Xu Keyi
Landscape photographer
Travel columnist
The walking area has included seven continents and four oceans
30 countries and regions, including the North and South Poles
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Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/400s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
Lens: Nikkor Z macro 105mm f/2.8 VR S
Macro photography is a unique form of photography that involves taking small objects so that they look like they are their true size in a photograph. Usual subjects include flowers and small insects, the details of which are generally invisible to the naked eye. As one of the major photographic subjects, macro photography is relatively limited by the site, and sometimes finding a piece of grass and a garden can shoot very beautiful macro works, and it is relatively fast to get started. But if you want to shoot a good macro, you still need some small skills.
The turn of spring and summer is a vibrant time, and after the dormancy of winter and the rest of spring, the little life is particularly active. On an early rainy morning, I came to Qinglonghu Wetland Park, a pool of clean water in southwest Beijing, to find and document the green grass, flowers and active animals here.
This time I use the Nikon Z 5 micro single camera and the newly released NIKKOR Z macro 105mm f/2.8 VR S lens, compared to the classic AF-S VR macro NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens, the Z mount macro 105mm f/2.8 VR S lens has achieved a comprehensive improvement. Thanks to the characteristics of the Z-mount, the distance from the end of the lens to the sensor is greatly reduced, so the designer can safely configure a large-bore aspherical lens near the sensor, coupled with 3 low-dispersion lenses, to achieve a maximum magnification of 1:1 at the nearest focusing distance of 0.29 meters. This makes the lens's control over chromatic aberration excellent.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/125s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
As an S-line lens, the NIKKOR Z macro 105mm f/2.8 VR S lens has a full range of high-end configurations, such as the nano crystalline coating and anti-reflective high-definition (ARNEO) coating of the Z series high-end lens configuration in the coating, which effectively reduces ghosting and glare, no matter which direction the light enters the lens from, and even the direct appearance of the light source in the picture, it can also provide a clear and sharp image. In addition, the lens adopts a highly dust-proof, drip-proof structure, a rubber gasket at the lens mount position, and a fluorine coating is applied to the outer surface of the front-end lens element to avoid stain adhesion and is easier to clean. Robustness and weather resistance provide excellent reliability, which is especially important for macro lenses that often have to work close to the subject in natural environments.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/2.8 shutter 1/3000s ISO320 focal length 105mm
"Jagged Jing cai, left and right", starting from the "Book of Poetry, Zhou Nan Guan Ju", jing cai has been recited by Chinese for more than 2,000 years. This kind of small yellow flower that grows close to the surface of the water, if viewed from the usual perspective, is only a mottled yellow, which is very inconspicuous. But if you bend down and flatten the perspective, you'll be surprised to see that they actually have a unique beauty.
In order to highlight the subject, I use a large aperture to blur the background of the water chestnut, and also deliberately put flowers in the foreground, because the depth of field of macro shooting is shallow, we can boldly use the foreground to obtain a soft bokeh effect, increasing the atmosphere of the picture. In addition, I chose a horizontal symmetrical composition, using reflections to increase the fun of the picture. When shooting at a low angle, we can open the folding screen of the camera, which is conducive to more comfortable framing and observation.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/9 shutter 1/160s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
The cobwebs after the rain are like pearl necklaces worn by ladies, distributed casually and regularly in the sun. This picture seems simple, but in fact, it took a lot of effort, in order to make the water droplets in the spider web stand out, you must choose a darker background, avoid the sky and other bright backgrounds, I raised the camera with my hands, straightened my arms and used the back screen to find such a suitable angle.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/250s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
Flies are originally annoying insects, but if you look closely in the wild, you will find its large compound eyes and long legs quite interesting. The black-and-white approach of classifying insects into "beneficial insects" and "pests" is slightly outdated, and from a modern point of view, they are all part of nature and a necessary link in the ecosystem. Although the size of the insect is small, but in macro shooting, it is often beyond the depth of field range, so it is generally necessary to choose the most concerned and prominent position for focusing, this figure I focused on its compound eye, and obtained better results.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/1250s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
In the summer, Beijing is hot, and snails generally hide in their houses and do not come out, but occasionally a nectar falls from the sky, and the small snails receive a reminder of the humidity in the air and come out to forage. The little tentacle boy carefully probed forward, touching and retracting. The depth of field of macro shooting is very shallow, and the creatures shooting activity cannot shrink too much aperture, so it is very important to choose where to focus, and I have thought twice, focusing on the tentacles of snails, which is also the focus of people's eyes.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/1600s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
A male red-yellow cetacean rests on the reed leaves, the red crenus stands out against the green background, and I close a little aperture, so that the cetacean body and the leaves can be well represented. The water droplets form a lens effect on the leaves, and the dots of halo add beauty to the picture.
Although the depth of field of macro photography is very shallow, if we can make the subject plane and the sensor plane in a parallel state, we can still put most of the subject in the depth of field to obtain a complete and clear image.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/800s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
Dragonflies are closely related to dragonflies. The black-winged dragonfly has large wings and flies like a butterfly. When it stops, I take this photo, and the metallic color on its wings can show different colors in the sun, which is really the "colorful black" that the designer is pursuing.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/600s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
The aphid-eater was approaching the purple twist head, and I chose a medium shutter speed of 1/300th of a second to make its flapping wings appear blurred. If you use a higher speed shutter, you can "freeze" the wings, but the picture that shows a certain sense of movement is more vibrant.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/2000s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
The eye spots and scales of the green-tailed silkworm moth appear under high resolution. When shooting at close range, we can limit the autofocus search range from "FULL" to close-up mode, and the close-up mode I use is between about 0.29m-0.5m, which can shorten the focus time by 2/3 and greatly improve work efficiency.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/8 shutter 1/400s ISO400 focal length 105mm
Like its relatives in the family Lentilidae, the morning glory, which likes to greet the first rays of the sun in the early morning, is also called "morning glory" in English colloquialism. The air after the rain is particularly transparent, and these two wild morning glory are like two dancers turning the hem of the skirt, and through the lens we can clearly show the texture of the petals and the fineness of the buds.
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/4 shutter 1/640s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
Nikon Z 5 aperture f/7.1 Shutter 1/400s ISO1600 focal length 105mm
Sedum plants are loved for their fleshy leaves and villi. The water droplets on the leaves of the sedum after the rain are lined up in turn, which is quite interesting. I specially arranged two fleshy leaves in the foreground, and the leaves outside the depth of field were well defocused, highlighting the leaf edges and water droplets of the main body of the picture, and making the picture more vivid.
In summary, in the actual shooting, we can see that the Nikkor Z macro 105mm f/2.8 VR S macro quality performance is quite excellent, in the case of 1:1 magnification, whether it is fully open aperture to obtain the best bokeh, or shrink the aperture to obtain a larger depth of field, it shows a very high resolution and sharpness. Of course, in addition to the blessing of excellent equipment, patience and luck are also required in the end. Macro photography is a great test of your patience, as long as you can keep shooting, you will definitely be able to shoot a good work. Well, having said all that, are you eager to try it? Grab the camera in your hand and discover a different microscopic world!
Edit | Huang Bin