Can you tell what the translucent object is in the photograph above? It’s a single grain of sugar captured in a macro photograph by artist Pyanek, whose “Amazing Worlds Within Our World” project is a series of macro shots that show the beautiful details of ordinary things — things that we generally don’t (or can’t) see with our naked eyes.

Here’s the project presented in video form. For each of the photos, see if you can figure out what the photo is of before the answer shows up on the screen:

The photos were captured using a Canon T3i DSLR with a reversed kit lens and edited with HeliconFocus (focus stacking), Lightroom, and Exposure 5.

Here are the other photographs in the series:

Kitchen sponge

Apple stalk

‘X’ key on a computer

Teabag

Spaghetti

Serrated knife

Screw

Match

Lipstick

Incense stick

Corrugated fiberboard

Cornflake

Brass key

Book pages

Beach stone

Ballpoint pen

Soap bubbles

Pyanek has released the images in the series to the public for downloading, viewing, and sharing.

(via Colossal)

Last month, a Chinese company called Venus Optics unveiled a 60mm f/2.8 lens, the first 2:1 magnification lens with infinity focus. Thomas Shahan, the “Bob Ross of macro photography“, was sent a copy from the company and reviewed it in the 4.5-minute video above.

Shahan notes that the lens weighs in at a little over a pound and has a solid metal housing. It’s “hefty” and “robust,” he says.

A quirky aspect is that the front element of the lens is relatively small, and it recedes way back into the lens housing when you’re focusing to infinity:

There’s also no automatic aperture control built into the glass.

Shahan found that the lens is very sharp with good optics and great color reproduction. There’s a great deal of sharpness and detail even as you zoom in beyond 4:1 magnification:

Here are some sample photos Shahan shared with us to show how the lens performs when out in the great outdoors:

Even though shooting through a stop-down aperture is “difficult,” “I’m in love with the lens,” Shahan says. “I’m amazed by the amount of detail I can pull out of this lens. I can focus on anything from a landscape to a portrait, down to a detail, down to a portrait of a jumping spider.”

“I wholeheartedly recommend it.”

The Venus 60mm f/2.8 is for sale over on eBay and through the Venus online store for $379.

If you’d like to learn more about how Shahan does his macro photography, check out this video showing his workflow.

Image credits: Video and photographs by Thomas Shahan and used with permission

Mold is something people usually don’t want to see, especially on their food, but it’s something that attracted the eye of Russian photographer Nick Lariontsev. He created the fascinating time-lapse video above showing strange beauty of mold when seen up close.

At this zoom level, you can see the detail of the colonies as they grow.

Here are a few photographs showing the macro photography setup Lariontsev used with a DSLR and slider. Lariontsev says the system makes one turn over the course of seven days to introduce movement to the shots:

Product design is the notion of transforming an idea into a tangible object that has a purpose. Solving problems with products is what I like to do — it’s how I try to give something back to the world. Adaptalux is something I created recently to give photographers a portable macro studio wherever they go.

It all started with a simple problem: how can I design a lighting product that photographers of all ability can understand and use easily? The one word that struck me was simplicity, and I made this a key design objective.

Simplicity is a vital factor that influences both the physical and psychological nature of how a user interacts with a product. But how do you keep a product simple, whilst maintaining its function and purpose? The answer is to give the user the control, so the product is only limited by their imagination and ability.

Inspiration is a key word used by any creative person. You might look for inspiration before taking a photograph; I look for inspiration before designing a product. This famous quote by Ansel Adams, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it” inspired me to explore modular design.

Modular design philosophy divides a product into modular parts, categorised by the user’s needs. This could potentially allow the user to easily ‘build’ a lighting environment step by step around a subject, giving them the control. This philosophy is at the heart of Adaptalux and is where it all began.

Incorporating this philosophy into a product starts with concept generation, which is similar to taking a photograph. You start with an idea, you capture it and finally, develop it. Concepts present many challenges that are overcome through creativity and engineering. Through testing, the concept of Adaptalux was proven to work and it was developed into a final design that could be manufactured.

Here’s the final concept rendering I came up with:

I then created a proof of concept test rig to see if the concept would work.

This is the final design:

Prototyping transforms a final design into a tangible object before it is mass-produced. It is where a product really comes to life and you get the chance to test manufacturing techniques, materials, assemblies and the product function. Does the product solve the initial problem? Does it achieve this within your design objectives? If it does, you’re ready to show your idea to the world.

