Good macro images - advice solicited

[haven_seeker]

I have a Sony A6300. I take landscape and telephoto (long-range) bird photography like a pro.

I have a Sony 30mm F3.5 that I didn’t pay a lot of money for and the pictures are............okay. Average.

I have an old cellphone so cool phone attachments are out of the question. Any Sony buffs out there? There are a couple macro lenses over the $1000 mark (well Canadian market anyway:. Any experience with them? Zeiss or Sony G Master?

I saw a wicked Canon lens ($1349 - ouch) but don’t have a means to adapt.

Thoughts? I see so many people posting out of this world pictures on here and I’m jealous!

[Valenciawatchrepair]

Are there extension tubes for your A6300?? I used them at first when I wanted to explore macro. Pretty good magnification for cheap.

[beshannon]

Technique, practice processing and lighting.

This was taken with a $150 point and shoot

[haven_seeker]

Originally Posted by beshannon

Technique, practice processing and lighting.

This was taken with a $150 point and shoot

Which camera model? Did you ever get that spot on the second date aperture “1” looked at???

(Excellent shot by the way!)

[Travelair007]

Old pic taken with a cellphone. I think lighting is key.




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[wantonebad]

Jocke takes some of the sickest photos on this board and he's done it with very modest equipment. At least he used to. He said, like beshannon, practice, lighting, technique, but when he said it, it was in swinglish and might have been in a different order LOL

[Pix]

Sony has a 90mm macro lens around 850.00, you may also want to looking into renting some gear to try it out first.

[Igerswis]

I used the 30mm e-mount lens on an NEX-5N, A6300 and A6500. Seemed to work great for me but the key is to use the manual settings and having a play with what works best depending on the lighting around you. Use a light tent if you can get hold of a cheap one and try and remove as much dust and finger prints as possible before taking shots.

I now have the 90mm FF macro lens with a Sony A9. The focal point is a little further than the 30mm macro lens but the shots it takes is amazing.

[uscmatt99]

I like to use manual focus lenses for macro. You can get a 55mm or 60mm Nikon AI-S F-mount macro lens for a hundred bucks or less, and an adapter off Amazon for F-mount to E-mount. Use magnified view (with or without focus peaking) and focus with the lens wide open. Then stop down to at least f/11, if not f/16. I'm assuming that you have a tripod to work with as you do landscape stuff. In post-processing, the image will be soft from diffraction effect at those small apertures on a DX sensor, so you'll want to apply sharpening.

Lighting is key, so either do it near a window, or use a light box and off camera flash if you've got it. It's been awhile since I photographed my watches, but I got some killer long exposures after charging up my lume with a flashlight, and using 2nd curtain flash.

[Valenciawatchrepair]

Lighting for sure, but minimum focusing distance makes a huge difference when you're shooting things as small as a watch. But, great results can come from even the most modest gear as mentioned here.

Just did this shot a couple days ago.

Nikon D3300. 35mm f/1.8. Handheld in a dark room. Only light was the LED flashlight behind the paper. Other pieces for bouncing. Watch is sitting on my Ray Ban box.



And the result:

[RolexReviews]

Originally Posted by Valenciawatchrepair

Lighting for sure, but minimum focusing distance makes a huge difference when you're shooting things as small as a watch. But, great results can come from even the most modest gear as mentioned here.

Just did this shot a couple days ago.

Nikon D3300. 35mm f/1.8. Handheld in a dark room. Only light was the LED flashlight behind the paper. Other pieces for bouncing. Watch is sitting on my Ray Ban box.



And the result:

aaaaaamazingggggggg

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[Burlington]

Just taken on my phone plus a clip on lens (~10€) for the close ups.

Lighting, composition and subject matters are key.

[Jocke]

My advise is:

Get yourself a cheap mini studio with LED's at for example Ali Express that made a great work.



Here is the result with a Nikon CoolPix S9900 at Basel last year that you can shoot 2 cm from the object.





