[Recovered Thread: 84671]

[seemolf]

Danny wrote:

>Whether it was taken with a $5,000 camera and $,2000 flash gear or if it was taken on >adisposable cameramakes no difference at all :-).

lol, thought for a moment that the FZ5 could be a ......... ;-)

>Everyone has different ideas on lighting, some like highlights to be seen and others >don't. Some like shadows to form depth to an image and some don't. It all comes down >to softening those shadows and that you have done. Its shows how clever people are >when they need to be.

Need is the power driving inventiveness.
Panasonic has left many "needs" with my camera, they have to be solved.
Shadows or not, you can get anything now - but no blown highlights anymore!

>... Mainly forcloser lens to subject distances which are always hard to get light on.

This molf-bouncer can be used in all regions from close human portraits to 28mm reversed optics. The reflector can be moved above any object or even behind (!) the objects.
The reflector can easily be devided into two parts providing three adjustable light sources - even for ant portraits! ...and there is still natural light!

A first example:


In the right corner there is only diffused light.

Thanks for the nice and inspiring discussion!
This was what I hoped for in the beginning.

Sven

[Narmer]

Thank you Sven

you have really shown it.
The yellow tube has a reflection and the puppet is slightly OE in the upper right only diffused one.

As I told, it must be tested with real world and fine details rendering
as for example detecting the small exagonal cells in the flies' eyes with +4 diopter power. This depends much on lighting control.

I have made a test with diffused light on a small feather I have at home (6T+5T) a lil OverExp. - (With normal flash each element of the tip projects its own shadow).
But maybe I should try this with only FZ20 macro, in which is much harder to distinguish the tip of this feather (the real length of the part in the photo is about 9mm).



Yes I agree with NZmacro, light is a matter of taste, and it is often demanded a different one according to the circumstances

Narmer

[seemolf]

Oh feathers!!!!!

Francesco, pure metallic reflections!

This is unfair, I have to train that first.......;-)

Ok an exercise: bouncing, minimal diffusing.
Parrots are out of stock, so lets take a peacock (feather).

technique:
starting with olympus achromat +7,7 1*zoom, ..12* zoom, 80mm rodagon enlarging lens, 50mm el nikkor ending with 35mm componon enl. lens reversed
minimal natural light, just to see the view finder.

here we go...
This is my first journey to the center of a feather:
(click to enlarge)











Using a tripod would improve the results somehow......
But these were outdoor conditions.

Sven

[Narmer]

Great.
This trip would have deserved a thread apart, up here.
It seemed as if I was using a fractal program, sinking down in the abyss of microscopical.
Great results although I agree, especially the last 3 ones demand for the use of a tripod.

Thanks

PS Which in camera settings do you use on your FZ5?

[seemolf]

Settings:
achromats: A-mode, F:8, fixed focus, OIS 1,...
reversed lenses: open aperture (3.3), using the aperture of the leading lens.

Changing the power of the flash -2 - +2 !

And here the tripod pics of my Mandelbrod peacock:

35mm reverse, one is cropped

...and these ones have names:

Tales of a peacock ocean



christmas peacock



birds are just flying reptilia



DOF next to nothing....
Sven


still onboard flash pictures - and I hate flash!
(the original one, not this one with flat picture reduction)

two outdoor shots can be seen here:

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...amp;forum_id=7

[Narmer]

Great patterns, Sven

don't you think it's incredible what that small camera can achieve with a few cheap diopters ?

Colors are also great
(blue is not too saturated as FZ20 uses to do at std and High saturation).

Are there in camera settings for NR, Sherpness, contrast and saturation in FZ5, and which ones did you used here?

Nar

[seemolf]

Francesco wrote:
> Are there in camera settings for NR, Sharpness, contrast and saturation in FZ5, and which ones did you used here?

A "disposable" camera like the FZ5 has three settings:
natural, standard, vivid
This is just a game with sharpness and saturation. Vivid is still far from canon colours.....
I use standard.
If I could influence the contrast range somehow, I would be very happy.
This is much more important for me than a manual focus!
But still no reason to send more money to Panasonic for the FZ7 (I would like to test it anyway.....)

> don't you think it's incredible what that small camera can achieve with a few cheap diopters ?

Simple answer: YES!
I tried to do similar shots with the microscope. DOF and lighting were a serious problem. The lenses used are excellent and not really cheap if you have to buy new ones. ;-)

The last results will be repeated with some diffused light on sunday. This will be my sunday "excursion". I hope you will have a better one!

cheers Sven

[Narmer]

Dear Sven

as I have often mentioned one of the problems of FZ pairing small CCD and powerful zoom is the scarce dynamic range.

If you are shooting at a subject with uniform light conditions, pics come out well contrasted and exposed.

As soon as there is a relevant part with different (even if not heavily) conditions of HL and shadows, issues like clipping of HL, low contrast or too dark areas start to emerge. With in camera settings you can only limit the damages.
It is more fruitful to be careful in exposition (especially if you are using spot metering) or taking more than one exposition to eventually blend them with PS (a thing which also dSLR users are often forced to do).

But I myself must admit that the several lamentations I have expressed in this forum and elsewhere about FZ20 are not owing to its being a bad camera, but instead depend on the fact that some issues could have been easily avoided both in image side and in the hardware.

We should go to a very nice place tomorrow, but it seems rain will goo on all through this week end...