7Enigma wrote: Could you comment on what camera/lighting you used for the extreme close-up shots?
Thanks.
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About my gear and macro techniques:
Nikon D200 DSLR (it is best to set it to shoot RAW format if your camera can)
Trusty 30-year old Nikon micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8 lens
Nikon PB-6 bellows extension
One or two Nikon PK-13 auto extension rings
At these magnifications even a tiny vibration will blur the pic so . . .
I use a very heavy tripod, an aluminum Gitzo Series 3.
Some shots were hand held but the front of the lens was supported in two spots, pressing lens against glass and resting on my hand, see pic below.
I set the camera to mirror lock up, not all SLRs have this feature.
This prevents vibration from the camera's mirror flipping up during exposure. (Yes, at these magnifications even that can soften the focus.)
I have to press the shutter twice, first to lock up the mirror, again to take the exposure.
I use a wireless shutter release so I don't have to touch the camera, another vibration source.
The lighting for many shots is just a cheapo CFL from Home Depot in a cheapo aluminum fixtue placed behind the aquarium for back lighting.
Some shots are done with on-camera flash, but with the camera NOT parallel to the glass, which would result in bright reflections.
Only take pics when the shrimp is VERY close to the glass since sharpness falls off fast when looking through more water.
An example of this is that pic above of the dime and newly-hatched larvae.
I was looking into the top of the aquarium (no glass in the way) and about only 4 inches of water, and see how soft the focus was.
I try to use the middle apertures, which are most sharp like f8 or f11, but light falls off at high magnification so you need bright lights.
Granted, you can get greater
depth of focus with smaller apertures like f22 or f32 but that introduces another problem;
absolute sharpness suffers when apertures are extremely small.
Light bends slightly when it passes near something and when the aperture is smallest a larger percentage of the light must pass near the aperture blades, softening the focus a bit.
Oh and cleaning the lens and aquarium glass is a No Duh!
The pic below shows two extension rings between the lens and the camera body.
They give less magnification than the bellows can.
Such rings are not expensive since they have no glass.
They enlarge by just moving the lens further away.
You can use them with
any lens to increase the magnification, although (resolution-wise)
true macro lenses are designed to work best with them.
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Another low-cost option if you have an SLR is a lens reversal ring.
They allow you to use your current lens
backwards, which increases the magnification.
Results won't be as good as a real macro lens but I've read that they are a good value.
