Macro photography of blades

[MJS]

Hi all,

 

Curious about your thoughts if 1-2x macro images would add interesting aspects to the photographic documention of a blade. I don’t think I’ve seen it used very much so I have my doubts here. But the quality of modern macro lenses (like the 90mm OM System) is so fantastic, that thought I’d ask anyway. 
Any thoughts are welcome, and in particular good examples of super macro sword photography. 

 

Cheers Mark

[oli]

Hi, 

 

no experience with supermacro, i have a 40mm Nikon objective. But i still playing around and testing.

 

Regards

Oli

[oli]

another shoot:

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

If I'm not mistaken Macro photography is used in part for the excellent Unique Japan catalogues.

 

https://new.uniquejapan.com/currently-available-swords-at-unique-Japan/

[Nobody]

Matsukawa-hada of Bishu Osafune Kiyomitsu

(Using LUMIX G MACRO 30mm)

 

[francois2605]

3 different pictures shot with a Canon EF F/1.8 - 100mm macro lens.

 

 

 

 

Mark, using a macro lens is IMO a must-have if you want to properly capture the activity of a sword. You'll see things you can't see with your own eyes

[Brian]

What a stunning tanto Koichi! Wow.

[Brano]

A macro lens is a necessity for another reason as well
A normal lens has too long a minimum focusing distance
Thanks to the macro lens, you are able to take sharp photos from a significantly smaller distance
I mainly use macro lens Sigma 180mm and 70mm
The disadvantage of a macro lens is a very small depth of field at lower apertures
From my personal experience, I need to shoot at F9 and more when shooting vertically or F14 and more when shooting at an angle

[MJS]

Some really great examples here, many thanks! Turns out that a lot of people are using macro lenses already, I had no idea.

 

There are some lenses, among which the OM System 90mm macro, which can enlarge by insane amounts. Microscope-like. See, for example, a picture of an iphone 14 screen on Ken Rockwell's site (https://www.kenrockw...es/OM1D1663-crop.jpg on this web page: https://www.kenrockw...f35.htm#sampleimages). Would a such a huge magnification of 1-2x bring out activity that you would otherwise miss?

 

Regardless, time to go shopping. 

 

[francois2605]

Mark, you probably already know it if you're into macro-photography: you can greatly boost the magnifying factor of your macro-lens by using those tubes between your lens and the camera body.

 

 

Example below from this webpage: https://www.canon.fr...ens-extension-tubes/

 

 

[Jacques D.]

About macro, this is all I can do

[Rivkin]

One can use a handheld camera-microscope this days for even higher magnification.. its fun, but as a learning instrument its not particularly rewarding. 

The issue is that most information is contained not in some secret structure, but in how the steel reacts to light at different angles.

For example, if the appearance does not change much its a very strong argument its not koto.

If one does photography for a long time one learns there are 5-6 angles one needs to always check, and Muromachi blades will generally react differently than, for example, Kamakura. And one is going to see additional richness in the structure.

 

With super-high magnification its very difficult to do that.

Here is "macro" shot, but the trick was to position the light source just right. Lens etc was strictly a secondary importance.

BTW hada here is a strong kantei point which in principle allows you to identify the maker.