Macro Fun

Seaweed

It is the first of the month, in between cleaning up my desk and doing paperwork I decided to do some macro photography, utilizing a light-box (I purchased this at Micheal's arts and crafts).  I learned this method at a Mike Moats Macro Boot Camp www.MacroStoreOnline.com .  Usually when I am out, especially on a beach and I find interesting objects, I will take the object home to utilize and doing some macro work at home, especially on days where you really cannot get outside.  Although the day was nice and I could've been outside, I did have to finish up the paperwork.

Lightbox

My methodology used  my D800+ Nikon 105 mm micro lens, manual focus, mirror up mode, and a wired remote.  Although with the D 800, the wired remote does screw into the socket, I have had the wired remotes come loose and fall and get lost.  To prevent this from happening I have purchased a Tether Tools JerkStopper Camera Support from Outdoor Photo Gear (click on logo on the right side of the blog.

Set up

Tether Tools JerkStopper Camera Support

 After uploading the pictures into Lightroom, bringing the highlight slider up, so the background is white and performing minor basic adjustments, the picture was uploaded to Photoshop, the layer duplicated, a level adjustment was done to make sure white was white and then with the magic wand, I selected out the object that was photographed.  The object was placed in its own layer and then adjusted with Topaz Clarity and Detail.  I then cropped the picture to appropriate size and re-imported the picture back into Lightroom.

Interesting creatures on seaweed

Lady Crab

Spider Crab

Jingle Shells

Shell covered with barnacles

Welk

Previously, I had done the same thing to other objects, which are labeled with their common and scientific name in Photoshop with the intent, being that they could be used as teaching material.When I have a chance I will do the same to the new pictures.

So if the weather is bad and you have time on your hands try this method and have some fun.