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Author Topic: Rhododendron Macro with 500D.  (Read 1925 times)

dgberg

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« on: May 11, 2010, 03:09:59 pm »

Flowers are coming to full bloom here in late spring in Pennslyvania. Took several dozen side profile shots of the maturing Rhododendron blooms with tripod mounted. D2Xs-70-200vr with canon 500d close up lens attached.
It really is very difficult to get dof across the entire center of the bloom as the most I seem to get is about half an inch. Probably the best I'll get without a focusing rail. Please chime in with any helpful tips for using the 500D.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2010, 06:42:47 pm by Dan Berg »
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stever

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2010, 10:38:11 pm »

what focal length and aperture are you using?

although diffraction starts to be significant with crop-frame cameras beyond f11, the extra depth of field at f16 may offset the loss of center sharpness - generally wouldn't go beyond f16 though - even though you can preview the depth of field in liveview, i generally shoot flowers at 2 or 3 different apertures as i'm not experienced enough to visualize from the camera to a print

my experience with the 500D is screw it in and use it - have always had excellent results, and often prefer it to using extension tubes

if you had to shoot this at 200mm for magnification, another alternative would be to add an extension tube to shoot at a shorter focal length
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dgberg

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2010, 06:29:30 am »

Was shot at 150mm f/2.8 1/2000. I am also going back through all the images as I know I was shooting at least several different apertures.
Thanks for your response.

EduPerez

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2010, 02:36:06 am »

Well... 150mm, short distance, f/2.8... you are going to get a very narrow depth of field with that.
As "stever" pointed out, I would first try to close the diaphragm, but even at f/11 or f/16 you will not get a lot of DOF.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2010, 02:36:28 am by EduPerez »
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dgberg

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2010, 05:57:21 am »

Quote from: EduPerez
Well... 150mm, short distance, f/2.8... you are going to get a very narrow depth of field with that.
As "stever" pointed out, I would first try to close the diaphragm, but even at f/11 or f/16 you will not get a lot of DOF.

I have done this a fair amount and know pretty much with this setup that you are right, dof is very limiting to say the least. I do not think I have ever had more then 3/4" to 1" dof with this setup regardless if I'm at f/2.8 or f 11.
Just seems to be more a function of the 500d then aperature settings.

EduPerez

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2010, 06:18:01 am »

As far as I know, the DOF should change drastically when you go from f/2.8 to f/11, but obviously you have your own experiences. And in theory, the close-up lenses should only change the minimum focusing distance; but with a closer distance comes a smaller DOF, of course. There is an online DOF calculator where you can check whether the expected DOF matches your results.

Just my two cents.
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dgberg

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Rhododendron Macro with 500D.
« Reply #6 on: May 17, 2010, 07:47:06 am »

Yes you would think it would change an awful lot between 2.8 and 11. This 500d does some strange things. Now that I have opened this can of worms I will go shoot a couple a dozen shots between f/8 and f/16 and find out for sure.
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