Macros. This lesson was about taking close ups of things/people.
I own a Canon 40D, but limited myself to one lens with the purchase, and that is a nice 24mm-105mm f/4 lens. However it does not have a macro capability. I shot most of the pictures for this lesson with the 40D, but then switched a Canon G6 for some comparision since the G6 has a macro mode.
I shot the indoor pictures with the camera(s) on a tripod, and with the subjects positioned on the grey seat of an office chair. (The closest I could come to photo grey without buying a card.) I placed the chair under a hallway skylight to get better illumination without using a flash. This first shot is a ruler shot, taken with the 40D with the lens in the wide angle position at 24mm. Right - that's not a real wide angle, but is the best I can do with my lens.
The next shot was taken with the lens in it's full zoomed position, 105mm. Yes, less of the ruler shows up in the frame, in the zoomed position. Both shots had the camera lens around 8 or 10 inches from the ruler on the chair. I could not get closer and maintain focus.
I took the next shots of a metallic toy, where the metal man measures around 3 inches tall. The first shot was taken with the Canon 40D lens at 24mm. Note that the auto focus captured the seat material better than the metal man. This illustratone of my basic problems. My eyes are not good enough to catch small focus problems until the pixels hit the larger computer screen.
The next photo shows the "close-up" capability of my lens at 105 mm. Note the limited focus range, where the bar and the hands are in focus, but the head is slightly out of focus. I could not get the tripod low enough for a straight shot head-on to the figure, so the figure was taken at a slight downward angle. That put the head closer to the lens than the bar, and I elected to manually focus on the bar.
I pulled out my Canon G6 for comparison, mounted it on the tripod and shot in the Super Macro mode with the lens fully zoomed to 17.6mm. The camera macro mode pulled the shot in so close that I had to lie the figure flat on the chair, to get some control over the focus. The G6 created a much better macro shot than my lens on the 40D.
One more shot indoors, of a geode with crystal internal structure. First shot with the 105mm position on the 40D lens.
I switched to the Canon G6 in the Super Macro mode, and washed the inside of the crystal with water (sorry, did not think to do that with the 40D shot). The macro mode on the G6 gets much closer.
Outside: I took some shots with the 40D outside, but the longer lens did not give me a decent close up today. So I shot some more with the G6. This last shot shows the limitations of the G6 and perhaps the shooter. This was taken of a yellow lantana, and the individual mini-flowers are around 1/8 inch across. The flower was in the shade, and slightly blowing in the breeze. The lower light conditions and the limited lens capability of the G6 produced what looks to me to be a slightly blurry image. I can't tell if it is because the lens could not shoot fast enough or the auto focus could not capture the flower correctly.
I now realize that I have enough justification to buy a lens with macro capability for my Canon 40D. I'm just waiting on the money.
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