My prototype of the Adaptalux macro light system.

The control pod in the system.

A green attachment to the end of the light.

The Adaptalux Stage can be used to provide a surface for the macro subject.

Here’s a trailer for the Adaptalux macro lighting system:

Here are sample macro photos that were lit using the Adaptalux (you can find more in this Flickr set):

I launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter today to bring Adaptalux to market. We can’t wait to release this product and see how photographers use it.

About the author: Sam Granger is the owner and product designer of Adaptalux. Through Adaptalux he is hoping to inspire photographers to engage with macro photography and videography. You can find out more about Adaptalux and macro photography at the official website.

A team at the University of Texas is set to create thousands of macro photographs showing the beauty and diversity of the smallest critters in the state of Texas. Every one of the photos will be released to the public domain, allowing anyone to do anything with the photos without charge (or even permission).

The project will be by the university’s Insect Image Lab, which is led by Dr. Alex Wild, a professional photographer and the school’s curator of entomology. We’ve featured Wild’s work and writing a number of times here before.

Wild plans to teach a team of students “the art and artistry of digital microphotography,” releasing the resulting image collection without the constraints of copyright law.

The team is currently raising funds through UT’s Hornraiser crowdfunding site, where they’re currently 80% to the $8,000 goal. Money raised will be used to support several students in their training and to improve computing, camera, and lighting gear for the group.

If everything goes according to schedule, the team will begin their project in the summer of 2015 and use the following school year as a pilot for this program. If that goes well, this could become a long term publicly-funded program that continually makes contributions to the public domain.

Here are some of the public domain macro photographs shot by Wild for the group so far:

Papilio glaucus. Test image of easter tiger swallowtail hind wing, at high magnification.

Polistes carolina stinger. High magnification of a paper wasp’s sting.

Brachygastra mellifica. High magnification photograph of the fore and hind wings of a Mexican honey wasp.

Tropical swallowtail wing.

Camponotus sayi. The compound eye of a carpenter ant.

Native bee (Andrena sp.) on coneflower.

Pseudomyrmex filiformis. Portrait of a queen twig ant.

Wild recently contributed an article to Scientific American‘s blog showing how he created a world class insect imaging system for less than $6,000. He uses a Canon 7D, some macro lens gear, some affordable lighting gear, and a few additional accessories (e.g. a motorized focus rail).

You can connect with this project through Flickr and Twitter. If you’d like to contribute, you can find the fundraising page over at UT’s Hornraiser site.

Korean camera gear company Samyang has announced a new Rokinon 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens. The manual focus lens provides life-size 1:1 magnification for macro photographs and can be used as a lens for portraits as well.

Features of the lens include a high refractive index element, an extra-low dispersion element, high quality multi-coating, a 1-foot minimum focusing distance, a front filter mount that doesn’t rotate during focusing, and a 9-blade diaphragm.

The lens will be available in Canon EF, Nikon F, Fujifilm X, Pentax K, Micro Four Thirds, Samsung NX, Sony A, and Sony E mounts. One extra feature found in the Nikon F version of the lens is a chip that can relay focus info, auto-exposure modes, and EXIF data from the lens to the camera.

The 100mm f/2.8 will be available starting at the end of April 2015 at the price of $549 — the same price that Samyang’s new 135mm f/2 lens is being sold at.

The short film above is a dazzling “macro symphony” showing some of the colorful and complicated ocean creatures found off the coast of Indonesia.

It was created by dive photographer Kay Burn Lim, who recently paid a visit to the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia with his Sony a7S, Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS L macro lens, a Nauticam housing, and a prototype port/focusing system for using the Canon lens in the housing.

“The port and focus gear for this setup are prototypes from Nauticam,” Lim tells us. “It will be officially announced on the 10th of April at the Asian Dive Expo ADEX in Singapore 10-12.”

The footage was recorded to the internal SD card at 1080p/30fps with manual focus without a monitor. Most of the creatures you see ranged in size from a grain of rice to 2 inches in length (with just a few larger creatures being the exceptions).

You can find more of Lim’s work on Flickr and on Vimeo.

Lensbaby has just added a new lens to its lens lineup. The Velvet 56 is a 56mm f/1.6 lens that can be used for super soft portrait shots or for macro images that highlight the details of little things.

