Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Macro Images and the Phase One DF and P65+

An early test and outdoors
f/11 1/250 ISO50

Inside a hotel room using a flasklight
F/11 1/60 ISO800 

Same setup as above

3-images stacked
f/11 1/60 ISO800
By this time I was driving Sandy nuts...

According to Wikipedia, Macrophotography is nothing more than close-up photography, usually of very small objects; furthermore, it can be considered one in which the size of the subject on the negative is greater than life size, it also refers to a finished image where the subject is larger than life size.  A good starting point for more information can be found here.  Macrophotography can be fun and very challenging at the same time which is one reason I like doing it.   

f/8 1/60 ISO100

f/11 1/125 ISO50 w/flash

f/11 1/350 ISO100

f/13 1/125 ISO50 w/flash

Cheating with a 100% crop from above.  You just have to love the P65+.

Almost as soon as I switched back to using the Phase One DF body I began considering macro images.  While there are several options available I decided on the Mamiya Macro 120mm f/4 manual focus lens.  The 120mm offers a maximum f/stop of f/4 and a minimum of f/32, it also offers a magnification ration of 1:1.  Somewhat lightweight and very easy to focus this lens has turned out to be great not only for macro but normal focal length as well.  I want to thank my friends at Capture Integration for helping me find the right lens.

Going from one extreme to another which shows just how well the 120mm can perform.

Matilda from White Sands National Monument
f/8 1/250 ISO50
This isn't a crop

Another test of the Metz flash
f/11 1/125 ISO100

I picked up the lens last month while in the Everglades with Dave Gallagher and have been using both as a mid telephoto and macro.  This is the only overlapping focal length I have between my Cambo WRS technical camera and Phase One DF.

f/11 1/125 ISO100

f/11 1/125 ISO100 with flash

f/11 1/125 ISO100 with flash

Sometimes you just get lucky and end up with this.

The lens shade almost touched
f/11 1/125 ISO100 with flash

f/8 1/125 ISO100

I began testing not only the lens but myself as well shortly after receiving the lens and while I feel the lens is more than up to the task I'll need more work.  The images included here include the early tests as well as more recent.  Some are single images while a few are the result of stacking multiple images.

And finally,

f/8 1/125 ISO100 with flash

This is the result of initial testing, testing the lens, testing of the photographer, and in many ways testing of the digital back used.   What I've learned so far is the lens is more than capable of giving me what I want.  Likewise the Phase One P65+ will give me the image files that are more than large enough to contain the information captured; sometimes in a single capture and most of the times to crop in at 100%.  I've also learned than this is not a fast procedure and the success or failure rests solely on the photographer.
 
The post processing used is the result of Capture One Pro in each image, Photoshop CS5 is a few and Nik HDR Efex Pro in one.
 
I'm barely scratching the surface of the subject and will post more as I grow. 
 
Thank you for allowing me a chance to share and as always welcome comments, and suggestions.


Don  










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