MobiWorkshop MW 1 - Close-up Photography

[FundyBrian]

I thought all the holes in this leaf would be interesting. Only when it was on the iPad Pro did I see all the creepy crawlies hiding in the holes .
View attachment 119285
I thought they were spiders and decided to go out and see if I could find the leaf again. It took me a while because the leaf was a lot smaller than I realised after photographing it in macro!

I turned it over and found this. More of the bugs from the first image. I didn’t realise I had taken a .dng image and as they were within a curled leaf structure there wasn’t enough light so too much noise. This was a crop. Not very successful.

View attachment 119286

I would love to go out bug hunting right now but I’m staying mostly inside while I’m sick and there aren’t any bugs outside anyhow.

 

[FundyBrian]

This was one of my favourite images but when loaded on the iPad Pro, it was much less focused than I thought.

This was taken with the iPhone, Moment App, Moment 58mm tele and x10 macro filter.

View attachment 119287

Was this picture also made as a DNG file? Remember, the photos app cannot display RAW images. They require a separate (built in) preview image so that can be displayed instead. The Preview image is a smaller low resolution file so it isn’t useful to see if your picture is in focus. Editing apps that do not handle RAW images will just edit the low resolution jpeg preview image instead - obviously yielding inferior results.

Some apps can make a RAW image and a jpeg at the same time which is handy to be able to tell what your RAW photo is supposed to look like. It gets to be a pain, though, because once you have a hundred or so mixed RAW and jpeg images it is hard to tell the RAW from the jpegs. You can spend a lot of time calling up the EXIF reader to check the file type of each image. You might discover that the image you want to edit is the 3rd one after that distinctive on in your camera roll. Annoyingly, you soon discover that editing apps don’t all display camera roll images in exactly the same order! (#*&%@)

Some apps add a little icon onto the RAW previews, other don’t. Not all RAW photos are correctly identified by the icon. Some apps produce a RAW image with a full resolution jpeg preview but when you try to edit that image is certain apps it will work wit the jpeg preview instead of the RAW as you intended. Let’s just say the world of mobile RAW is still being sorted out.

When you find a camera app and editing app that work well together you tend to stick to what works.
When I backup my photos onto my computer the first thing I do is delete all the unnecessary jpeg duplicates leaving only the RAW images. Whenever possible I now avoid making RAW + Jpeg in camera. It is just too confusing trying to sort them out in the camera roll.

Something that is beginning to make more sense to me. Rather than having to check each time what the image format is set to I pick certain apps that I want to photograph in RAW and set them that way. For pictures that don’t require RAW I use a different camera app that saves jpeg. So I have my RAW apps and my jpeg apps. Once I’m editing I switch to tiff.

Here’s another thing to watch out for. Let’s say you have completed your editing on a photo and saved it as a tiff. At the last minute you decide to do a little tweak on it in the Photos app. Now go and check the file type and you’ll see it has been converted to a jpeg! Hurry back to the Photos app and hit “revert” and you will get your tiff back, minus that little tweak.

 

[terse]

The dragon's tail

I'm happy with the way the background blur came out here -- just what I'd hoped for. But the point of focus is a bit off. It should be at the tip of the spine rather than the base.

 

[ImageArt]

Was this picture also made as a DNG file? Remember, the photos app cannot display RAW images. They require a separate (built in) preview image so that can be displayed instead. The Preview image is a smaller low resolution file so it isn’t useful to see if your picture is in focus. Editing apps that do not handle RAW images will just edit the low resolution jpeg preview image instead - obviously yielding inferior results.

Some apps can make a RAW image and a jpeg at the same time which is handy to be able to tell what your RAW photo is supposed to look like. It gets to be a pain, though, because once you have a hundred or so mixed RAW and jpeg images it is hard to tell the RAW from the jpegs. You can spend a lot of time calling up the EXIF reader to check the file type of each image. You might discover that the image you want to edit is the 3rd one after that distinctive on in your camera roll. Annoyingly, you soon discover that editing apps don’t all display camera roll images in exactly the same order! (#*&%@)

Some apps add a little icon onto the RAW previews, other don’t. Not all RAW photos are correctly identified by the icon. Some apps produce a RAW image with a full resolution jpeg preview but when you try to edit that image is certain apps it will work wit the jpeg preview instead of the RAW as you intended. Let’s just say the world of mobile RAW is still being sorted out.

