Macro Without A Macro Lens; Using The Fuji 55-200mm Lens As A Macro Lens

Fuji X-T1 w/55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens and Nikon 6T dual element achromatic filter attached;
1/6th sec. @ f/16; ISO 200; Provia simulation; 11 JPEG images stacked in Helicon Focus, yes JPEGs! (click to enlarge)

I was outside the other day and noticed my next door neighbor had some flowers blooming.  Pretty purple flowers, three petals and yellow stamens with long, slender green leaves, similar to those on a daylilly. After researching a bit, these appear to be Bracted Spiderworts.  If I'm in error, someone please correct me.

In any case, since it was a very overcast day with no shadows, I grabbed one of my tripods and my X-T1 and attached the 55-200mm lens.  I then screwed the Nikon 6T dual element achromatic close up filter onto the end of the lens and set out to make a few images.

I made several images with different compositions.  Even at f/16 I thought the depth of field would be minimal so I decided to try my luck at focus stacking.  I carefully manually focused on the near edge of the closest petal, then made a series of images, 11 total, with each focused a bit farther back.  Again, this was all guesswork.  I had never really experimented with focus stacking.

I then exported the 11 images from Lightroom to Helicon Focus to see what it could do.  I have never used the software before so I let used it at its default settings.  After looking at the resulting stacked image, I thought it did very well, capturing almost all of the detail in sharp focus as well as rendering the detail clearly.  At 100% I did see some minute areas where detail was smeared a bit.  I don't know if that is normal or that can be rendered better.  I'll have to dig into the software and learn more about it to find out. However, looking at the overall image, I was very pleased.

To further experiment, I decided to process the same 11 images, this time the JPEG versions (I was shooting RAW + JPEG), exactly the same way.  Surprise!  The JPEGS actually look better!  The are sharper and more detailed.  Another plus for Fuji's JPEG in-camera JPEG engine.

All in all, I was pleased at the sharpness of the image and totally surprised the JPEGS looked better than the stacked RAW images.  This little success makes me want to experiment more and do some more macro work with and without focus stacking.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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