The lens is a manual focus lens that features an all-metal body and a dampened focus ring. The lens is designed to mimic the “ethereal look and solid build of classic portrait lenses” from the mid-20th century. It delivers a soft, glowing look at larger apertures and sharper photographs when you stop down.

In addition to shooting portraits, the lens has a 1:2 magnification and a 5-inch minimum focusing distance for macro photography.

This video explains how the Velvet 56 is used:

Here are some sample photographs captured with the Lensbaby Velvet 56:

The Velvet 56 is available for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony A, and Pentax K mounts from the Lensbaby store for $500. That’s the black edition. If you’re willing to shell out an extra $100, you can spend $600 for the the Velvet 56 SE, which comes in silver for Canon EF and Nikon F cameras.

Just months after announcing a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens that has gotten glowing reviews, Chinese gear manufacturer is back with a new product called the KX800. It’s a flexible twin light for macro photography that boasts the world’s highest guide number.

Venus says the device has a guide number of 190 (feet at ISO 100) and has 8 different power levels you can choose from. The power can also be varied independently for the left and right flashes.

“The high output makes it extremely handy for macro photographers who shoot under small aperture and high magnification ratio,” Venus says.

The two arms on the KX800 measure 48cm (~19 inches) in length and can be positioned at various lengths and angles. As a whole, the kit weighs only 1 pound, making it a portable option for macro photographers on the go.

Other specs and features include a color temperature of 5600K, a flash duration of 1/200s to 1/20,000s, 100 full power firings on four AA batteries, 2 second recycle time and a dedicated LED focusing light for helping photographs achieve tack-sharp focus in darker environments.

Here are some sample macro photographs that were lit using the Venus KX800:

Venus says the device is compatible with Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Pentax, but it should work just fine on any camera with a hot shoe or PC port. It’s available from the Venus website for $279.

Flexible Macro Twin Flash KX800 [Venus via DPReview]

“Beauty in Blood” is an ongoing project by Denver-based artist Jen Lewis that consists of abstract macro photographs of Lewis’ own menstrual blood.

The project was born in 2012 after Lewis was encouraged by her doctor to switch from using tampons and pads to a menstrual cup.

“The cup is a much more ‘hands-on’ approach to menstruation management so my relationship with my body began changing immediately following the first use,” Lewis tells the Huffington Post. “One day, when I had some blood on my fingers after emptying my cup, I started to wonder about why society framed up menstruation as something disgusting.”

Lewis then teamed up with her husband, photographer Rob Lewis, to create a project that would celebrate the beauty of menstruation and “communicate that menstruation is nothing to be ashamed of or fear.”

Lewis serves as the “menstrual designer” for the project, pouring blood into different containers of water (e.g. toilets, aquariums) with various delivery systems (e.g. pipettes, bottles, turkey basters) in order to create different looks. Rob captured each pour using a Canon 5D Mark II with a 100mm f/2.8L macro lens.

“The images I capture force the viewer to think about menstruation in an entirely new way,” Lewis writes. “The Beauty in Blood project challenges the long-standing cultural taboo of women’s menstrual cycles by offering the viewer another perspective of period blood.”

You can see more photos from this project and follow along with it over on its website.

Image credits: Photographs by Jen Lewis/Rob Lewis/Beauty in Blood and used with permission

One of the most important aspects of fine art macro photography is capturing a non-distracting background so your subject stands out. I tend to like clean and colorful backgrounds, but there are situations where dark backgrounds may be desirable. This article will showcase one method of how to capture black backgrounds in macro photography. We’ll take a look at using flash falloff.

Inverse Square Law

Flash falloff is a product of the inverse square law, which states that a “specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity.”

This law explains many phenomena but it’s particularly helpful for photographers in explaining why we get dark or black backgrounds when our subject is set apart from its background.

To explain in simpler terms, each time you double the distance your light travels, the power is reduced by two stops (or 75%). When using flash as your primary light source, the farther your subject is from the nearest background object, the darker the background will appear.

This happens because the flash output is so fast (and the shutter is generally open for a short enough amount of time) that the light from the flash doesn’t have time to reach the background, bounce back, and enter the camera before the shutter closes.

