Summer Fungi Collection with the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO Lens

Nice images , did you focus stack?

Focusing rail is your friend.

I just purchased this lens, im looking forward to exploring, thank you for your video

Time to offer you some advice Courtney... it should cure you of your central autofocitis! After some 40+ years of photography and teaching it for many years at one point, one of the things which has fascinated me is how accurately the human being can place an object smack bang in the middle of the frame (ignoring the time honoured rule of thirds). The thing is, before the advent of mirrorless and true on-sensor focusing across the whole sensor, it was always simpler to just focus using the central focusing point and recompose. This is easy enough with general subjects but not that easy with macro photography as your plain-of-focus shifts too much for this technique. So either manual focus is the way to go or crop later after focusing centrally and not moving the camera pre-exposure. You tend to have a little bit of the central autofocitis syndrome in your photos. E.g., that absolutely gorgeous shot where the tree (right of image) was getting in the way a bit - you cropped this out and that was good to avoid the distraction, but (for me this is!) if you had just placed the mushroom upper left with the crown of the mushroom smack on the upper-left intersection of rule of thirds, then I may be able to sleep at night again. It would have meant cropping a bit more off the left of course. I am assuming here that you would have introduced even more background distraction into your image or you would have not had a decent composition if you had moved an inch or two further to the right in-camera btw - thereby mucking up your whole image?
Oh... almost forgot... the advice - buy a Z8 or maybe even the Zf if you can stand the drop in resolution! The focus systems cure central autofocitis...
Lovely videos you make though. Many thanks

Beautiful location

Love your videos Courtney! I was wondering about the LED light you are using...what brand or model? Thanks and cheers from Canada!

I just found your channel and now I’m super intrigued by Macro photography. Just trying to decide what lens to get - Sony or Nikon or Laowa

Nice video, thanks! Impressive confidence to camera 👏👏 If you don’t already, I’d strongly suggest you checkout Ross Hoddinott who is my favourite macro photographer...

Me encantan tus videos. ¿puedes decirme, que luz usas? Sigue con esos videos tan magnificos. Mil gracias.

Okay, so, I wasn’t going to comment it but then you said, “reminds me of a witch’s hat” so, yeah… I like watching your videos because it feels like a professor from Hogwarts is teaching me. 😂

Do you have a video that explains how you shoot focus stacks in the field????

It really is the little things 😀 i like manual . My d850s are permanently in manual mode , my lenses are all switched off , hell i still use my sekonic L758 meter (trust issues ?) I dont know , love your content

Nice video, it’s an excellent lens. However it does suffer from a lot of focused breathing so if you stacking a lot of images together you will get big time halos which you can’t fix in postprocessing so away van that is a focus rail all if you don’t want that expense use your aperturing start off at 2.8 and work your way through to F-16 and stack them togetherworks really well you should give it a go. Excellent video always good to see you.🎉❤

I always like your explanations and the way you moderate the motifs. Thank you for taking it with you and the pictures. Best regards

First time watching your videos and must say you are a natural, big thumbs up from me and now you have another subscriber, looking forward to catching up and further new videos.

try tie om system 90mm macro I tis supposed to be good

Me encanta el trabajo y el recorrido que haces. Yo recién compre el laowa 58mm macro para el trabajo, pero no he tenido oportunidad de salir a buscar este tipo de fotografías, pero te veo y me emociono. Simplemente ya me enamore. Saludos desde México.

@Courtney Vitoria What happens if we attach a Raynox dcr-250 on this lens??! what would be the magnification and what would be the working distance?

what a likeable and pretty young woman. really great video. I also love macrophotography, so I immediately subscribed to your channel. Best regards.

❤Love

I've just discovered you today... this was such an informative video for someone thinking of getting into macro photography (me :P ) .. love your production quality , your eye for setting the scene , b-roll and your overall demeanour. very relaxing.. deffo subscribing

Very nice and relaxing, but also super informative!

awesome presentation

Any GREAT video Courtney. Great job.. and the wonderful opportunity to be so close to a beautifully lush forest.

Great vid, you could have put a stop filter on to block out the background then just eliminate the witches hat mushroom with a lead light or strobe, I use this technique a bit or I use high speed sync to do the same thing.

