An awesome shot! It looks carved. That is one OLD carrot!
I assume you are entering it in =macro-club's "Wrinkled Fruit & Vegetable" competition? Of course, I'd rather you didn't, because then the rest of us would stand a MUCH better chance

You are the only other bellows user I have come across on dA - are there others?

Grant H

I love this comment !

Is it THAT obvious that Im going for the Wrinkled fruit and veg competition ? LOL. Have you entered?

I am just going thru and uploading some of the work I think maybe worthy - maybe get some feedback on which is better to enter (Im terrible as deciding).

I am new to using the bellows - only got em a couple of weeks ago. They are manual ones so the whole setup has to be moved about to get it in focus. I am not sure if there is any one else - might be fun to find out. What bellows do you have ?

Thanx so much for taking time to comment - made my day !

Well, I guess everyone has to upload their images...
I'm still in the process of joining the club, but yes, I too will be submitting a carrot. Mine is much younger than yours, but not as beautiful, I fear.

My bellows are ancient Minolta - I got them when I was at school in the '80's . TOTALLY manual - use my old prime 1.7 50mm, and yes, jiggle around to get them in focus. It works fine at my desk. I have an old 35-85 zoom, which can make focusing easier outside (change the focal length to get focus!). At least with a DSLR, you get instant feedback. Back then it was an hour at best to see if you had got it right! And ISO1600 is great to do handheld macro work!

Good luck!

Please send me the link to yours when you have posted it - Id very much like to see it !

How were you lucky enough to get a set at school? I went cheap and got a set from China thru ebay - not bad thou. I was told to use a prime lens other then a zoom - the better glasswork (or the lack or more complicated zoom glasswork) helps to produce a better image apprently.

I did do some film work when I was at college and it was fun but annoying waiting for processing (even thou I really enjoyed developing it myself). I had a whole reel not go thru and was upset at the time.

1600 hey - whoops, did mine in 200 Needless to say 10second shots as a result of that prove harder to control !

Mmm, the story of my bellows...
I saved up for about a year, and bought the cheapest bellows I could find in Jo'burg then.

I used to buy film in bulk (30m at a time), and the roll off just enough for each shoot - anything from 5 to 36 shots on a roll. Had a darkroom at home, and access at school.

ito the lenses, indeed, I think the primes are cleaner, but a picture actually taken (with available/ workable kit) always beats the picture not taken (with better kit)!
The bulgy carrot was taken with the prime, the chopped with the zoom. (If I'm not too confused!) Both show fringing, which is from the MD-MA converter on the other side of the bellows, I think (U$10 from Shanghai). I shudder to think what bellows would cost now!



My potential entries:

[link]

[link]

They were taken in reasonable sunlight, so I was running at 400, but I was shooting at better than 1/60th. Typically stopped down to f11 - f22. Supported, but handheld

I envy you your dark room !

Sounds like you have spent a lot of time testing them bellows. I still need to get used to using mine. I had trouble with the portrait shots I took as the rails of the bellows wanted to get closer to the veg then it actually could and more then once knocked the whole lot over :S

I think you can defo see the fringing more on the zoom rather then the prime shot - thanx for sharing that, helps with me learning seeing the difference by someone who has had a lot more experience then me.

I was lucky - got my bellows for £30 - so really really cheap. Id love a set of PB-6's (watching a few on ebay).

I really like to push my camera - hence using ISO 200 and 10second shots - I want as much detail as I can get !

Im terrible at deciding which to post but I think the quality of Bulgy carrot is best, I'd be tempted to go with that.

Do you use photoshop to touch anything up ? I have a 'fiter' method that really pushes detail out of a picture if your interested?

Still got to decide on mine :S

Darkrooms are smelly, time-consuming, anti-social places that are hard to keep dark. It is MUCH more fun to sit in front of my PC with GIMP, and do in 15 minutes what would have taken three to four hours, cost a months pocket money, and come out not quite as well.

You (used to) get fancier bellows where you could rack both body & lens along the track, but these were expensive. I have little marks on my desk from resting the rack on the wood, and angling the whole lot to get the focus. You get tripods that can 'lean' over - they are cool for macro, but are clumsy. I much prefer handheld. I'm happy with a picture that's sharp on the screen/ A4. If I ever sell an A4 print, and have any demand for bigger, I solve the problem then!

And I love GIMP. Cost effectiveness can't be beaten, and it has some great tools. I tend to play with the colour curves directly (can do everything with the right shape curve). It also has an awesome unsharp-mask tool that I use (with care - too much can make a pic look weird!)

And now I have 2 votes for the bulgy carrot! Maybe that's gonna be my entry!

Good luck with your entries. Send me a link or two, and I'll toss in my R0,02!