Tag: Lensbaby Composer

Backyard macro photography with the Lensbaby Composer

What's the real difference between the Standard post format and the Image post format? The same number of images and the same result.

I'm getting better with the Lensbaby Composer, and I'm enjoying using it for macro photography. My biggest challenge has been focusing on. With macro, one has to be very steady when hand-held. A tripod helps, but it's not easy to place a tripod for the shot.

All images were shot handheld on my Nikon D5100 in manual mode. My Sekonic light-meter helped get the shutter readings for the chosen lens aperture. I used an aperture of f/5.6, which provided enough depth-of-field to get the subject in focus.

Sunday 1 September, 2013 | Nikon D5100 | Composer | 1⁄500 sec | ISO 400

The Lensbaby has no electronics to signal the DX body. The Lensbaby Composer has a novel way to control depth of field using little discs with holes that are dropped into a cavity at the front of the lens. Apertures are manually controlled and not reported to the camera. The aperture discs allow apertures of f/2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22. Focus is accomplished by pushing the entire lens assembly forward for close focusing and back for distant focusing. This is a fully manual setup.

This little green guy was hopping around in the grassy area behind my home. He stopped his hopping to pose for me. I was happy about that. It can be hard to focus when the depth of field is minimal. Move your setup even just a few mm, and the entire image is out of focus.

Sunday 1 September, 2013 | Nikon D5100 | Composer | 1⁄250 sec | ISO 400

The spider built a web between the stalk of one of my palms and the side of the house. Unlike the grasshopper, it didn't like posing, and the web moved gently in the wind. I had to take about twenty shots to get these two.

spider
Sunday 1 September, 2013 | Nikon D5100 | Composer | 1⁄500 sec | ISO 100

Hibiscus at Blooms at Belle Mead

Bhavana and I stopped in at Blooms at Belle Mead yesterday. We were looking for a plant for flowers to take to a housewarming party. We spotted these beautiful bright yellow hibiscus flowers as we walked around the store and decided we wanted one. The yellow is so vibrant, and yellow happens to be our daughters favourite colour. Blooms have hibiscus in many other colours, including yellow with a red centre and a lovely orange. I'll be back to get a few more plants.

Sunday 11 August, 2013 | NIKON D5100 | Composer | 1⁄60 sec at f/8.0 | ISO 400

I captured both of these images with a Lensbaby Composer. One of the challenges with using a Lensbaby is that it has no electronics; the camera and lens are operated entirely manually. The Nikon has no information about the glass, so Adobe Lightroom has no information about the brand or focal length. So after I import my photos into Lightroom, I use an application called ExifChanger to add the lens information to the image files. From my web search, I think the Lensbaby may be a 50mm lens (75mm on a DX camera body).

Lens baby macro

Jochen Spalding posted an image to ADN that he took with a lens baby. I responded that I had borrowed a lens, baby but never got the hang of using it. He encouraged me to try again, so ... I did. After breakfast, I attached a 10x macro lens and attempted to capture some images. I tried taking some photos of raindrops on some leaves in the backyard. I noticed the spider, so I focused on that instead. It took some effort. The spider kept moving, and holding the camera steady was a challenge. I had to use my trip with the camera mounted a few inches from the spider. I used the flip screen on the camera, and I could not get close enough to shoot through the viewfinder without disturbing the web.

I could do better. I could have used a narrower aperture to get more depth of field and perhaps used a flash to provide extra illumination.

In the afternoon, I decided to try again with a different subject. This is a flower from one of the many hostas growing in my garden. The challenge here was the slight breeze that caused the flower stalk to sway slightly. It made focusing difficult, and as with the spider, it took me almost 30 minutes to get this shot.

With a bit of patience and practice, I will get better results from this Lensbaby.

Sunday 14 July, 2013 | Nikon D5100 | Composer | 1⁄15 sec at f/5.6 | ISO 100