Wide angle macros with SEL30M35 + fisheye adapter

[Marcell Nikolausz]

I've recently started to use this lens combination on my nex-5 (sel30m35 + VCL-ECF1). I'm quite happy with the results, however I haven yet used the full potential of this approach, since I had only short time (few hours) to test it. Some photos below:






More photos with this set up you can find on my flickr page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiberstro ... 113412042/

What do you think? Maybe it's not for everybody taste.

Cheers

Marcell

[sury]

I like them a lot Marcell. I am wondering if the butterfly in the 3rd one is like that
or overexposed? Just curious.

Sury

[Birma]

Hi Marcell, an interesting combination. The subjects are all in wonderful detail. I guess one effect the combination effect gives is to add detail to the background through adding the wide angle element? There is still a good separation between subject and background, and you've chosen good backgrounds. I think that iit is an interesting area to explore - the subjects in their environment.

[Marcell Nikolausz]

I like them a lot Marcell. I am wondering if the butterfly in the 3rd one is like that
or overexposed? Just curious.

Sury

I have to admit that it's slightly overexposed.
(I also used flash and this range it behaved strange and required some negative correction, which was hard to guess)

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Hi Marcell, an interesting combination. The subjects are all in wonderful detail. I guess one effect the combination effect gives is to add detail to the background through adding the wide angle element? There is still a good separation between subject and background, and you've chosen good backgrounds. I think that iit is an interesting area to explore - the subjects in their environment.

Thanks Birma,

I think the key for such photos would be some dramatic element in the background (imagine a nice mountain or even a vulcan) with a nice macro or close-up subject in the front enlarged by the effect of this lens combo.
I saw many wonderful underwater photos using the close-focus wide angle concept. Some people use teleconverter with fisheye lens, which should give a similar perspective in my opinion.
Another approach is using a special lens from inon:
http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwate ... otography/
With this you can even achieve more dramatic effects.

[sury]

Very interesting. Thank you for the info. Marcell.
Sury

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Few more pictures with the same technique:






Cheers

Marcell

[sury]

Excellent Marcell. Very dramatic indeed.

Sury

[Kalainen]

Wide angle macro lens defineatly brings interesting point of view into macro photography which is, by default, working with more telecentric lenses. Great looking pictures and I would love to see more of your experiments with this set up!

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Thanks Sury and Tony,

I keep experimenting with this setup, but it's a bigger challenge compared to using longer macro lenses.
The background in this case is as important as the subject in the front (that can't be shy since it has to tolerate the lens).
Hopefully I can post some mushroom photos in the near future.

Cheers

Marcell

[sury]

Can you share details of post processing Marcell?
Are the images cropped ( I presume so) etc.
that underwater lens (INON) seems fascinating
but available only for Canon, m3/4 and GH.

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Can you share details of post processing Marcell?
Are the images cropped ( I presume so) etc.
that underwater lens (INON) seems fascinating
but available only for Canon, m3/4 and GH.

The last photos of the praying mantis are straight out of camera jpegs. I just resized and sharpened them. The first photo is slightly cropped. I prefer to use some in-camera exposure corrections.

The inon lens is really cool but too expensive. In underwater photography minolta and sony was not really supported, but recently we can see some changes. Many companies previously supported only canon/nikon now developed underwater housing for sony models as well.

[sury]

Adding Fisheye to WA lens "eliminated" distortion? Interesting.
Thank you for the info.

Sury

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Adding Fisheye to WA lens "eliminated" distortion? Interesting.
Thank you for the info.

Sury

I don't think it's eliminated distortion. It's just not obvious because of the subject (who knows the real shape of this mantis).
I will test this combo with brick walls soon. I already observed some problems when it focuses to the distance the sharpness is lost.

[Kalainen]

Something that occured me liter later: have you tried to do panoramas with that setup? Might be interesting experiment and look very different from most of the macro photography..

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/