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Challenge: Puzzle Macro VI (Standard Editing)
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: Canon EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6 III
Location: A dustbin
Date: Feb 7, 2017
Aperture: 16.0
ISO: 1250
Shutter: 1/100
Galleries: Abstract, Macro
Date Uploaded: Feb 12, 2017

 A hand-held focus stack with a home-converted true macro lens. The interior of a fairly new Macbook Pro. I'll leave commentary on the ventilation design quality of Apple products aside in this instance, and instead talk about the shot.

I mentioned that this is a photo with a home-converted lens - a bit of an experiment. An interesting trick that you can carry out with the otherwise fairly useless 35-80mm 90s plastic zoom is that by removing the front element group altogether, you can convert it to a fairly capable fixed focus macro lens. Well - although you've removed the front group which is the only part that moves to focus this lens, it's not really fixed focus, as you can still use the former zoom as a sort of magnification control. At its best, at 80mm, it provides a fairly formidable 1.7x magnification with a subject distance of around 30mm - not to be scoffed at, considering you can grab one of these otherwise crappy zooms for about £30 on ebay, and suddenly end up with a reasonable competitor to the far more expensive Canon MP-E 65mm.

At such magnifications, of course you need a lot of light and a small aperture; however, this was a snapshot taken while cleaning a business laptop, and I didn't really have time to set up the lights and a tripod - hence the fairly high ISO, as the light was an LED torch placed close to the board to project strong shadows. As mentioned earlier, this was a hand-held shot - in fact a focus stack of two images from a consecutive burst, to maximise the depth of field. I'm not entirely happy with the level of sharpness here, but I'm not sure there was much more I could do. Although I could have gone smaller than f/16, I would have started to lose more sharpness due to diffraction - and this jerry-rigged DIY lens has a rather curved field of focus anyway, so there are diminishing returns to be had in the depth of field department, anyway.

Editing: Curves to bring up the blues in the shadows and midtones and the gold in the highlights. Selective hue and saturation adjustments. Wavelet decompose, and suppression of large detail scales selectively on the surfaces of the board components. Clone of distracting details near the edges of the frame. Resize, and selective sharpen.

Statistics
Place: 50 out of 72
Avg (all users): 5.2564
Avg (commenters): 5.6667
Avg (participants): 5.1190
Avg (non-participants): 5.4167
Views since voting: 851
Views during voting: 143
Votes: 78
Comments: 19
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
Sony Alpha a1 II
Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS
 02/20/2017 07:35:58 AM
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that fulfils the challenge brief

You do use some interesting optics Eugene, or in this case, bog standard optics made more interesting. Its an interesting concept that has come out reasonably well considering it was a quick hand-held two exposure blend. You will be the first to recognise its shortcomings but the one that spoils it most for me are the blown highlights from the harsh lighting. Having said that thanks for another interesting entry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Lens
 02/19/2017 11:58:42 PM
that's one bad mutherboard
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7000
Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR
 02/18/2017 01:09:59 AM
Lots of dirt and fluff adhering to a dirty, fluff covered thing. (Seriously, no idea what the thing is.)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-40D
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
 02/17/2017 11:10:07 PM
A computer built by mildew to reverse engineer Lysol.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS R5 Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 02/17/2017 10:08:40 AM
too many bugs prevented this from fulfilling its promise
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D500
Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
 02/16/2017 12:19:15 AM
PWA, slightly abused
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 III
 02/15/2017 05:51:25 PM
Fabric
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/15/2017 08:16:54 AM
A dusty computer part.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7100
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 02/14/2017 08:48:21 PM
old moldy motherboard
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS Rebel T6s
Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
 02/14/2017 06:39:55 PM
dirty circuit board
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 02/14/2017 10:40:11 AM
Dust on some electronic circuitry. Bit blown out on the left, though.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D4
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
 02/14/2017 07:58:40 AM
did u drag an old Circuit Board on carpet?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 02/14/2017 04:48:51 AM
An abandoned circuit board taken over by nanobot squatters.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-80D
 02/14/2017 12:39:48 AM
Someone needs to dust.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Samsung Galaxy S25, S25+, S25 Ultra
Panasonic Lumix G 14mm F2.5 ASPH
02/14/2017 12:14:52 AM
something great! USA

a molden chipset
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7100
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 02/13/2017 08:52:41 PM
mouldering motherboard?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D Mark II
Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
02/13/2017 02:13:44 PM
Dusty transistor wasteland
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D3200
Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
 02/13/2017 10:17:01 AM
Dust on an electronic PCB?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS R6
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM
 02/13/2017 10:07:18 AM
Is this a really dusty circuit board?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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