The key is the lightning, here is something from my home studio with a LED panel shoot with a Nikon D3x and a Zeiss Macro Planar 100mm lens.

[Valenciawatchrepair]

Originally Posted by Jocke

My advise is:

Get yourself a cheap mini studio with LED's at for example Ali Express that made a great work.

Hey, that's a sweet little light box. Happen to have a link to it? I already have an Aliexpress account too. Would be worth a shot since I'm tight on space. Looks like that gives a nice even light too.

[Jocke]

Originally Posted by Valenciawatchrepair

Hey, that's a sweet little light box. Happen to have a link to it? I already have an Aliexpress account too. Would be worth a shot since I'm tight on space. Looks like that gives a nice even light too.

There is a lot of them.

Click here to order a photo studio

[Valenciawatchrepair]

Originally Posted by Jocke

There is a lot of them.

Click here to order a photo studio

I see that. Does the one you have pictured have more than 1 strip of LED's? And only on the top? Not bad!

$11.69 for the dual led box - LINK I'll take it!

[Jocke]

Originally Posted by Valenciawatchrepair

I see that. Does the one you have pictured have more than 1 strip of LED's? And only on the top? Not bad!

I have this one with one LED strip.

Here we go

[wantonebad]

Not that there is any hope for me and my picture taking... but I just bought that light box, thanks Jocke.

[Jocke]

Originally Posted by wantonebad

Not that there is any hope for me and my picture taking... but I just bought that light box, thanks Jocke.

I look forward to see the bad result.

[RolexReviews]

Just purchased a macro lens for my phone (well a lens kit that included a macro lens )

And with horrible lighting in my room these came out decent I think

(also I changed the time so the crown and word Rolex wouldn't be blocked)

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[Valenciawatchrepair]

Originally Posted by Jocke

I have this one with one LED strip.

Here we go

Can you give any reasons why I should by this versus the one you linked?

http://septools.com/product/foldio-2...phone-or-dslr/

Also, the product line from this seller:
http://septools.com/product-category...DxX06shTh5n1T0


He's on a jewelers group page. I asked if I would be bashed for asking why people were paying that much for those boxes? Meanwhile, I get bashed for listing things for sale that are actually jewelry and watches, that are too high priced. But, somehow this guy is selling these things like hotcakes, or it seems like it from all the comments. I kinda want to post the Aliexpress link, but don't want to be "that guy." Also, these are people using these boxes to use for pics on their website, social media, etc.

[wantonebad]

Originally Posted by Valenciawatchrepair

Can you give any reasons why I should by this versus the one you linked?

http://septools.com/product/foldio-2...phone-or-dslr/

Also, the product line from this seller:
http://septools.com/product-category...DxX06shTh5n1T0


He's on a jewelers group page. I asked if I would be bashed for asking why people were paying that much for those boxes? Meanwhile, I get bashed for listing things for sale that are actually jewelry and watches, that are too high priced. But, somehow this guy is selling these things like hotcakes, or it seems like it from all the comments. I kinda want to post the Aliexpress link, but don't want to be "that guy." Also, these are people using these boxes to use for pics on their website, social media, etc.

Ummm. PRICE!! Big time, PRICE!!!!

[Jocke]

Originally Posted by Valenciawatchrepair

Can you give any reasons why I should by this versus the one you linked?

http://septools.com/product/foldio-2...phone-or-dslr/

Also, the product line from this seller:
http://septools.com/product-category...DxX06shTh5n1T0


He's on a jewelers group page. I asked if I would be bashed for asking why people were paying that much for those boxes? Meanwhile, I get bashed for listing things for sale that are actually jewelry and watches, that are too high priced. But, somehow this guy is selling these things like hotcakes, or it seems like it from all the comments. I kinda want to post the Aliexpress link, but don't want to be "that guy." Also, these are people using these boxes to use for pics on their website, social media, etc.

You can do the same, buy 100 studios from AliExpress and sell them for $79,95 each. Then people will believe they are better.
And you can buy yourself a new camera.