MobiWorkshop MW 1 - Close-up Photography

[FundyBrian]

Some more Sunday close-ups. Mostly fossils. All with the Moment Macro, which means you can tell the width of the picture in real life is 3cm.

Here I’m frustrated by limited depth of field. The plant fossil has a curved surface away from the camera. Not my much but even a couple of mm is enough to run out of focus.

Another plant fossil that looks like part of a fern frond. There is a slight lengthwise “V” to the fossil which prevented me from getting it all in focus.

The cork surface of a coaster for a drinking glass. It looks quite flat to the eye but when positioned so the light skims across the surface the surface texture is much more evident.

I have some pieces of shale that have several small fish fossils with the fish appearing to come out or dive into the rock, not all of them can be seen on the plane that has been exposed by the particular fracture plane of the shale. When blown up too much the fish scale appearance looks more and more like rock texture..

A fairly distinct fish tail.

Some rosy crystals arising out of white quartz.

All PureShot, DNG, mostly developed in Affinity Photo.

It’s clear to me that it is more difficult to get what I want in the way of depth of field with my phone than with a regular camera. So I must put more thought into making better use of shallow depth of field as an expressive tool rather than as a problem to be overcome.

 

[FundyBrian]

Today for some reason I’m seeing shadows more than the objects that make them. No close-up accessories, All PureShot DNG, Affinity,
These shadows are all on the opposite end of the room from where the sunlight is coming in. The angle of the light means the shadows change quite rapidly. Here one minute, gone the next.

Same piece of furniture, different drawer.


Then about 15 minutes later...

The interaction of two shadows. One from a chair back, the other from the Christmas tree stand still not put away in the attic (ahem).

 

[younger]

Today for some reason I’m seeing shadows more than the objects that make them. No close-up accessories, All PureShot DNG, Affinity,
These shadows are all on the opposite end of the room from where the sunlight is coming in. The angle of the light means the shadows change quite rapidly. Here one minute, gone the next.
View attachment 119236
View attachment 119239
Same piece of furniture, different drawer.


Then about 15 minutes later...
View attachment 119237
The interaction of two shadows. One from a chair back, the other from the Christmas tree stand still not put away in the attic (ahem).
View attachment 119238

Love it! The first two in particular

 

[GroovyGouvy]

Some more Sunday close-ups. Mostly fossils. All with the Moment Macro, which means you can tell the width of the picture in real life is 3cm.
View attachment 119225
Here I’m frustrated by limited depth of field. The plant fossil has a curved surface away from the camera. Not my much but even a couple of mm is enough to run out of focus.
View attachment 119224
Another plant fossil that looks like part of a fern frond. There is a slight lengthwise “V” to the fossil which prevented me from getting it all in focus.
View attachment 119226
The cork surface of a coaster for a drinking glass. It looks quite flat to the eye but when positioned so the light skims across the surface the surface texture is much more evident.
View attachment 119227
I have some pieces of shale that have several small fish fossils with the fish appearing to come out or dive into the rock, not all of them can be seen on the plane that has been exposed by the particular fracture plane of the shale. When blown up too much the fish scale appearance looks more and more like rock texture..
View attachment 119230
A fairly distinct fish tail.
View attachment 119223
Some rosy crystals arising out of white quartz.

All PureShot, DNG, mostly developed in Affinity Photo.

It’s clear to me that it is more difficult to get what I want in the way of depth of field with my phone than with a regular camera. So I must put more thought into making better use of shallow depth of field as an expressive tool rather than as a problem to be overcome.

I like especially the crystals. They have this kind of portrait depth I really like. But all great shots.

 

[GroovyGouvy]

Today for some reason I’m seeing shadows more than the objects that make them. No close-up accessories, All PureShot DNG, Affinity,
These shadows are all on the opposite end of the room from where the sunlight is coming in. The angle of the light means the shadows change quite rapidly. Here one minute, gone the next.
View attachment 119236
View attachment 119239
Same piece of furniture, different drawer.


Then about 15 minutes later...
View attachment 119237
The interaction of two shadows. One from a chair back, the other from the Christmas tree stand still not put away in the attic (ahem).
View attachment 119238

Love shadows. They can change everything like snow can cover. Beautiful examples here.

 

[terse]

Dying geranium leaf
Moment macro, native cam, a bit of Snapseed

 

[terse]

Nuts
Moment macro, native cam, a bit of ACDSee Pro

 

[terse]

Sixpence, 1942
Moment macro, native cam, a little ACDSee Pro

 

[FundyBrian]

View attachment 119256

Dying geranium leaf
Moment macro, native cam, a bit of Snapseed

Very nice placement of your in-focus and out-of-focus areas. Making good artistic use of the shallow depth of field.

 

[FundyBrian]

View attachment 119257

Nuts
Moment macro, native cam, a bit of ACDSee Pro

The shallow depth of field is very well used in this picture, too. The supporting elements are still strong in spite of being out of focus.

