Macro rig for Olympus OM-1, 90mm macro and STF-8

The STF-8 does not come with an adapter ring for the Olympus 90mm macro (effective 180mm.) I have come up with one solution. The flash heads can mount on 1/4 inch threads. The Platypod  goosenecks have those. The base is a Platypod Max. It can be mounted on a tripod as it has a threaded hole, or you can add a release plate.

This might even be better than a flash ring as you can position the heads in many more positions. A pair of tiny Smallrig ball heads gives great flexibility in light positions.

One improvement might be a long mount on the lens for back and forth movement.

Led lights or other flash units will work well also. I will try my cube Led lights soon.

Anyone have suggestions or comments?

Photoshop background removal tool

I tried the background removal tool on this image...

Its built in masking was used on the hummingbird (select subject) and then inverted to constrain the removal to the flower stem. It worked well!

Adobe Lightroom Lens blur beta tool

The new lens blur (beta) tool is awesome.

Here it is in action.

Tweaked settings and mask

So it's not masking well on butterfly and does strange things to finer details such as legs and antenna. I wonder why it does not use masks I have created.

New home page live

I created a new home page to link all my sites and feeds. www.johngreen.ca

I used Adobe Portfolio for the page and hosting. It has some limitations for customization, but it's quick and easy.

Best!

OM-1 grip. Beautiful!

The grip for my OM-1 arrived today. It fits beautifully and imho better than the grip for OMD MK iii.

It's expensive but sweet.

Better balance with a longer lens is had and one extra ontap battery is useful.

It has the a complement of buttons that can be programmed. 

Thanks Burlington Camera!

A couple of new sites for wildlife photography

 I found a great Canadian photographer on YouTube. He is Simon D'entremont.

His videos are noteworthy to nature, astrophotography, and landscape photographers.

Website: https://www.simondentremont.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6acC9jnug-mI4vdGvuDbA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sdentrem

Another site of note is the Journal of Wildlife Photography. Simon has a very worthy course on this site.

Journal of Wildlife Photography – Premier Wildlife Photography Magazine & Training Platform

Cheers!

OM System RM-WR1 remote

Here is the remote for the OM-1. It's Bluetooth and a quick and easy configuration. I could do it lol.

There is also a cable connection if needed.

The cable is of high quality. I've noticed that the wired remote also works with the Canon R series cameras. It does not have to be turned on to use via cable. The unit did not work with a Bluetooth connection to the R7.

The custom remote allows me to reconfigure the record button on the camera to another item such as focus stacking.

Pricey but pleased!

A great monopod. Benro Subradupra MSDPL46C

Best monopod ever. It can support a big white lens. Has a built in sturdy head. 

There is also a quick adjustment section for those final height settings. Carbon fiber of course. Twist locks in regular leg sections. 

I've been using this piece of kit for a while now without any issues. It really performs well in all situations.

It will also take a small set of legs I got from eBay (also pictured.)

What's not to like?

The end.

Rode videomic mic shock support repair

The rubber shock mounts on my old Rode microphone were deteriorated. 

I found some silicon o-rings in a kit on Amazon to replace the custom Rode ones.

They work great and are silicone to last longer.

The OM System 90mm macro arrived

This lens has shown up in time for my next trip to Costa Rica. Woohoo. 

Now to put it to the test. 

ISO 12800 on the r6 m2

I used DXO PureRaw's new support for r6 m2. This changes my options for butterfly photography. ISO 12800, 1/40th second at 500mm handheld. Sweet!

Print finishing

 Print Finishing Preparation

So I have decided on using self adhesive foam core by Bainbridge. This comes in 40 by 60 inch sheets from my local supplier (Burlington Camera.)

To cut the sheet into three 20 inch strips I have come up with using the table saw. I needed a 84 tooth 10 inch blade that would cut plastics etc. Got this from Home Depot. I also will use this blade for plexiglass cutting for other projects.

After setting the sliding guide on the table saw I can rip the sheets really quick and easy into three 20 inch sections (20 by 40.)

This saves me from getting a larger finishing table, which I have no room for.

How sweet is this if you have a table saw already in the shop!

I am also using bags by Crystal Clear Canada to protect my prints once mounted. 

Canon R6 mark ii fail.

I had this camera in my kit for a week before it went in for service. It did not charge batteries properly via USB.

I think maybe they should have just replaced it but canon wants to repair.

Two new prints made and hung up.



Lower antelope canyon and upper on the right.

The lower was in 2019 and the upper a couple of months ago in 2022. 

It's fun having a great printer (Epson P800) to make hard copies of your images.

Printed on Epson metallic glossy paper as it suits the subject (IMHO).

The center hanging is in memory of Joan and her spirit.

Motherboard replacement

Unplanned hardware replacement.

The darkroom PC motherboard started failing. It would not remember any bios settings between restarts. The PC would eventually boot, after hitting reset button enough times. The PC would boot with default settings.

