Blog Of Rick Pepper

Taking impromptu photos of indoor still life can be accomplished with the help of makeshift mounts or stabilization. Wide angle lenses or adapters can offer more framing options as well. In this first example, I used the Opteka .45x wide angle adapter (on an Olympus C-8080) and pressed the face of it up against the glass of the display case. This allowed me to get enough depth of field to get good results (by making shutter speed less of a concern). The tricky part of this is getting the correct angle to compose the image when the angle is restricted by the plane you’re anchored against.

Maritime Museum Display

Another Museum Display

Here’s one where I just set the camera on the table – exposure time over 3 seconds! Helps to shoot in RAW mode as well (yes, I’m one of them).

Table Centerpiece

Star Wars display at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Canon Rebel XTi/Sigma 18-50 f2.8. The Sigma 10-20mm would have been nice for this one.

Millenium Falcon Model - 20mm (32mm w/CF), f8 1/10 sec

R2D2 - 31mm (50mm w/CF), f10 1/8 sec

Star Destroyer Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f22 1/2 sec

TIE Fighter Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f22 1.3 secs

TIE Fighter Wing Detail - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f8 1.3 secs

Remote Model - 18mm (29mm w/CF), f8 1/8 sec

When your choices for a fisheye lens are cost-prohibitive (this lens would be nice), re-purposing a point-and-shoot becomes an attractive option. The Opteka .45x wide-angle adapter saves the day.

Below, Sigma 10mm fisheye for Canon SLR $699, Opteka .45x wide-angle adapter $29 (for Olympus C-8080, search for your particular camera model – there are numerous models supported) and a couple sample images taken with the Olympus/Opteka combo. On the cropped Canon body the Sigma comes out to 16mm actual focal length, the Olympus with 28mm x .45 comes to 12.6 (call it 13) mm. Also, don’t overlook the macro capability, this adapter allows some VERY close focusing. See below images for the caveat.

Sigma 10mm Fisheye

Opteka .45x Wide-angle Adapter (For Olympus C-8080)

Duluth Lift Bridge

Duluth Lift Bridge

Duluth Harbor From Enger Tower Park

One limitation of this adapter, at least on my C-8080, is that when using it at full wide angle (which is where you want to use it 99.9999% of the time), the image sensor sees the edges of the adapter, making cropping or extreme vignetting necessary. Do note though that the above image is cropped to 3:2 aspect, whereas the following images are the native 4:3. There is also some significant chromatic aberration added. I use these settings in Lightroom to compensate:

Chromatic Aberration Adjustment in Lightroom

Uncropped Wide Angle Image

Using vignetting to hide the adapter edges

Centerpiece Close-Up

The Daaaawwwwg

I saw an image on the web today that gave me the idea to use this very short tripod I have, try about 3 inches tall, to place my camera places I can’t get, or capture unusual angles.

Rocks

While on walk-about I spotted this little guy.

Amazing things can happen when your kids get a hold of the camera.