Using Flash Falloff for Black Backgrounds

Take a look at the photo of the damselfly below. You’ll notice that the background is mostly dark with a vertical green ribbon in the center. That vertical green ribbon is some sort of grass or plant that was nearer to the camera than the rest of the background. The light output from the flash was able to reach that plant material and bounce back to the camera by the time the shutter closed. The rest of the background is completely dark because there was nothing close enough for light to bounce off of in the short amount of time that the shutter was open. The damselfly in the foreground is close enough to the camera that the flash output completely illuminates (and freezes) the insect.

The photo of the water lily below is similar to the damselfly in that the flash output was able to reach the lily, but nothing in the background. The lily is nicely illuminated by natural light which really makes it stand apart from the dark background.

Using Flash Falloff to Your Advantage

The photo below of a longlegged fly is one of my favorite photographs. The metallic eyes and abdomen of the fly paired with the mysterious black background make this photo look like a painting. I love the effect that flash falloff produced.

You can achieve this same effect by setting your subjects apart from the background. Keep in mind, however, when it comes to nature photography, some people may feel like this effect is unnatural. Many people have asked if I digitally manipulated the photo to achieve this effect (other than a minimal crop, the photo is original). Others have asked if I took this shot at night.

The reality is, I took this photo in broad daylight in my backyard. The nearest background was actually my ugly yellow garage. Fortunately, the fly was set far enough away from the garage that the flash “fell off” before producing a hideous light yellow background.

About the author: Danae Wolfe is a macro nature photographer residing in Northeast Ohio. Her primary artistic interests include shooting candid insect and botanical portraits. She recently launched Chasing Bugs, a new blog for photographers interested in shooting macro photos of insects in their natural habitats. This article originally appeared here.

The Chinese lens manufacturer Venus Optics made quite a splash back in January by announcing the new Venus 60mm f/2.8, the world’s first 2:1 macro lens with infinity focus. The lens has gotten some pretty positive reviews since then.

Now Venus is back with another groundbreaking lens. Today the company unveiled its new Laowa 15mm f/4 lens, the world’s widest 1:1 macro lens.

This new lens is the “first 1:1 macro lens with a 110° angle of view,” Venus says. It’s allows photographers to dip their toes in the world of wide angle macro photography without having to use specialized equipment.

Instead of having a field of view that’s limited to the miniature world, the Laowa 15mm f/4 lets photographers capture more context, showing the surroundings of their macro subjects.

The lens has a minimum working distance of 0.47cm, meaning the front element of the lens will be nearly touching your subject when shooting 1:1. Here are some official sample photos (note: none of this initial sample shots show 1:1):

“Photographers can focus very close to the subject and let the foreground dominates in the photo but at the same time, have the background telling viewers about where and how the subject lives,” Venus says.

The lens also doubles as an ultra-wide angle lens with infinity focus when used on full frame sensor cameras. At the back of the lens is a shift mechanism that allows adjustments of 6mm, allowing photographers to correct distortion for landscape and architecture photography.

Here’s a short sample video captured using Laowa 15mm f/4:

Other specs include 12 elements in 9 groups, a 14-blade aperture for smooth bokeh, a metal lens body, and a 77mm filter thread.

The Laowa 15mm f/4 will be available for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony A, Sony FE, and Pentax K mounts starting in July 2015 for a price of $479.

Venus Optics recently sent me an early pre-production copy of the new Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 wide angle macro, the world’s first ultra-wide angle macro lens capable of magnification up to 1:1. I have been dabbling with it in the past week to publish a first look for this one-of-its-kind lens.

Wide angle macro photography is a rarely explored genre of macro photography, largely due to the lack of readily available equipment or accessories to allow one to focus up close with a wide-angle lens. It is also a difficult beast to tame due to the short working distance. Composition and lighting can be very different from mainstream macro photography but once you get the hang of it, the resulting perspectives can be mind-blowing and very well worth it.

Test Photos

I took the lens out for a short morning walk, and managed a couple of keepers with good performance except for noticeable chromatic aberration. All photos are uncropped single exposures, tested on Nikon D800 with a SB400 Speedlite and a DIY flash diffuser unless stated otherwise. Filter and lens hood were removed during testing.

“Giant” Fungi. A low angled shot captures the background in its entirety, and the clarity of the background gives the impression of a giant mushroom (which were slightly less than 2 inches tall). Handheld, 1/50s, f/22, ISO500, single fill flash.

