Water Drop reflections with Reverse Macro Technique!!

[Vicky]

For long I've been wanting to try the 'reflection in water drop' shots as seen numerous times on the internet.... so a lazy Sunday afternoon seemed to be the perfect time to finally attempt it:)

Reverse mounted the 28mm FD (18year old, bought off ebay for $30:D) on my 400D, attached the 430EX to the newly acquired OC-E3 off-camera shoe cord, got myself a paper flower and a garden sprayer:p Liquid used was normal tap water.

Set up shop near the kitchen sink... Placed a leaf of grass and then sprayed some water on it to allow a droplet to form... then placed the paper flower about 4" behind the drop. Now, focused on the reflection of the flower in the water droplet... placed the 430ex around 2'O clock mark and took a few shots...and this is what I got:)

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_3536c.jpg
Canon 400D, reverse 28mm FD, 1/200, f/22, ISO 100, 430ex Off Cam

Attached is a photo of the simple setup
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/DSC01612c.jpg


Thanks for looking! C&C Welcome:)

Vicky

[KrishnenduKes]

Tutorial Approved

Thanks a LOT Vicky. Enjoyed it really. I hope you bring along more of these. This is what we are looking forward to. :)

[nelson_sanjoy]

Great tutorial Vicky ...

You just made my weekend busy :)

[srikeerthi]

Excellent work Vicky! Nice picture.

[Bibudesh]

The technique looke easy to implement, but believe me guys it will drive u insane ... I tried this by reversing my 50mm and then combo with kit lens.. Getting a proper focal length and fitting the whole flower into a droplet is a really test of patience, I failed :( after trying for more than an hour and ending up in neck pain...

@vicky- can you plese throw some more light on getting a proper focal length also ...

BTW long back I also tried reversing the lens and this was the result-

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3396/3273820458_207a468d0b.jpg

The technique-

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3407/3273002687_9c44f82511.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/3273003799_65b1768894.jpg

[Vicky]

Thanks guys! Glad u liked it:)

The technique looks easy to implement, but believe me guys it will drive u insane ... I tried this by reversing my 50mm and then combo with kit lens.. Getting a proper focal length and fitting the whole flower into a droplet is a really test of patience, I failed :( after trying for more than an hour and ending up in neck pain...

@vicky- can you plese throw some more light on getting a proper focal length also ...



SP, what I'm doing is mounting the 28mm FD directly on the camera with the help of this 52mm EOS Reverse Macro Adapter (http://cgi.ebay.com/Macro-Reverse-Reversing-Adapter-Ring-52mm-for-CANON-EOS_W0QQitemZ270305295749QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLens_A ccessories?hash=item270305295749&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A13 18|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50). This way, there is no electrical contact between the camera & lens and hence the camera does not know of the existence of the lens. Even the exif reports aperture as f/0. We set the Shutter speed and ISO in the camera, and aperture is set manually on the FD lens with the aperture ring.

This is different from what u did.. you mount one lens normally on the camera, and then mount another lens reversed on to the front of this lens. Here in, your aperture, SS and ISO are all controlled by the camera and and the reversed lens just just sits there wide open as a magnifying lens.

[Bibudesh]

Thanks guys! Glad u liked it:)



SP, what I'm doing is mounting the 28mm FD directly on the camera with the help of this 52mm EOS Reverse Macro Adapter (http://cgi.ebay.com/Macro-Reverse-Reversing-Adapter-Ring-52mm-for-CANON-EOS_W0QQitemZ270305295749QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLens_A ccessories?hash=item270305295749&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A13 18|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50). This way, there is no electrical contact between the camera & lens and hence the camera does not know of the existence of the lens. Even the exif reports aperture as f/0. We set the Shutter speed and ISO in the camera, and aperture is set manually on the FD lens with the aperture ring.

This is different from what u did.. you mount one lens normally on the camera, and then mount another lens reversed on to the front of this lens. Here in, your aperture, SS and ISO are all controlled by the camera and and the reversed lens just just sits there wide open as a magnifying lens.

I did that bcoz of two reasons-
1. I did not have the adapter which can fit reversed lens directly to the body.
2. I wanted advantage of auto focus , and it really worked well. Plus it gave me more magnification due to both lenses sticked together (Am i right here?)

The adapter between the two lenses which u can see in the third shot is home made. I removed glass of two unused filter (precisely broke it) and sticked in together. Then I used an opaque tape to avoid any light interference.

But with the technique I have used, I believe it can harm the AF motor of first lens as the 50mm lens is quite heavy to take load of.

[srikeerthi]

@SP: I see that you have a very shallow DOF. Did you use default f stop on both lenses, may be you can try to have a smaller aperture.

Just for the info who do not know how to preset aperture even though camera may not be in electrical contact with the lens.
Disclaimer: I'm not resposible for any damage direct or consequential in anyway ;)

Put your SLR in Av or Manual mode and set the aperture you want. Press the DOF preview button (sorry to all those guys who have lower end nikon cameras without dof preview :P) and dismount the lens while the dof preview button is pressed.
Your lens blades will remain in that position till you put it back on the camera (camera should be ON ofcourse).

Lenses with very large aperture like the 50mm f1.8 will have to use this, else the DOF will be very shallow.

[KrishnenduKes]

Put your SLR in Av or Manual mode and set the aperture you want. Press the DOF preview button (sorry to all those guys who have lower end nikon cameras without dof preview :P) and dismount the lens while the dof preview button is pressed.
Your lens blades will remain in that position till you put it back on the camera (camera should be ON ofcourse).


