I need help with macro photography

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Permalink Reply by Sherry Webb on September 2, 2010 at 9:15am

What a great question, I too am very interested in how some photographers achieve the perfect fly or wasp shot were you can see the red color of the eye and almost like a grid design on the eyes.

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 4, 2010 at 4:39am

Hi, I received some really great tips, and info.
Maybe this can help you out too.

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Permalink Reply by Fred on September 2, 2010 at 9:54am

There are lots of different ways of carry this out but it depends on what you are taking pictures of.
I normally have the camera on A mode and manually focus, to get the effect that you want.
If you look at you lens, there should be a setting on there that has 1:1 on the distance scale. This is what you should try and use for still life as it will reproduce a picture in full size. Now when I use this indoors I use a I use a geared ball head to hold the camera ( http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-manfrotto-405-pro-geared-head/p... ) It is well worth the money.

Outdoors I tend to use a monopod or hand hold and sometimes a tripod. I will only use a tripod for flowers if there is no wind or I have to take a lot more equipment to stop the wind from blowing the flowers around.
I am not usually concerned with 1:1 on flowers.
Insects I really hand hold and open the lens to at least f/16 or f/22 or f/32, what I make sure is that my shutter speed is at least 1/250, so the ISO may be turned up or I may use flash to freeze the action.

What you have to realize is with a macro lens and the closeness to the subject you have only a small window that is in focus, sometimes only a few mm you have to make sure you want the picture you are seeing.
To give you an idea of focus distance go to this site ( http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html ) and see how much will be in focus.
I an sure others can add to this later to give you more ideas

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 4, 2010 at 4:35am

Thank you very much for responding, and the links. This helps me a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Manuel Pacheco on September 2, 2010 at 12:48pm

Hi Vee:
I´m macro-amateur but I can tell you this: as much as I can, I use manual focus and a monopod. You can help your vision attaching those eyepieces that magnifiy what you see through the viewfinder. If I am in control of the situation I have time to set mi tripod and the correct lens and mesure the distance to the object and so on, but if you´re talking about free flowers and insects try to deep breathing, hold thight your camera and use AF. I also switch between AF and MF any time, you will shoot hundreds of pics and maybe only one or two are excelent, so don´t miss the opportunity.

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 4, 2010 at 4:28am

Thanks so much for responding, I will have to start taking many more pictures.

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on September 2, 2010 at 3:49pm

You will get the largest image when the object is at the closest focusing distance of the lens. Typically AF will not focus that close so you will need MF.

Aperture and shutter speed can be set using any of the camera's modes.

When focusing at the minimum distance the depth of field is very thin so best results will be achieved with an inanimate subject, the camera mounted on a tripod and moving the camera to adjust where the depth of field falls. I just move the tripod. If you are going to do a lot of macro work, you can get a set of rails that go on the tripod and the camera is moved by turning knobs on the rails. This provides very precise camera movement.

Most flowers are larger than your sensor so photos of them would be close up, not macro. Photos of small creatures may be close up or macro. 60 mm is too short for macro shots of most creatures that are at large. For wasps, bees and spiders I prefer to be farther away so rather than using a macro lens, I use a regular zoom lens and a 2X converter or extension tubes, or both. If I am just walking around and find a subject I will use the 18 - 250 that I have with me, at the 250 end. If I am going out purposely to take bugs, I will take a 100 - 400 lens instead.

Bees in flight need a high shutter speed so you need a lot of light, sometimes I use direct sun and other times I use a flash. Either way only one or two percent of photos make the cut. I hand hold the camera for most insect shots because the subjects are in almost constant motion. If I have enough light I use AF.

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 4, 2010 at 4:21am

Than you very much for the information.

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Permalink Reply by Jeditutor on September 4, 2010 at 4:59am

Use a Tripod and have patience. What camera do you have?

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 4, 2010 at 11:06am

I'm using the Canon xsi 450D Rebel.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Jennings on September 5, 2010 at 9:14am

Vee, I use an EF-S 60mm on my Canon 40D for my macro shots - see my photos. I use the centre point on AF, f22 and I increase ISO to get the TV I need.

I have a Sigma 70-300mm lens with macro and I've tried using it with a tripod and live view but I get better results by creeping up with my Canon 60mm. It's a better quality lens.

You need to experiment to see what works best for you.

Colin

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 5, 2010 at 10:01am

Thank you so much for responding, and the for the advice.

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