Messing around with macro

I've been on holiday for most of the start of January 2022 (yay!), spending time in Christchurch, house (and dog) sitting for my sister-in-law and her family. Since we were staying for a while, we took a lot of stuff with us (the golf clubs and trundler came), so I decided not to take both the Olympus and Sony camera systems I'm currently using.

I would have opted for the Sony a99 and 50mm macro - since I'm trying to make macro my new thing - but I also knew that I was going to get the opportunity to shoot a family portrait while we were over in Christchurch (of said sister-in-law's family). So I opted for the Olympus E-M1 with 12-35mm f2.8 instead.

Oh Bee-have! Olympus E-M1 with Lumix 12-35mm. f/4 @ 1/320th, ISO 200

The Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm has no psuedo-macro features like those found on the Olympus 12-50mm EZ lens, and it's closest focusing distance is only 25cm. So not a fantastic macro performer. All the photos you see in this post, taken on the 12-35mm, are severe crops from the original shot, so that the subject (the 2cm bee) can fill-the-frame. This means that the original 12 megapixel file gets reduced to only around 1 megapixel with the final crop. Not ideal. But good enough when viewed on-line. 

Hard at Work. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8. f/5 @ 1/640th, ISO 400

And I must say, that overall I'm very pleased with the final results (despite the small file size). I spent a very pleasant hour in a park in Rangiora, chasing bees around the flower gardens, and came away with some half-decent images. The E-M1 was quick to focus, using the central focusing point in single-autofocus mode, and simply firing away with reasonable shutter speeds, hoping to freeze the action (boy do bees move fast).

The original capture of the above crop is shown on the left, to give an indication of how much cropping has taken place. And yes, it is a lot. I'm not going to be printing any of these at  A3 (or probably even at A4) sizes anytime soon.

This is certainly one of the down-sides to using a smaller micro four thirds sensor with a 'standard' lens and trying to come up with decent 'macro' looking images. Really you're just hoping for an exceptionally sharp result that you can then blow up to exorbitant proportions and pass-off as a macro image.

Having said all that, as I commented earlier, I am reasonably happy with the results. The Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f2.8 is a very sharp lens, so if you nail focus you can expect some very good results. And the benefit of using a smaller micro four thirds sensor when close-focusing is the greater depth of field you get with smaller apertures. f/4 on the E-M1 gives an equivalent dof of f/8 with full-frame, but allows for the extra light, and faster shutter speeds. So that's a win.

'As busy as a....' Olympus E-M1 with Lumix 12-35mm. f/5 @ 1/1000th, ISO 400

To get the bee as sharp as possible from such a big enlargement, I've opted for some selective sharpening techniques (just on the in-focus areas of the bee itself). It's a simple technique, but I find it very effective. And the best thing about it is that it is infinitely controllable, and selective.

Duplicate the original image in Photoshop (Ctrl+J), and then apply a High Pass Filter on the duplicate layer (Filter/Other/High Pass) with a radius of about 2. The image with turn grey, with a faint embossed outline. This is what you want. The magic happens in the next two steps.

In the blending mode for the grey layer, choose either Hard Light or Vivid Light. Then add a layer mask and fill the mask with black. This effectively hides the sharpening that you've applied with the blending mode. Choose a soft brush, make sure that the colour is white, and then paint over the areas where you want to reveal the sharpening. You can build this sharpening up gradually over different areas by lowering the opacity of the brush, and you can also lower the opacity of the layer if you feel that the final result is still too strong? And there you go - a nice sharp bee without adding any sharpness or artifacts to the background.

Time for a rest. Sony a99 with Minolta 50mm macro. f/5 @ 1/640th, ISO 400

My final image was taken just recently, once we got back from our trip to Christchurch and were on a local bush walk. This time I did decide to take the Sony a99 and dedicated 50mm macro instead. 

The difference in file size is day and night. Because I was able to use the dedicated macro lens, and get in fairly close to the dragonfly, there is almost no cropping required from the original file. I could print this A3 no problem.

Unfortunately, it's a bit of a grab shot, and I used autofocus, which locked on to the dragonfly's back and didn't quite nail critical focus on the head. In that regards, it's a failure as a macro image. Using the 50mm macro on the full-frame camera has meant that I had to get in very close to the insect - too close for it's comfort - and it flew away fairly quickly. A 100mm macro would afford a little more 'breathing' space, and that's certainly what I would opt for if I was to get a dedicated macro lens for my E-M1 (the 60mm Olympus macro is a 120mm full-frame equivalent field of view).

Still, it's an ok image - especially when viewed on-line - and it's still all a learning curve for me and macro. I'm getting the feeling that you have to shoot A LOT of images just to nail one or two keepers, especially when small flying insects are involved!?

All-in-all some OK early attempts, and lots of learning for the future. That's got to be worth my while wouldn't you say?