 

[ImageArt]

Some more Sunday close-ups. Mostly fossils. All with the Moment Macro, which means you can tell the width of the picture in real life is 3cm.
View attachment 119225
Here I’m frustrated by limited depth of field. The plant fossil has a curved surface away from the camera. Not my much but even a couple of mm is enough to run out of focus.
View attachment 119224
Another plant fossil that looks like part of a fern frond. There is a slight lengthwise “V” to the fossil which prevented me from getting it all in focus.
View attachment 119226
The cork surface of a coaster for a drinking glass. It looks quite flat to the eye but when positioned so the light skims across the surface the surface texture is much more evident.
View attachment 119227
I have some pieces of shale that have several small fish fossils with the fish appearing to come out or dive into the rock, not all of them can be seen on the plane that has been exposed by the particular fracture plane of the shale. When blown up too much the fish scale appearance looks more and more like rock texture..
View attachment 119230
A fairly distinct fish tail.
View attachment 119223
Some rosy crystals arising out of white quartz.

All PureShot, DNG, mostly developed in Affinity Photo.

It’s clear to me that it is more difficult to get what I want in the way of depth of field with my phone than with a regular camera. So I must put more thought into making better use of shallow depth of field as an expressive tool rather than as a problem to be overcome.

I don’t know how you get such a ‘large’ depth of field. I seem to get so little in focus. I used to find my Olloclip with the iPhone 6 much easier.

 

[ImageArt]

I went back to the plant which had the insects on it and managed to get this little guy. I was lucky to get his head in focus because to be honest I had no idea what was in focus when I photographed it. This is exactly the problem I have found with even smaller bugs. You just don’t know what part of the bug is in focus.

Here’s a crop and slight tune in Snapseed:

 

[ImageArt]

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 .

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.

 

[ImageArt]

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.

 

[ImageArt]

View attachment 119256

Dying geranium leaf
Moment macro, native cam, a bit of Snapseed

Nice!

 

[terse]

The shallow depth of field is very well used in this picture, too. The supporting elements are still strong in spite of being out of focus.

In this one, the nuts were in a clear plastic drawer. I pulled the drawer out of its slot to get a better shot, and that let light in from below, which gave the out-of-focus background nuts that sort of floating look -- a happy accident.

 

[RoseCat]

View attachment 119258

Sixpence, 1942
Moment macro, native cam, a little ACDSee Pro

What a beautiful coin!

 

[terse]

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

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.

 

[terse]

Interim notes (in no particular order):

• Dust before you shoot.
• When shooting hard edgy objects, like rocks, be careful not to bang your lens into them.
• Composition still matters, no matter how close you are.
• An iPad makes a good lightbox for shooting flat objects like leaves or banknotes where you want light coming through the object. A window also works if it's daytime.
• A piece of glass -- I used a piece taken from a picture frame -- can be placed on top of things like leaves to make sure that they're perfectly flat (so that they'll be all in focus).
• With the Moment macro lens (and probably others), the depth of field is very shallow and the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus seems pretty abrupt to me. You can't avoid it, so you have to plan for it.
• Often it can help to back up a bit rather than to get as close as you can.

 

[ImageArt]

In this one, the nuts were in a clear plastic drawer. I pulled the drawer out of its slot to get a better shot, and that let light in from below, which gave the out-of-focus background nuts that sort of floating look -- a happy accident.

Interesting idea. Put stuff on Perspex with a light underneath. Cool!

 

[ImageArt]

Interim notes (in no particular order):

• Dust before you shoot.
• When shooting hard edgy objects, like rocks, be careful not to bang your lens into them.
• Composition still matters, no matter how close you are.
• An iPad makes a good lightbox for shooting flat objects like leaves or banknotes where you want light coming through the object. A window also works if it's daytime.
• A piece of glass -- I used a piece taken from a picture frame -- can be placed on top of things like leaves to make sure that they're perfectly flat (so that they'll be all in focus).
• With the Moment macro lens (and probably others), the depth of field is very shallow and the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus seems pretty abrupt to me. You can't avoid it, so you have to plan for it.
• Often it can help to back up a bit rather than to get as close as you can.

All excellent points. Thanks. Composition is probably my worst. So busy trying to get the right thing in focus everything else goes out of the window. I agree with your point about backing up a bit. Often too close and I try to make minute adjustments and take photos at each of these points.

 

[terse]

So busy trying to get the right thing in focus everything else goes out of the window.

Yes, that's me exactly.

 

[FundyBrian]

I don’t know how you get such a ‘large’ depth of field. I seem to get so little in focus. I used to find my Olloclip with the iPhone 6 much easier.

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?

 

[FundyBrian]

I went back to the plant which had the insects on it and managed to get this little guy. I was lucky to get his head in focus because to be honest I had no idea what was in focus when I photographed it. This is exactly the problem I have found with even smaller bugs. You just don’t know what part of the bug is in focus.

View attachment 119282

Here’s a crop and slight tune in Snapseed:
View attachment 119283

The distance is so small from the antennae to the top of the body and yet we don’t have that much depth of field, You did well to get it right on.

 

[FundyBrian]

Interim notes (in no particular order):

• Dust before you shoot.
• When shooting hard edgy objects, like rocks, be careful not to bang your lens into them.
• Composition still matters, no matter how close you are.
• An iPad makes a good lightbox for shooting flat objects like leaves or banknotes where you want light coming through the object. A window also works if it's daytime.
• A piece of glass -- I used a piece taken from a picture frame -- can be placed on top of things like leaves to make sure that they're perfectly flat (so that they'll be all in focus).
• With the Moment macro lens (and probably others), the depth of field is very shallow and the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus seems pretty abrupt to me. You can't avoid it, so you have to plan for it.
• Often it can help to back up a bit rather than to get as close as you can.

Thanks for assembling some points you find most important in Macro-land.

Backing up is a good strategy because it gives you more depth of field due to greater subject distance.