My first of this season

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:03 am

It's Frebuary the 8th.. the temperature in the early morning is like 5ºC..I went to try my luck and see if the insects are back .. last year I started to shoot in the end of February...

Just got the old Oly EM-10 (no focus bracketing) .. and the Oly 60mm macro.
Handheld, no other gear ... no flashes or tripod.. I was not very hopeful:)

Found very few, but found some flies...
I had to raise a lot the ISO , to 1250.. to get 1/100 speed at f/9...
So the detail is not very good...

all handheld, natural light...single shots

FLK_000100 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000101 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000099 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:14 pm

Hi,
I think this is a good start of what to come...

Thanks for sharing

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:52 pm

Thank you Harald....
This is winter so far has been more cold than usual...

The pictures here at 800 points look fairly ok...but if you care to look in real size (4.600 points) in my Flicker, you will see the poor detail for the very high ISO..
António.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:15 am

More than fairly ok, I think

(The images are "private" on flikr, though.)

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:05 pm

ChrisR wrote:More than fairly ok, I think (The images are "private" on flikr, though.)

I'm sorry ..I did not think about that detail... the pictures I don't feel happy about go to "private".
Try now.

I keep struggling with the Olympus OM-D II and the Oly 60mm.
The overall look in small size is ok,but the details very poor. I keep trying as I don't want to think I spent like 1.000 euros for a disappointment... but so far I'm not happy.

2019-02-09-17.56.05 ZS PMax by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

2019-02-09-21.20.16 ZS PMax by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Troels · Post by **Troels** » Sun Feb 10, 2019 3:05 pm

Nothing wrong with your equipment. Just the usual common problems with all macro imaging.

The second picture of the fly has a little motion blurr. The other two pictures of the fly have some very sharp details but give an overall impression of unsharpness beceause the eyes are out of (the very narrow ) focus.

The wevil has perfect, nice sharp details in both pictures.
Go on!

SteveB · Post by **SteveB** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:35 am

Hi Antonio
I like the flies especially the last one. I guess they're quite small. My personal experience of micro four thirds is that while it it great for photographing live wild insects, is's extremely sensitive to raising the iso. I always shoot at iso 200 except when I,m trying to get pictures of flying insects when I try iso 800 but at a huge cost in detail. Even by iso 320 the scales on a butterfly's wing show a lot less detail. On the positive side, because one has a greater depth of field, one can often set the aperture much wider open, which mitigates this to a certain extent as does the in body image stabilization.

If I was taking a small insect lined up with the sensor, I would try F 5.6 or even F 4 if I was short of light for a single shot. For stacking I generally use F 4 in bright light, but don't hesitate to go down to F 2.8 if it's a bit overcast. At the moment I'm using focus step 3 which still seems ok even at F2.8. I hope that helps! One other thing that might help is to reduce the noise reduction to either low or off and do your own noise reduction later.

I've been incredibly happy with the Oly 60 mm lens and I hope you will eventually be too.

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 8:20 am

I also am very happy with the Oly 60mm. For stacking, I think the best aperture is f/3.5. I always use step size of 1 but after Troel's recent post, I will go to step size of 2.

A-PeeR · Post by **A-PeeR** » Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:36 pm

I think these look quite good as well. Oly's take a bit getting used to. Once you do boy do they sing a lovely tune. Personally, If I was interested in detail I would do everything I could to keep ISO at 200 and if I really had to push it maybe 400. One of the big limiters of the camera is the sensor noise as you raise ISO. Noise reduction routines take care of this nicely but it also smudges out details. Keep up the good work!

Best regards - William

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:43 pm

That's good advice. I never move off of ISO 200 with MFT.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:36 pm

Thank you Troels, Steve Lou,A-peer,foryour encouragement and advice.
I think I just made unreal expectations .. with a bit of more practice and tuning soon I will be fine and more content...

I admire the photography of this person I follow in Flicker,and currently he is using MFT ( Oly Em-1 and Panasonic G9) and so far I did not do yet nothing even close of what he is able to do with the MFT....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152017075 ... 249427755/

meanwhile I did a conventional setup with flashes

FLK_000111 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

a sturdy grip for better handling and a cable trigger

IMG_20190218_211738 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

and I keep trying, with flash and lower ISO

FLK_000113 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

FLK_000114 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

and next Saturday I am going to get up at 6AM and spend 5-6 hours with a friend in the woods, in our favorite spot to look for "empusa", all geared with tripod and everything ...
I will give the Oly a good extensive try, and I am sure I will come home with a few decent shots...

This is an emupsa my friend got there this week (his photo ... with a Tamron 180mm he borrowed from me) .. still cold here but the insects are back

Empusa pennata by João Bento, on Flickr

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:41 pm

Sorry for the very large pictures...I can't see the edit button to correct it.