“Giant” Fungi. From an even lower angle, it gives the viewer the perspective of a bug under the mushrooms. Handheld, 1/50s, f/22, ISO500, single fill flash.

Snail with Marina Bay Sands in the background. Handheld, 1/10s, f/22, ISO800, single fill flash.

Ornamental tree trunk spider (Herennia sp.). Handheld, 1/25s, f/22, ISO800, single fill flash.

Katydid (Tettigoniidae). Handheld, 1/25s, f/22, ISO400, single fill flash.

Red tent spider (Cyrtophora unicolor). Handheld, 1/13s, f/32, ISO400, single fill flash.

Marina Bay Sands. Perspective correction with lens shift. Perspective correction with lens shifting is nothing new, but always welcome for architectural photography. A very nice bonus, given that any lens with the capability to shift will tend to cost a lot more than this one!

Singapore residential building. Perspective correction with lens shift. Another example of perspective correction shot from a high position.

Lens Build

Weighing at just 410g, this lens a small chunk of solid metal. It comes with a lens hood, but it would typically not be used when shooting close-ups.

The focusing ring is damped and smooth, but the aperture ring is not damped and smooth without stops.

The shift mechanism is not easy to adjust — there is no way to lock the shift at precise positions except at 0mm and the extremities. With enough practice, it should be easy to handle.

Performance

Image quality is excellent in the middle of the photo and deteriorates at the corners on a full frame sensor. The following tests were made by shooting a fine-grid paper (approximately 2.4 squares per mm) lighted from behind.

Image Quality and Diffraction

At 1:1, image quality is excellent in the center of the image. Diffraction is very well controlled, creeping in very slightly at f/22, and showing marked deterioration at f/32. f/16 and f/22 would be good aperture settings to use for the best image quality and most detail in the background.

Distortion

Distortion is apparent at close distances, but should be easily corrected in post-processing.

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration (CA) is not very obvious at non-macro focusing distances, but shows up distinctly when we get closer to the subject. CA is a common problem with wide angle lenses focusing at close distances and not unexpected. CA correction techniques are available in post-processing.

Conclusion

Pros
– Able to focus from 1:1 to infinity without extension tubes
– Excellent image quality
– Well controlled diffraction up to f/22
– Small and light for an ultra-wide angle
– Lens shift for subjects above eye level
– Affordable price

Cons

– No automatic aperture control
– Chromatic aberration at the corners
– Large lens diameter, challenging to approach and illuminate subjects
– Obvious barrel distortion

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 wide angle macro lens delivers well on its promise to photograph small subjects with a very wide depth of field. 1:1 is an unpractical magnification for wide-angle field work due to the short working distance of 4.7mm, but it gets more manageable at 1:2 and wider.

Being a manual lens, focusing at stopped down apertures becomes exceptionally challenging, but this is a problem faced by every other wide-angle macro solution out there and resolved with either live view or manually stopping down the aperture after focusing wide open.

Despite the limitations which are expected in any current wide-angle macro setup, this lens has surpassed my expectations and has earned a permanent spot in my camera bag.

The launch price of this lens is $479, inclusive of international shipping. This lens is available for pre-order now and should be ready to ship by end of July 2015. You can use the discount code SGMACRO to get a 5% discount when purchasing the lens from the Venus website.

About the author: Nicky Bay is a macro photographer based in Singapore. You can find more of his work and follow along with his adventures through his website and Flickr photostream. This article was also published here.

Last year, the mobile photography company Moment announced the release of two mobile lenses for smartphone devices: the 18mm wide angle and the 70mm telephoto. The company then followed up earlier this year by producing the ‘Moment Case’ for iPhone 6, which features a shutter button, lens mount, and camera strap. Now the company is back again by announcing a brand new macro lens.

The new macro lens from Moment features 10x magnification at a 25mm focal distance. Unlike most other attachable smartphone lenses, the Moment macro consists of multiple elements to increase sharpness and prevent distortion. Each lens also includes both high-end ED glass elements and multi-layer antireflection coatings.

Moment noted that they decided to make a macro lens because they “felt that no one had quite done it justice.” The company goes on to say that they were “frustrated by poor image quality and usability, so [they] set out to make the best possible macro lens for mobile photography.”

