and achieving bokeh.

Originally Posted by matthayes3741

Right on 1210tech!

The chosen area will be in focus but keep in mind if the object takes up a lot of the picture, some portions may be out of focus... i.e. the chosen area might be a small part of the picture and things around it will be considered in front or behind it and will be out of focus. That works well when you are trying to blur the background or foreground but if you are shooting close up and what the whole shot in focus then you will what a larger f number.

Thanks for your added guidance.

So today I unboxed my new Nikon Micro-Nikkor 40mm F/2.8G lens and took some shots. I was able to take much closer shots than the Nikon Nikkor 18-55mm VR kit lens I used in the original post.

Here's a dirty picture I took with the new lens.

[sea-dweller]

Looks great!

[matthayes3741]

That looks great!

[watchwatcher]

Awesome pics, thanks.

[sutats]

Originally Posted by matthayes3741

That looks great!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by watchwatcher

Awesome pics, thanks.

Thanks Larry! You're too kind.

So it turned out rather unfortunately that my smartphone macro lens shipment was lost by the carrier. While that's being sorted out, I'll persist with my macro lens.

Here's a couple. There was so much fiddling around to get the razor thin focus and frame right and at times I wasn't sure what to focus on. Managing the lighting and reflections was another challenge. I know they could benefit from some post processing, but that's not really my thing. What do you think?