First Blooms

[Grimm]

Here is a new one for me. Bulbophyllum Makoyanum

[Call_Me_Bob]

amazing photography! and nice plants! what camera do you shoot with?

[Grimm]

Thanks for the compliment. Just a Canon xti.

I was bored so here are some shots of a newer pulchellum bloom also.

[FairyInTheFlowers]

OMG!!! Those macros are INCREDIBLE!

[cday2inflorida]

EXCELLENT

[silken]

Lovely. Did you use a flash or natural daylight? Very nice macros.

[dounoharm]

wow! love the closeup shots! very nice!

[Grimm]

Thanks everyone. I have a Bulbophyllum Dentiferum stalk growing rapidly, so hopefully not to much longer till I have something new to post.

Originally Posted by silken

Lovely. Did you use a flash or natural daylight? Very nice macros.

No, no flash at all. Until I make my own flash extender/diffuser, I wont be able to use it. The lens actually blocks all the flash from lighting the subjects haha. I use 2 small desk clamp lights, and 2 GE daylight cfl's for lighting. The clamplights give a slight orange colour, so I will need to change the bulbs to something pure white. Im thinking of adding a few more lights also, because I am having troubles getting a solid white background. Its pretty grey at the moment, especially before post processing.

And just for a size reference, the entire parishii flower is about the size of a penny, and the last 2 images are under 8mm across.

[Call_Me_Bob]

impressive! you probably know this already, but if you light the background and the subject separately, you can control the background independently.

how do you reverse mount the lens?

[Grimm]

Originally Posted by help

impressive! you probably know this already, but if you light the background and the subject separately, you can control the background independently.

how do you reverse mount the lens?

Search "reversing ring" on ebay for your specific camera and lens. They are super cheap, and give great results. I got mine for 6$. It is made from aluminum and has a nice clean black finish.

I can get down to 3X magification using it with my stock 18-55mm lens. Pretty good concidering my expensive macro dedicated 100mm lens only gets down to 1X :P

The only pain is that you cannot change the aperture while the lens is reversed, so it needs to be set before. Hold the "preview aperture" button down and remove the lens to get the desired aperture setting.