Question for Photographers

[Mr.Christmas]

Howdy y’all!

Hope all is well. My brother gifted me a Canon Rebel t3i and I’ve been getting into photography. I found pictures like the following fascinating, and wanted to replicate them with my own bud.

I bought this bad sucker thinking I could take up close shots, but quickly found out the minimum distance to snag pics with it was 2 ft.

Now I’m considering this one:

I contacted the seller and they stated I could be either 1/2 an in away, or 9 inch depending on the setting I have the lens on.

My question is, is the 60 mm on this a correct range for the type of pictures I’m trying to take, or would I need this one for that has a range of 12-100mm?:

Thanks in advance, and ¡buenos humos!

Summary

This text will be hidden

[Gpaw]

I’m at early stages myself…

There is a large market for used lenses out there and more importantly, folks with stores selling them. …I like to look at it first…
You can save some money compared to buying new.

Also, lighting… If you haven’t looked into this there are a couple Lighting for Dummies books available and a metric ton of info on the internet … lighting is really important.

Another thing I’ve been doing is asking folks that post great pics about their equipment, that is a gold mine of information.

Cheers
G

[Foreigner]

Mrs Foreigner is a photographer and says

“You have a canon EF/EF-s lens mount. Don’t buy those- just get a canon mount macro lens. Don’t buy any Micro 4/3 lens mounts.”
Eg.
EF-S 60mm
Takina 100mm
Sigma 100 macro lens for crop sensors.

Good luck

[Mr.Christmas]

Awesome info! I’m just iffy about a used lens being scratched or jacked up. There should be some good stores with lenses near me, I’ll def check them out.

@Foreigner

Mrs Foreigner is a photographer and says

“You have a canon EF/EF-s lens mount. Don’t buy those- just get a canon mount macro lens. Don’t buy any Micro 4/3 lens mounts.”
Eg.
EF-S 60mm
Takina 100mm
Sigma 100 macro lens for crop sensors.

Good luck

Awesome! I’ll look for those around here. Thank y’all!

[arb]

A tripod and delayed auto fire so your hands don’t shake the camera.I use a Nikon d40 and focal length matters.

Take the pic like so then go into the camera to crop and zoom for real tight.

[SensiBowl]

Used lenses are definitely the way to go, I grabbed an almost immaculate used lens off Ebay for super cheap.

A speed light with a diffuser can help give great lighting too

I built a diffuser out of an old pringles can and some paper towel:

[BarefootAndBlazed]

I also have a Canon T3i body. I bought some nice glass for it, including a Rokinon 100mm F2.8 macro lens: https://a.co/d/1g5VjOn

The hard part is finding motivation to get out the kit when I already have a phone in my pocket ready to shoot… Guess I’m lazy. Looking at my grow thread 90% of the pics are from my phone. I’ll have to bust out the nice camera more often.

[iamyou_youareme]

@Foreigner

just get a canon mount macro lens. Don’t buy any Micro 4/3 lens mounts.”
Eg.
EF-S 60mm
Takina 100mm
Sigma 100 macro lens for crop sensors.

@SensiBowl

Used lenses are definitely the way to go

@Gpaw

You can save some money compared to buying new.

Also, lighting… If you haven’t looked into this there are a couple Lighting for Dummies books available and a metric ton of info on the internet … lighting is really important.

These are all good points and hopefully point you in the right direction. I bought my macro lens used through eBay, saved a couple hundred bucks. I use 90mm Tamron to capture these images, so that may get you close. Also look into photo stacking software, like Helicon Focus, etc. as the narrow depth of field on macro lens make capturing the whole bud tricky. Make sure you have a steady tripod too! I’m not a professional photog by any means though, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

[Mr.Christmas]

That Helicon software looks dope, I’ll definitely have to look at some tutorials how to use it, but the intro video they have on their website looks exactly like a picture I’d want to take.

@BarefootAndBlazed

I also have a Canon T3i body. I bought some nice glass for it, including a Rokinon 100mm F2.8 macro lens: https://a.co/d/1g5VjOn

The hard part is finding motivation to get out the kit when I already have a phone in my pocket ready to shoot… Guess I’m lazy. Looking at my grow thread 90% of the pics are from my phone. I’ll have to bust out the nice camera more often.

That looks like some solid gear. I’ll keep an eye out to see some of your future pics with it.

[BarefootAndBlazed]

Here are a couple with that Rokinon macro lens
https://overgrow.com/uploads/default/original/4X/4/6/2/462c25ec45942faea322a501ed3a33be48859b42.jpeg

https://overgrow.com/uploads/default/original/4X/6/2/e/62edcdefa74d0babbe67b71cc57df5f465eeb383.jpeg

This Tangie plant turned pink before fading to purple!
https://overgrow.com/uploads/default/original/4X/4/8/c/48c05113faf322fbb7deb98d388708a23a8f25a7.jpeg

https://overgrow.com/uploads/default/original/4X/5/5/b/55bfb4397d0d2818a864d43875abbaa38afdb237.jpeg

I’m doing this from my phone since I’m out of town.
I’m grabbing pics from my grow thread. If the links are screwy (no pic or showing the low-res version) it might take a few days for me to fix it. You can always scroll through my thread here.

[Mr.Christmas]

Absolute beautiful thread. You’ve got a crazy green thumb.