When you find a camera app and editing app that work well together you tend to stick to what works.
When I backup my photos onto my computer the first thing I do is delete all the unnecessary jpeg duplicates leaving only the RAW images. Whenever possible I now avoid making RAW + Jpeg in camera. It is just too confusing trying to sort them out in the camera roll.

Something that is beginning to make more sense to me. Rather than having to check each time what the image format is set to I pick certain apps that I want to photograph in RAW and set them that way. For pictures that don’t require RAW I use a different camera app that saves jpeg. So I have my RAW apps and my jpeg apps. Once I’m editing I switch to tiff.

Here’s another thing to watch out for. Let’s say you have completed your editing on a photo and saved it as a tiff. At the last minute you decide to do a little tweak on it in the Photos app. Now go and check the file type and you’ll see it has been converted to a jpeg! Hurry back to the Photos app and hit “revert” and you will get your tiff back, minus that little tweak.

Actually, it was saved as a tiff which really surprised me at the time because I was using the Moment app and I can only think that I tapped the file type button at the top by mistake when I was selecting the tele lens. Again, I must have hit the file type button when I went back out to find the bugs because these are all in RAW. Now that I know that I might make this mistake, I shall remember to check the file type!

 

[ImageArt]

View attachment 119314

The dragon's tail

I'm happy with the way the background blur came out here -- just what I'd hoped for. But the point of focus is a bit off. It should be at the tip of the spine rather than the base.

Interesting angle, Ted. Did you use a tripod. I just find getting a tripod in the right position impossible.

 

[terse]

Interesting angle, Ted. Did you use a tripod. I just find getting a tripod in the right position impossible.

Thanks. No tripod, just handheld, but the room had enough light. I know what you mean about finicky positioning with tripods. After a few tries, I'm likely to wander off and do something else rather than keep tinkering.

 

[FundyBrian]

Interesting angle, Ted. Did you use a tripod. I just find getting a tripod in the right position impossible.

Thanks. No tripod, just handheld, but the room had enough light. I know what you mean about finicky positioning with tripods. After a few tries, I'm likely to wander off and do something else rather than keep tinkering.

You’ve hit upon one of the things that makes people abandon close-up nature photography. It’s hard to find a truly versatile tripod. If you eventually find one that suits the way you work then you are among the lucky ones. There are a few very adaptable tripods out there that can twist into just about any angle - except the one you currently need. It’s enough to test your patience. But the results are worthwhile.

 

[FundyBrian]

This was one of my favourite images but when loaded on the iPad Pro, it was much less focused than I thought.
View attachment 119287

I have this problem with macros, too. When shooting on my phone, I can't really tell how good the focus is or where exactly it is. Now if we could mount the Moment macro on an iPad, it might be a different story.

What you need in this case is a magnified screen viewer. It really does make it a lot easier to see what you’re doing and make fine adjustment to your focus. You just have to remember to use it. (not to mention carry it with you - that’s the one drawback)

I don’t know of any made specifically for the large phone screens. I know you can buy them for DSLRs but they have a smaller screen. Otherwise, it’s DIY.
The ones for DSLRs come in two types. The viewer is the same in both but one also has a bunch of adjustable brackets that attach to the camera’s hotshoe to keep the viewer in position, but it can also flip up out of the way. That bracket adds quite a bit to the price and it wouldn’t be any use for a phone so the one without the bracket is the one to look for. If you decide to go the DIY route a lens around +13 or 14 is the right amount of magnification. +10 is a bit too long, putting the lens about 5.5" away from the screen, which makes for a very tall hood. However, if your lens is too powerful the hood will end up very short and the view is prone to distortions. The viewer hood cuts out the surrounding light making it much easier to see the screen even in sunlight.

You can make the viewer hood out of photo mat board, black on the inside.