Wow! Any takers?

[Bibudesh]

Wow! Any takers?

I luv my cam :p and its my little pet..

And (thankfully) I do not have DOF preview in D40 (or disaster was inevitable to cure the itch)

[srikeerthi]

Well I have done it many times on my lenses. No issues so far. Just added the disclaimer to be safe from people who may want to sue me :)

[Vicky]

I did that bcoz of two reasons-

I did not mean to say that what u did was wrong or inefficient... just wanted to say that both are valid but different techniques for achieving the same goal - high magnification macro for cheap!

it gave me more magnification due to both lenses sticked together (Am i right here?)

not really.. when using the technique to mount one lens reverse on the front element of another regularly mounted lens, you can calculate the magnification factor by dividing fl of the regularly mounted lens with that of the reverse mounted lens... in your case, if you had the 18-55 on the camera@55mm and the 50mm reversed on it, then it would be 55/50 = 1.1:1 ... that takes you into true macro territory, but, with the 28mm reverse mounted directly on the body, you can achieve 2:1 magnification! That's twice life size!!

Other pluses of this setup against the 2 lens setup are:

- this is a lighter setup and hence easier to handhold.
- because there is lot less 'glass', the viewfinder is much brighter which makes it easier to achieve and judge focus:)

However, 2:1 is about the maximum magnification that you can achieve with this setup...whereas you can get insane magnifications with different leans combinations in the two lens setups.. a 28mm reversed on the front of a 300mm telephoto would give you 10.7 : 1 magnification:eek::eek::eek:. But, you must keep two basics in mind:

-The reversed lens should be a large aperture lens (ideally f/1.4 or f/1.8) to allow maximum amount of light to enter the camera and avoid vignetting.

-As the magnification grows, this setup gets more and more difficult to handle and achieving decent results becomes a challenge.

I've had my stint with this setup before..

The Fly as viewed by the 50mm f/1.8:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg143/Vikash2007/5.jpg

Same Fly with the 50mm reversed on the 70-300@300mm (6:1 mag):
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg143/Vikash2007/11.jpg
400D + Canon 70-300IS @300mm, 1/30, f/18, ISO 1600

For more info, read the entire experiment here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=358865).

But with the technique I have used, I believe it can harm the AF motor of first lens as the 50mm lens is quite heavy to take load of.

Yes, quite possibly as you are stressing the AF motor of the 18-55 which is not designed to carry such loads!

Put your SLR in Av or Manual mode and set the aperture you want. Press the DOF preview button (sorry to all those guys who have lower end nikon cameras without dof preview :P) and dismount the lens while the dof preview button is pressed.
Your lens blades will remain in that position till you put it back on the camera (camera should be ON of course).

Lenses with very large aperture like the 50mm f1.8 will have to use this, else the DOF will be very shallow.

Yes, this is a commonly used technique and quite safe too... tried this numerous times without any issues at all.. Once I has stopped down my 50mm to f/8 and then after the shoot, i mounted some other lens on my body and stored the gear in the wardrobe... I had completely forgotten to remount the 50mm on the camera to release its aperture blades to its normal (wide open) state and the lens remained in that stopped down position for a whole week:eek:... but thankfully, there was no damage to the lens:)

There is one drawback to this though, you cant really stop down beyond f/5.6 - f/8, caoz if you do so, the viewfinder becomes tooooo dark to even allow you to compose, let alone achieve focus!

Wow! Any takers?

I luv my cam :p and its my little pet..

And (thankfully) I do not have DOF preview in D40 (or disaster was inevitable to cure the itch)

Well I have done it many times on my lenses. No issues so far. Just added the disclaimer to be safe from people who may want to sue me :)

Yes, absolutely no reason to be paranoid. Its pretty safe and I've yet to hear / read of anyone messing up their cam or lens using this technique:)

[Aryan]

Or perhaps, I can use the 100mm macro lens with the 430EX mounted. Pretty simple, eh? :D

[Vicky]

Or perhaps, I can use the 100mm macro lens with the 430EX mounted. Pretty simple, eh? :D

Yes, but then you need to first shell out 30k to buy the 100 macro... pretty simple indeed:p

And you'd still be stuck at 1:1;)

/\ /\ Caution! Jealousy infested post!:p

[Aryan]

Yes, but then you need to first shell out 30k to buy the 100 macro... pretty simple indeed:p

And you'd still be stuck at 1:1;)

/\ /\ Caution! Jealousy infested post!:p

Instead of going through the above mentioned 'surgical procedure' :D, I would be more than happy to 'fire' away with the 100mm.. ;) Moreover, I cannot really take all those 'surgical instruments' with me 'in the field' really. I mean, perhaps I could but I would need to really think about it twice before I do whereas with the 100mm, it's just a case of 'point and shoot' (well not really, comparatively speaking ofcourse).. :D

And yes, 1:1 is where the fun 'begins', this much I would really agree with you sir! :)

[Vicky]

'surgical instruments'

LOL, that's a very valid description! The reverse 50mm on 70-300 setup actually feels and handles like a huge microscope!:eek:

[Bibudesh]

LOL, that's a very valid description! The reverse 50mm on 70-300 setup actually feels and handles like a huge microscope!:eek:

:D .. This was fun. Thanks a ton Vicky for comments..

Can't see our biologist cum microscopist Anvancy !..

[KrishnenduKes]

There is a HUGE learning curve here. Thanks for the healthy discussion. Keep it going.

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

:D ..


Can't see our biologist cum microscopist Anvancy !..

u called??