I have replaced the MB with a new one of the same vintage and rolled in a minor CPU upgrade at the same time. The CPU is now an 8 core 16 thread model (from 6 cores.) It overclocks nicely.

All this was no real fun. Some sleep was lost but, in the end, it's a sweet machine.

With some of the new software for denoise more cores are needed. The video card is still an Asus NVidia 1660 and pulls its weight in DXO denoise.

The boxes

Better keyboard design for the darkroom PC

Some darkroom hardware notes:

 I had a large keyboard (Corsair K55) on the darkroom PC. I found that the numeric keypad portion was not used very much. By moving to a keyboard (pictured) without the keypad portion I was able to make room for my mouse to be on the desk beside the keyboard. Ergonomically this is better. Everything on the same level. Where before the mouse was on the higher desk portion and not the keyboard tray.

I did try the 61 key keyboards but found that not having dedicated arrow keys unworkable in my software. The arrow keys move you quickly around the grid in Lightroom. The small 61 key keyboards did not work out.

The new keyboard and mouse are from Razer (pictured.) They do cost a bit more than cheaper hardware but are worth it. Its Thanksgiving Friday and they were on sale. Optical keys are sweet. I like the mouse, its high resolution and has that thumb rest extension.  I know that there are custom devices for PS, but at this time I will not go there. The smaller keyboard works well!

Best!

 

A pot holder safety grip for big white lens

The pot holder modification for a big lens.

Below you see the 200mm Arca Swiss plate attached to the lens foot. This version of the 400 has a tripod collar that is one piece and therfore does not have longer aftermarket handles.

Looking down the barrel without the grip on.

I've put a 200mm length Arca Swiss adapter on my Canon 400mm DO f4 lens. Its shown here with the 2x extender mounted.   

This long Arca mount allows you to balance the lens when mounted on the gimbal mount I use. 

But what I found that when handholding the lens is the arca plate is not very  ergonomic. 

Slip a silicone pot handle holder over the plate, and its much more easy to grip.

There are less chances of the lens slipping from the fingers. The silicone sleve is very grippy on the inside and outside.

This enhancement is cheep and easy.

Order the flat grips here...Amazon

I got the 200mm Arca Swiss bar that just fits the grips as you can see. This one worked well...Amazon

You could use a shorter plate and cut the pot handler to length. For me the 200mm length just clears the lens.

Happy photography!

Olympus OMD EM1 MK3 and Panasonic 100-400 for dragonfly photography.

Olympus OMD EM1 MK3 and Panasonic 100-400 for dragonfly photography

A sample image stack result

   I have been using the focus bracketing feature of the EM1 MK3 to photograph dragonflies with some good success. Here is what I have learned so far:

The lens
   The Panasonic 100 to 400 zoom lens is one fantastic lens for this task. Currently Olympus does not have a lens like this.  I started out with a fixed F7.1 aperture but have settled on using the variable aperture lens wide open. Depending on focal length the aperture changes on this lens. At 400mm (full frame effective 800mm) the lens is f6.3. Most images have been taken at 400mm as these skimmers are hard to get very close to. Using a largish aperture helps keep the background separate from the skimmer.

I am hand holding  the lens and using the lens anti shake, not the camera body image stabilization. This is working far better than the monopod I previously used with full frame. You can hunt and frame the little beasts much quicker hand held. I have made a larger handle grip for the lens to help holding  the lens steady. The lens IS is being used not the in body image stabilization (IBIS).

When using this lens on the Olympus body you cannot have the lens and body image stabilizations work together. This is a pity that Panasonic and Olympus don't 'cross' operate fully. Also the in camera focus stacking is not available. I don't find this an issue as I am using Photoshop to create the final merged image.

A high quality B&W polarizer is mounted on the lens to bring out colours and reduce reflections.

Camera Settings
   I set the number of images to bracket to 5 and the focus differential to 2 (low). This covers the body of the larger dragonflies I have been photographing.
I am using aperture priority set at f6.3  You could use f7.1 but I have found this not necessary.
I'm using auto ISO with the maximum set to 1600 ISO. The shutter speed varies with the light available.

Technique
   Use the smallest single focus point on the closest part of the dragonfly.  This could be a wing tip or a tail end for example. The focus bracketing will move forward from that point and should cover the entire skimmer. The new toggle dial on the MK3 really helps with changing the focus spot quickly.

 You will need to adjust the polarizing filter for vertical and horizontal orientations. The polarizer makes a significate difference in the final image.

The camera operates in high speed silent shutter mode when focus bracketing, and takes 5 images very quickly. You want the high speed shutter settings as fast as they can be set (60fps the camera default).

Image Processing
   I use Adobe Lightroom to process the images and then Photoshop to align and create the stacked and merged final image. More on this in a later blog post.

July 2020

Hello All!

I have retired and now have more time for travel and photography. The travel part is difficult right now due to Covid-19. I have been working on techniques for photographing dragonflies at a local watershed swamp.  

Here are some of the latest from the last month or so.

Chicago

The Chicago Bean

The River Walk

Brown Line

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