 

[ImageArt]

I didn’t think my depth of field was large at all. In my first photo I was complaining about the lack of it. Likewise the fern fossil. The ones that look OK, the fish fossils, were almost dead flat. I think it is only the skimming lighting angle revealing a lot of texture detail that gives the appearance of depth. Depth of field is entirely defined by the amount of magnification and subject distance and the aperture size.

Don’t forget the iPhone 6 aperture is ƒ2.4 while the 7 is ƒ1.8 for the standard 1x lens and ƒ2.8 for the 2x lens. Also, the focal length of the iPhone 6 lens is 4.15mm while the iPhone 7 is 3.99. When comparing an iPhone 6 and 7 you should be able to tell the difference in the resulting depth of field in a carefully made test.

I also think it is worthwhile working with the ƒ2.8 2x lens for close-ups even though the longer the focal length the more difficult it is to get depth of field, however, the greater working distance might be the more important factor.

While I’m writing this I have enjoyed typing ƒƒƒƒƒƒ on my iPad with external keyboard. Does anyone know how to access that character from the onscreen keyboard?

I can’t find it anywhere. The external keyboard has a lot of extra keys using option or shift+option.

However, there is a way around this. You can set up a text replacement. Go to General>Keyboard>Text Replacement. Hit the + sign and add ƒ as the Phrase and ‘fstop’ or whatever you want as the Short Cut. Then when you type fstop it should come up with the ƒ.

 

[FundyBrian]

I can’t find it anywhere. The external keyboard has a lot of extra keys using option or shift+option.

However, there is a way around this. You can set up a text replacement. Go to General>Keyboard>Text Replacement. Hit the + sign and add ƒ as the Phrase and ‘fstop’ or whatever you want as the Short Cut. Then when you type fstop it should come up with the ƒ.

Thanks. I didn’t know about that. I’ve never looked into shortcuts.

 

[FundyBrian]

I can’t find it anywhere. The external keyboard has a lot of extra keys using option or shift+option.

However, there is a way around this. You can set up a text replacement. Go to General>Keyboard>Text Replacement. Hit the + sign and add ƒ as the Phrase and ‘fstop’ or whatever you want as the Short Cut. Then when you type fstop it should come up with the ƒ.

OK here’s another I keep wanting. Forward delete. There used to be a forward delete key on my desktop Mac. Then the new simplified keyboard did away with that but there is a keystroke combination to use it. But it doesn’t work on my iPad with extended keyboard. And now I can’t even remember what it was. Option-shift-delete, or something like that. When I tried it on my iPad I got as far as deleting an entire word, but backwards. Now for forwards.

Thank goodness the external keyboard has arrow keys. So handy to nudge things in many apps. I use them often while typing. I must explore some of the top row keys a little more. Oops, that one (above the tilde key) closed the app and made my last sentence disappear. Command-Z is a handy one, too.

 

[FundyBrian]

OK, then everyone who wanted more time to make some photos. Where are they? Time we got into the discussion phase of this workshop.

RoseCat , dscheff, zenjenny, ImageArt, GroovyGouvy, younger, sinnerjohn, Carol, rizole, lkbside, terse, Starzee,

 

[terse]

OK, then everyone who wanted more time to make some photos. Where are they? Time we got into the discussion phase of this workshop.

RoseCat , dscheff, zenjenny, ImageArt, GroovyGouvy, younger, sinnerjohn, Carol, rizole, lkbside, terse, Starzee,

 

[terse]

Wet camellia bud
iPhone 7, Moment macro lens, native cam
This is a 1356 x 1808 pixel section cropped out of the middle of the 3024 x 4032 pixel original, with no resizing or other editing.

 

[sinnerjohn]

View attachment 119336

Wet camellia bud
iPhone 7, Moment macro lens, native cam
This is a 1356 x 1808 pixel section cropped out of the middle of the 3024 x 4032 pixel original, with no resizing or other editing.

Very sensual

 

[rizole]

OK, then everyone who wanted more time to make some photos. Where are they? Time we got into the discussion phase of this workshop.

