No mosquitoes there?

Got, friggin lots of mosquitoes.

Dear Silverfire ignored part of my instructions to wear long sleeves and shoes with long socks.
So the fella paid the price with both his arms literally covered with mosquito bites at the end of the day

The girl also had quite a few on her legs. Even I also got one under my shirt! Don't mess with jungle mosquitoes

I went to FRIM once about last few months ago, but didn't discovered a lot of special insects there, most of them are just ordinary ants. If you guys going to FRIM again, can I join?(although I am a Canon user, doesn't matter right? ) I love macro photography too.

Of course~ The more the merrier, especially given the state of security in Malaysia nowadays, not safe to wander into a forest alone with gear worth tens of thousands

just found this awesome tutorial, wanna share with you guys
>>>here<<<

Yeah yeah Shooting without flash in the forest is almost impossible, since almost all of the light is covered by the thick layers of leaves on top. Do you own a dedicated macro lens for macro shots?

Haha, yeah, I've learnt my lesson too when I took photos inside the Rimba Ilmu of UM... the mosquitoes are crazy!
But at least no leeches right? haha


Wah, I would like to join too once I get a macro lens

silverfire managed to do it, high iso+flash/no flash. Some shots came out really nice too. Salute him, never really thought of balancing ambient with flash throughout the 1 year+ I've invested into macro

And yes, I'm somewhat into macro more than other genres, went from 50mm+extension tubes > Tamron 90mm (stolen) > Tamron 60mm > Tamron 90mm VC
Also have extension tubes, teleconverter, even tried DIYing my own macro flash diffuser until I bought my own Nissin MF18 ringflash

You can always get extension tubes, meike has a set that retains autofocus and aperture control for RM250, which is what I have atm. Cheap solution compared to a dedicated lens, gives great results too.

P.S. If I do find a leech I'll probably try and take a macro shot of the mouth, I know it's weird but that's just me

This post has been edited by gunzerdude: Aug 5 2013, 03:13 PM

I also tried to balance my macro shots with ambient + flash, most of the time I just dial my exposure compensation to -1 EV or soemthing, then use the bounce card on my flash to fill the subjects, most of the time the result is quite good.

Yeah, I should start experimenting with that, previously I only use iso 100-200 exclusively because I want to retain details for smaller subjects.

I use ISO 400 even if it's in daylight, because my aperture is around f8-f13, it's hard for me to achieve 1/100 - 1/200 of shutter speed sometimes.

I'm usually working with number above that because of the teleconverter+extension tubes

Then I just let the flash do the rest.

Which usually results in a black background unless it's adjacent to the subject.

Hmm... with teleconverter + extension tubes, at the same aperture, it will requires more light to come in to achieve the same exposure right?


yeah... but macro shots with totally dark background don't look that good imo, i prefer those who looks natural. Still can't figure out how to use tripod together with macro lenses, it will be really hard to carry around and adjust without scaring the insects away.

Well.... It depends on the shot really, some are better with a black background, some not so much.



Yes, working with attachments reduces light, with a teleconverter I can see F/64 on my cam if I stop all the way down, go figure if extension tubes are thrown in

I use a monopod occasionally. Much much better than tripods unless it's a stationary subject like a spider within it's nest.

This post has been edited by gunzerdude: Aug 5 2013, 04:49 PM

Nice photos bro! Make me attract to macro again haha

Really need a proper macro lens now this is the closest I can get while reversing my 50mm.

Same here haha
Bro, with your lenses you can take good "macro" shots also ah.. use your 28-300 at nearest minimum focus range and then zoom in, then if its not enough, crop the photo since you have so many MP

My cheating "macro" shot

UM Rimba Ilmu- Spider by PF T.J., on Flickr

Thanks for sharing sifu
I am aiming for the 105mm micro already haha, will be useful for my research too, and at the same time can be used for portraits... killing many birds with one glass
Gosh I'm super afraid of leeches T_______T

I was using ISO2000-3200 1/250 shutter with f5.6 when I don't use flash

This was shot with ISO2000:


This post has been edited by Silverfire: Aug 5 2013, 06:15 PM

What camera was you using? I am currently using crop body, the noise above ISO800 is unacceptable to me if I going to PP it.