I have the same lens! It was the first lens I ever bought, along with my first dslr about a year ago. I absolutely love it and have taken a ton of great photos with it.

I love you Courtney! <3

Great wonderful beautiful. But as I see it... not all the time light for one thing is added that was never there.

Please read it all to make sense of my notes .I have the Nikon z 105 . However I have found it slow and difficult to foucs with on some insects this is something Nikon is aware of. Flowers in the wind are not much easier to get in Foucs either. .The z 105 can be out classed by the Samsung 135 ,1.8 latest version for bees and flowers hit rate wise. So basically I am looking not to get rid off my z105 but add another lens to my Marco lens kit and slove my problem that way. Hand foucsing is a skill . May be, because into days world we can now consider this tip along with loads of other options ( which we may have available with z FX cameras.) I can become very single minded when using the 105 z so much so that (I could not see the wood for the trees.) then I released I was missing the obvious, FX is great format but , I also am able to switch to DX and add crop that way in camera to frame my shoot (with the z 7 ii or z 8 ) multiple choices for different sized frame setting . If your camera as the same multiple settings consider this tip. The mussroom is not going to sway in the wind or walk away so do this quick check with the framing by just .... checking the shot in DX mode and 2. All those other frame size choices available.(To avoid the tree) I also like the led light work you did. Try using a filter on the led light yellow works well .I am old school regarding light room, it's a great tool I do use it but in a very limited way. When crafting a photo I spend time when possible framing before I press the shutter. So the different crop sizes can be done before you click the shutter. The advantage is simple you have a full frame shot what ever crop you make it can be done by switching camera mode frame size. fill the screen . I have become to see how some people who believe they are great photographers are really great at Photoshop and lightroom plus mass attempts with multiple shooting When I firsts started taking photos I had to load a film in to the camera. wait for my prints to be processed I have only 24 or 36 on a real of film. The film had choices of either 400 iso or 100 iso . The luxury of shutting and checking you picture there and then back then was not available. To day I dought many photographs on youtude would be so interesting to watch if they had old school limits . So we are all lucky science as made life easier. The camera is a machine we are not .the camera won't tell us to try DX mode if the camera is FX . Photo shop is not what makes a photograph great it's the opperater of a camera . You did great with this video, hope my tip helps. Remember if you learn as you are doing to find the picture and then later the picture within the picture your skills will keep you interested and what's more make in you interesting . All the best you have a great skill already .thanks for sharing .

Same experience... wonderfull goddess of photography .. very inspiring and with a easy way to look at some quite Challenging photo tasks

Simply wonderful location and all the small mushrooms and fungi makes for a great days shooting.

Lovely video. I'm actually a Sony user but I just wondered if you use a Focus Peaking setting when using a manual lens like this one?

I just sold this lens for the Canon RF 100mm. It blew me away with how sharp it was and how solid the build was. Really fantastic lens, and really great review!

I would like to find a woman with this kind of personality one day

What a tripod you are using?

Thanks for your videos. I’m wondering why you use an LED light instead of flash

Courtney, where were you located in this video?

Using a full camera cage would let you shoot mounted to the inverted center post (I have the same tripod) but still have you camera right side up. Much easier to access all of the camera's controls.

Super ☺

I was here for a lens opinion and ended up falling in love…. You inner beauty makes your outer beauty shine even brighter…

Can you detail your tripod setup? Great video, looking forward to seeing more.

what a cool video and cool lady ... funny how people get connected via gear .. I was originally searching D850 landscape photography .. Instant fan of yours .. me personally I am using D850 and as a secondary body (which I use more than D850 :D .. LOL) I use D7200 (+kit lens 18-140 + Tokina 11-20) which is awesome camera if you do a lot of hiking, mountaineering and munro bagging .. shall great light follow you

How a beautiful girl and photo

Thanks for the video!
Can you share what is the LED lighting you are using in the video?

Aw yeah! My passion for fungi is actually why I'm looking to upgrade from my camera phone.

Good job, Courtney. The Laowa looks pretty sharp. Occasionally I'll think I should shoot more macro. But, alas, I never do. ☹

Just out of curiosity, where did you get the light panel from?

Great work Courtney!!! What brand of LED light did you use? I went to your web page and looked at your gear section but it wasn’t listed. I like the size of it.