Here are a few sample photos captured with the lens:

Included with the macro lens is a custom diffuser hood that helps to balance and soften light during shooting. The Moment team will be manufacturing the glass, inner barrel, diffuser, and metal housing of the lens for ultimate quality control.

At this time, no pricing has been stated for the new macro lens, but the company’s existing two lenses sell for around $100 each, so we expect it to be within the same range. Moment notes that they hope to begin shipping this August. For more information and to keep up to date on the Moment macro lens, click here.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with the small and wondrous world of macro imaging, predominantly as a macro videographer, but also in the stills realm as of late.

One thing that is a constant in any form of creative imaging is the need to constantly update, modify and adapt the base equipment we are dealt when we make our already-expensive gear purchases. Recently, I’ve been focusing my attention on adapting photographic flash guns for macro photography.

My ‘go to’ lens for macro is the infamously difficult MP-E 65mm f/2.8 from Canon. It allows me to shoot at macro ratio 1:1 or go to a mind-bending 5:1 ratio (i.e. five times life size on the sensor). This range of difficulties presents a unique challenge: the massively differing needs for light levels and intensities at any of the potential magnifications of this lens.

A flash tends to be able to cater for the most part with these needs by having access to power settings. My personal preference when shooting off-camera flash for macro — natural light is an altogether different beast — is to use the flash in manual mode and then adjust the power setting depending on my needs.

My latest lighting project looks at trying to achieve better diffusion for macro imaging — more specifically for flowers and smaller, and not as much for skittish wildlife. I wanted to create a pretty radical lighting rig. I was able to quickly source the component parts from a local hardware store. One added piece of gear was a small kitchen funnel that the wife “donated” for the cause.

Ingredients
– One tupperware container, as square as possible.
– A cylindrical plastic container. This one was 3 liters
– A roll of white soft packaging sheeting for light diffusion
– Reflective materials to line the internal surfaces. In this case, a sun reflector for a car’s windscreen
– A roll of black gaffer tape
– A small kitchen funnel

I wanted to look at diffusing the light over a much larger area, so I went for a concave design to try and also avoid any potential hotspots. Using white packaging materials, I also looked at having the option of adjusting the amount of diffusion by simply removing layers as needed.

As I was using a tupperware container for this, I simply cut out the square opening equal to the size of the kitchen funnel’s widest end and then placed a membrane of initial diffusion over that.

The top of the tupperware container still remains easily disconnected in the standard way from the main body. After having removed the base of that compartment I then cut a 3 liter cylindrical container in half through the vertical plane. This way I had two half globes, one of which was to be used for the main face of the diffused panel. Since it was made from an opaque plastic, my first level of diffusion was taken care of.

Copious amounts of gaffer tape later and the initial design started to take shape.

One last tweak to the design was to take off the funnel and rotate it 90 degrees so that the concave ‘tunnel’ of the diffuser runs perpendicular to the lens of the flash when it is in its standard position allowed for much easier positioning and handling of flash and camera. Prior to this I had the flash oriented in such a way that is was superbly awkward and very much off balance. This new orientation helped shift the main body of the lash over the center of gravity — it’s much easier to handle.

As for testing I’ve only had one day to find out how it works. It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Yokohama, Japan, where I’m currently based but we had a small reprieve yesterday so I headed out, under heavy, threatening skies to baptize the system in my tiny garden.

Here are some sample photos taken with this homemade concave diffuser:

A crop of the above photo that offers a closer look.

Tests are ongoing but at the outset it looks like this is certainly a design option that requires very little adjustments.

About the author: Mark Thorpe is a photographer based in Yokohama, Japan, who goes by “The Pixel Hobo” online. You can find more of his work and writing on his website and blog. He also created a community on Google+ for macro photographers who use the MP-E 65mm.

Back in April, the Chinese camera gear maker Venus announced its new KX800 macro twin flash, which looks like an external flash unit with three tentacles bursting forth from the top.

Photographer Thomas Shahan, the “Bob Ross of bug shots,” got his hand on an early unit and just released this 6-minute hands-on review.

Shahan found that the flash is a powerful and flexible option for lighting, but you’ll probably need to come up with a good solution for diffusing your shots if you want to end up with a pleasing result that’s free from harsh shadows. Shahan’s personal solution was to place a piece of tracing paper between the flash heads and his subjects.