Well as I noted above, I need to source some half decent equipment so If I've gotten nothing else from this thread, I have that but won't be taking anymore photos for this thread now. I'd be disappointed with the results.

Having said that, looking back through my older material I have pulled off some good shots with what I do have. And what they all seem to have in common is strong, summer lighting or high contrast.
I'm sure better lens will allow me to get better shots more consistently across different conditions but here's what I pulled off previously with a cheap plastic stick on lens

Even when almost nothing is in focus you can get some nice shots.

These are dandelion seeds. I never noticed the barbs on them before this pic, which presumably help them dig into soil, cracks and whatnot.

 

[sinnerjohn]

Well as I noted above, I need to source some half decent equipment so If I've gotten nothing else from this thread, I have that but won't be taking anymore photos for this thread now. I'd be disappointed with the results.

Having said that, looking back through my older material I have pulled off some good shots with what I do have. And what they all seem to have in common is strong, summer lighting or high contrast.
I'm sure better lens will allow me to get better shots more consistently across different conditions but here's what I pulled off previously with a cheap plastic stick on lens
View attachment 119340
View attachment 119341
Even when almost nothing is in focus you can get some nice shots.View attachment 119342 View attachment 119343
These are dandelion seeds. I never noticed the barbs on them before this pic, which presumably help them dig into soil, cracks and whatnot. View attachment 119344 View attachment 119345

These are all really nice. I received some of those clip on type lenses at Christmas. Not really had chance to try them out yet, they were not expensive, but we will see.

 

[sinnerjohn]

OK, then everyone who wanted more time to make some photos. Where are they? Time we got into the discussion phase of this workshop.

RoseCat , dscheff, zenjenny, ImageArt, GroovyGouvy, younger, sinnerjohn, Carol, rizole, lkbside, terse, Starzee,

I think sadly you chose the wrong season for this Brian. Unless you are a real close up fan and looking at your set up you definitely are, the only interesting thing that would want me to take close ups are bugs and flowers. Neither in abundance in winter I'm afraid.
Loving looking at the images posted though, but not sure what can be discussed?

 

[FundyBrian]

Well as I noted above, I need to source some half decent equipment so If I've gotten nothing else from this thread, I have that but won't be taking anymore photos for this thread now. I'd be disappointed with the results.

Having said that, looking back through my older material I have pulled off some good shots with what I do have. And what they all seem to have in common is strong, summer lighting or high contrast.
I'm sure better lens will allow me to get better shots more consistently across different conditions but here's what I pulled off previously with a cheap plastic stick on lens
View attachment 119340
View attachment 119341
Even when almost nothing is in focus you can get some nice shots.View attachment 119342 View attachment 119343
These are dandelion seeds. I never noticed the barbs on them before this pic, which presumably help them dig into soil, cracks and whatnot. View attachment 119344 View attachment 119345

You have done remarkably well with what you have. With some better quality optics there would be nothing stopping you. Good points about the lighting quality. That certainly adds punch to the images.

 

[FundyBrian]

I think sadly you chose the wrong season for this Brian. Unless you are a real close up fan and looking at your set up you definitely are, the only interesting thing that would want me to take close ups are bugs and flowers. Neither in abundance in winter I'm afraid.
Loving looking at the images posted though, but not sure what can be discussed?

Yes, I, too, find my main inspiration in nature, but I do enjoy some tabletop close-ups on occasion. I chose Close-up Photography for the first workshop because it got the most response. We can certainly do it again in summer.

 

[FundyBrian]

View attachment 119336

Wet camellia bud
iPhone 7, Moment macro lens, native cam
This is a 1356 x 1808 pixel section cropped out of the middle of the 3024 x 4032 pixel original, with no resizing or other editing.

It certainly shows some fine details. You got the focus location right on.

 

[terse]

It certainly shows some fine details. You got the focus location right on.

I posted it as a 100% crop out of the center because I wanted to show it full-size. The center (of the center) looks good, but I'm disappointed with the way the image starts breaking up at the edges (at the bottom, for example, where the darker green meets the lighter green and brown). I suppose that's a result of the in-camera JPG processing or maybe of the sensor itself. I guess a DNG might do better.

