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HELP! Medium format macro problem....

haring

Member
Well! I am kind of new to medium format photography.
I try to create a few cool macro product photos with my mamiya 645 but the photos are not really great. Some of them are blurry, colorless, etc....

I have a mamiya 645 system. I use a mamiya 120mm 4.0 macro lens with a extension tube NA402 (24mm).

When I use my canon 35mm camera with my 100mm macro lens, the photos are excellent! What do I miss??? What Do I do wrong???

HELP! :)
 

2jbourret

New member
It'd be most helpful if you'd post an image from each camera, but the first issue you have to grapple with in going from 35mm format digital to MFD is the greatly reduced dof. Add to that the even more limited dof of the 120mm macro, and an extension tube, and your plane of focus, even at f22, may be no more than a mm or so.
Additional lighting, and focus stacking may be the solution if the object that you are shooting is at all three-dimensional and you want to stick with the MFD setup for the shot.
 

shlomi

Member
Are you using flashes and a tripod?
Can you show an example?
What f/stop are you using? What back, iso and speed?

I would recommend not using rings if at all possible, as they detract from image quality noticeably.
Also the 120 D lens is much better than the 120 non D.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
You remember we're right down the street right? Since you bought a body from us and no digital back I'm assuming you're shooting film.

Likely
- you've stopped the lens down past the diffraction point in a misguided attempt to get more DOF OR you're just out of focus; the focus confirmation system in your body can be very helpful for product photography
- you haven't taken into account "bellows loss" of light and are underexposing the image
- you're attempting to do macro product photography with available light rather than strobe and haven't properly taken into account the mirror and shutter slap

http://www.captureintegration.com/2009/08/25/extreme-macro/

But of course it would be easier to diagnose if you post actual pictures and tell us more about your setup/technique.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
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Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Also, if you are shooting film at exposures longer than 1 second, your color issues are probably related to reciprocity failure. You need to start adding back exposure to compensate for exposure and filtering for color shift effects from it -- check your film's instruction sheet for the appropriate amount of filtration AND exposure increase based on exposure time. Slide films are more prone to this than color neg emulsions, but all film has this issue. ISO 100 films can quickly become ISO 25 or ISO 12 films with long exposures...
 

dick

New member
Also, if you are shooting film at exposures longer than 1 second, your color issues are probably related to reciprocity failure. You need to start adding back exposure to compensate for exposure and filtering for color shift effects from it -- check your film's instruction sheet for the appropriate amount of filtration AND exposure increase based on exposure time. Slide films are more prone to this than color neg emulsions, but all film has this issue. ISO 100 films can quickly become ISO 25 or ISO 12 films with long exposures...
When I shot table-top with film I used 4 1.5kws Elinchromes at full power - (using modifiers and using a light tent made with background paper) ...that is a lot of light without having to compensate for macro.
 

RodK

Active member
For this type of critical the investment in a Focusing rail such as 'Cross Q' from Novoflex is required. As Doug commented above, your plane of focus is extremely truncated.
This will give you much more precision. Also I assume you're using a cable release and or the self timer. And mirror-up as well. All of these will impact the quality of your macro.
Rod
 

haring

Member
It'd be most helpful if you'd post an image from each camera, but the first issue you have to grapple with in going from 35mm format digital to MFD is the greatly reduced dof. Add to that the even more limited dof of the 120mm macro, and an extension tube, and your plane of focus, even at f22, may be no more than a mm or so.
Additional lighting, and focus stacking may be the solution if the object that you are shooting is at all three-dimensional and you want to stick with the MFD setup for the shot.
Thanks a lot!

Is there a good tutorial on focus stacking?

Thanks sooo much!
 

2jbourret

New member
Haring,
There is a video and some information at the Helicon Focus site - but is really not much. If you find some good info, please post it!
 
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