Hand held focusing at 5:1 magnification (Video)

[GardenersHelper]

In this thread Andrew, @lightshipman suggested that I must have very steady hands to have captured the photos in that thread hand held. I replied to Andrew in that thread explaining that I didn't think I had particularly steady hands, and giving some possible reasons why I can work beyond 1:1 hand held despite not having steady hands. Since then I've been thinking about the steady hands issue and it strikes me that there are probably people being put off working beyond 1:1 because they don't think their hands are steady enough, when in fact they are.

I decided to make a little video showing just how unsteady my hands are, with the aim of encouraging others that if I can do it, so can they. The video is here at Flickr.

 

[lightshipman]

Hi Nick,
nicely shot video, but I for one do find taking close ups without a tripod or monopod hit and miss.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Hi Nick,
nicely shot video, but I for one do find taking close ups without a tripod or monopod hit and miss.

Yes, me too.

For several years I have used a tripod most of the time to provide better control over composition and focusing, mainly using a "hands-on" tripod technique rather than the classic "hands-off" technique, where you line up the shot, give the camera time to settle and then use a remote release. That only works for me in completely, or almost completely still air. I use it when I can, but that isn't often.

It's only in the past few days that I have been working mainly hand held. I'm still in the stage of discovering its limits, and what circumstances are best for hand-held and what for using a tripod. And with hand-held I'm starting to recognise which type of shots are best using manual focus and which using autofocus.

I'm hoping that hand-held will become less hit and miss with practice. Like everything else, I would expect it to improve with practice, and indeed I think it's already happening somewhat. How far it goes though remains to be seen. I have to say though that I do like the flexibility and speed of working hand-held; it lets me be more responsive to changing circumstances and new opportunities that suddenly arise and may not last long.

There are some types of shots for which I think a tripod will always be necessary. I'm thinking particularly of early morning natural light shots of snails in motion. Because of the low light levels and the very small apertures I use, I end up using slow shutter speeds even if I bounce up the ISO as far as I feel is practical. Using a hands-on tripod technique lets me use slower exposures than would otherwise be possible. (Incidentally, the shots are then hit and miss for a different reason - whether they work or not depends on how much the snail, and in particular its eye stalks, move during the exposure. The exposures are often sufficiently slow for a fair proportion of the shots to be unusable because the eye stalks are not in focus, and for me that almost always means throwing the shot away.)

 

[Tintin124]

I think I should create a video of what I go through for high magnification. Great idea might help some find bugs they didn't know existed...

I think you are quite steady to be fair Nick. I use a technique where my right hand holds camera and left hand supports the lens but brackets I use for lights also rest on that arm. I find that adds to the stability though a comparison video is worth doing.

 

[GardenersHelper]

I think I should create a video of what I go through for high magnification. Great idea might help some find bugs they didn't know existed...

That sounds like a really good idea. (I haven't done a video before and was astonished at how big it was, just for a couple of minutes. I redid it at VGA resolution, and even so it was 98MB for just a couple of minutes. It took an age to upload to Flickr. Perhaps 320 x 240 would be enough, and better. What do you think?)

I think you are quite steady to be fair Nick.

That's useful to have a comparison from someone else doing this stuff. Thanks Bryn.

I use a technique where my right hand holds camera and left hand supports the lens but brackets I use for lights also rest on that arm. I find that adds to the stability though a comparison video is worth doing.

I too use my right hand to hold the camera and my left under/around the lens (which is really small and light). The flash is on the hot shoe. The rig is light enough that I can hold it with one hand when necessary, for a while at least.

though a comparison video is worth doing.

I'd love to see something similar from you, and anyone else who is willing too.

And perhaps some videos on some other aspects of close-up/macro would be useful for helping other people. Haven't thought this through, so I don't have any particular examples I'm thinking of. Just a thought though.