 

[FundyBrian]

A couple of final images from me.
There have been many comments about the very slim depth of field in close-ups. I decided to photograph this pin on Fabi’s hat using telephoto close-up. The pin is too big for the Moment Macro. It measures about 1.75", or 4.5cm. It has quite a strong dome shape. With the centre being about 1cm higher than the edges. Bad news for getting it all in focus with the regular closeup lens. With the telephoto lens I had a much greater lens to subject distance and the depth of field was enough.

I photographed the pin by a south facing window, but not in direct sun, somewhat cloudy. There was a reflector added to the shadow side to even the exposure.

I had another purpose for photographing the key but something happened that made me think it was a worthwhile example.

You probably know I’m a big fan of using a white balance card to get the right colour in photos. In the first photo I measured the colour temperature of the light and locked the setting (just press the WB button in PureShot with a white balance card in view), It looks very much the way actual colour looked.

I was finished with my photo and was about to put things away when I cancelled the white balance setting, I reverted to the regular auto white balance, and I really noticed a sudden change in colour. The red when towards cyan and the key lost the nice brass colour. So I made this second photo with AWB. This is how the picture would have turned out if I had not made a custome white balance. If you have any large single strong colour in the picture the auto white balance will go wrong.

Imagine the standard photographic colour wheel. Just in case you can’t imagine the photographic colour wheel here it is.

The 3 additive primaries - Red, Green, Blue. And the three subtractive primaries - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. With AWB, or auto white balance, the camera tries to find a neutral balance with the colours in the image. When there is an imbalance the AWB identifies the direction of the colour shift and adds the opposite colour to reach equilibrium. In this case Cyan. So it adds a bunch of cyan to offset the excess red and ends up ruining the colour.

 

[FundyBrian]

I posted it as a 100% crop out of the center because I wanted to show it full-size. The center (of the center) looks good, but I'm disappointed with the way the image starts breaking up at the edges (at the bottom, for example, where the darker green meets the lighter green and brown). I suppose that's a result of the in-camera JPG processing or maybe of the sensor itself. I guess a DNG might do better.

I have often been disappointed when I have a nice sharp photo to post but the process of reducing the image to a suitable size for posting removes a lot of the sharpness. Certain textures, like sand, don’t reduce well.

 

[terse]

A couple of final images from me.
There have been many comments about the very slim depth of field in close-ups. I decided to photograph this pin on Fabi’s hat using telephoto close-up. The pin is too big for the Moment Macro. It measures about 1.75", or 4.5cm. It has quite a strong dome shape. With the centre being about 1cm higher than the edges. Bad news for getting it all in focus with the regular closeup lens. With the telephoto lens I had a much greater lens to subject distance and the depth of field was enough.
View attachment 119349
I photographed the pin by a south facing window, but not in direct sun, somewhat cloudy. There was a reflector added to the shadow side to even the exposure.

I had another purpose for photographing the key but something happened that made me think it was a worthwhile example.
View attachment 119348
You probably know I’m a big fan of using a white balance card to get the right colour in photos. In the first photo I measured the colour temperature of the light and locked the setting (just press the WB button in PureShot with a white balance card in view), It looks very much the way actual colour looked.

View attachment 119350
I was finished with my photo and was about to put things away when I cancelled the white balance setting, I reverted to the regular auto white balance, and I really noticed a sudden change in colour. The red when towards cyan and the key lost the nice brass colour. So I made this second photo with AWB. This is how the picture would have turned out if I had not made a custome white balance. If you have any large single strong colour in the picture the auto white balance will go wrong.

Imagine the standard photographic colour wheel. Just in case you can’t imagine the photographic colour wheel here it is.
View attachment 119352
The 3 additive primaries - Red, Green, Blue. And the three subtractive primaries - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. With AWB, or auto white balance, the camera tries to find a neutral balance with the colours in the image. When there is an imbalance the AWB identifies the direction of the colour shift and adds the opposite colour to reach equilibrium. In this case Cyan. So it adds a bunch of cyan to offset the excess red and ends up ruining the colour.

Nice demo