Here are some macro shots he was able to capture while using the Venus KX800 for illumination:

“I really like this twin flash system,” Shahan concludes. “The flash recycle time is quick. The arms have been holding their position. It consitently fires. It just behaves the way I would like it to.”

“It sounds a little goofy, but it’s opened up a whole new era of macro photography lighting for me. I’m really excited to continue using it in the future.”

The Venus KX800 is available for $279 through the Venus online store.

Finnish fine art photographer Joni Niemelä loves capturing and sharing little details in nature that often get unnoticed. One of his recent subjects has been the Drosera, also known as sundews, which are among the largest of all carnivorous plants.

The plants are covered with drops of dew-like liquid that are used to lure, capture, and digest insects that happen to wander by, and Niemelä decided to make these beautiful structures the subject of two recent projects, titled Otherworldly Blues and Drosera.

Niemelä tells Colossal that he has always been fascinated by sundews, and that he has been shooting the “alien-like” plants for several years now. Here’s a selection of photos from the two recent series:

You can find more of Niemelä’s photography on his website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Image credits: Photographs by Joni Niemelä and used with permission

Wedding photographer Paul Keppel created this helpful 3-minute video tutorial on how he goes about shooting consistent wedding ring photos using a cheap LED light and a macro lens.

Keppel says he struggled to get consistent shots of rings until he started using the Yonynuo 160II LED light, which costs less than $60 online.

The trick he discovered was placing the LED light on its barn doors with the lights facing straight down at the rings, thereby creating a mini makeshift light tent.

You’ll want to set the rings on a shiny black surface if you can find one. Keppel has used things such as toasters, trash can lids, glass cooking surfaces, and TV stands.

Here are some ring photographs Keppel has made using this technique:

The technique is by no means limited to wedding rings: you can photograph all kinds of jewelry and small objects using this makeshift light tent:

If you’re interested in adding this idea to your arsenal as a way to shoot well-lit photos of small objects on-the-go, you might want to think about picking up a similar LED light yourself.

You can find more of Keppel’s photos and writing on his website and blog.

(via Paul Keppel via SLR Lounge)

Image credits: Video and photographs by Paul Keppel and used with permission

Olloclip is a company that may need no introduction for many of you after their quick change lens system for the iPhone took Kickstarter by storm in 2011. Since then, the company has been kicking out a number of exciting and creative products for mobile phone shooters. The latest photographic toolset to emerge from Olloclip’s lab is the new Macro Pro Lens for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The latest macro set from Olloclip includes three different lenses that each feature six element optics, allowing you to achieve a zoom of either 7x, 14x, or 21x. According to Olloclip, the newly designed lenses allow “edge-to-edge clarity instantly and easily” and “crisp close-up photos with a greater depth of field and less pincushion distortion.”

The Macro 7x is described as an excellent “detailed-oriented” lens, while the Macro 14x allows photographers to “see beyond the naked eye and photograph down to a thread.” As for the almighty Macro 21x lens, it can help to quickly convert your iPhone’s lens into a “digital microscope or loupe.”

The new lens set includes Olloclip’s InstaFocus hood that contributes to collecting light and diffusing it upon your subject. The Macro Pro lens set can be used within “all of your favorite photo and video apps” – there is no limitation to what you can do. As with all other Olloclip products, the lens snaps easily onto your device, so you don’t have to worry about losing it during the day.

The Macro Pro Lens for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus can be ordered for $70 from the Olloclip website.

(via Olloclip via SlashGear)

Here’s a new video review by Thomas Shahan, the “Bob Ross of bug shots,” of the new Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 wide angle macro lens.

There are a number of interesting features in this manual-focus lens, including a buit-in shift mechanism and a crazy close 4.7mm working distance — you can position your lens just millimeters away from your subject.

This is how close you can get:

Here are some other sample photos captured by Shahan with the the Laowa 15mm f/4 (you can find more in this Flickr album):

“The Laowa 15mm wide angle macro lens is not an easy lens to use — in fact, it’s really, really difficult to use,” Shahan concludes. “That said, this lens is capable of creating very, very unique images of exceptional quality that currently no other lens on the market can create. And for that reason alone, I think it’s really, really cool.”

You can purchase the Venus Laowa 15mm f/4 for $479 for Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Pentax. Here’s the page on the Venus website.