Beginner Do you use burst modes for hand held macro shots?

[Crotal Bell]

I've always thought of burst mode for moving subjects, but then it occurred to me that burst mode may have a better chance of catching a steady sharp shot on macro work?

I'm going to try it but please warn me if there's a reason why I'm barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Gav.]

If you're using manual focus and a fast sutter speed it may increase chances of a usable frame..
If your using AF you may end 'chasing your own tail'..
I think it depends on the focal length your looking at, it's not something I've tried.

I personally think it'll be a bad habit to get in to taking your time and nailing the focus would be a better practice.

Macro stacking is another process, again not something I do.

Just my personal view I may be wrong

And there's no harm in playing around with your thought

 

[Crotal Bell]

If you're using manual focus and a fast sutter speed it may increase chances of a usable frame..
If your using AF you may end 'chasing your own tail'..
I think it depends on the focal length your looking at, it's not something I've tried.

I personally think it'll be a bad habit to get in to taking your time and nailing the focus would be a better practice.

Macro stacking is another process, again not something I do.

Just my personal view I may be wrong

And there's no harm in playing around with your thought

Thanks Gav

 

[piper]

Focus pulling in a burst mode then stacking is a technique for close up and macro in the field where you may have a job setting up a tripod or just see something in the undergrowth and maybe it is not well lit and you cant or dont want to use flash.

I came accross this video ( lots of others ) some time ago :

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HowcTTo3vfY


Like most things, takes a lot if experimentation and practise - still a beginner at this myself.

Another thing you can do if you have something like Helicon ( free trial available ) is to take a video clip and dump that in the stacker.

[ As a general point, mechanical shutter works better than ES on cameras with slow sensor read rates like the FF A7x or Z6/7. Fine on expensive A1/Z9/R5 etc but also useable on some m43 and 1 inch like Nikon 1 with 1/60 to 1/80 sec read tiimes The problem is that the stacking programme cant deal with the frame to frame “flutter” handheld and you get horrible artifacts lije halos/ ghosting ]

 

[Crotal Bell]

Focus pulling in a burst mode then stacking is a technique for close up and macro in the field where you may have a job setting up a tripod or just see something in the undergrowth and maybe it is not well lit and you cant or dont want to use flash.

I came accross this video ( lots of others ) some time ago :

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HowcTTo3vfY


Like most things, takes a lot if experimentation and practise - still a beginner at this myself.

Another thing you can do if you have something like Helicon ( free trial available ) is to take a video clip and dump that in the stacker.

[ As a general point, mechanical shutter works better than ES on cameras with slow sensor read rates like the FF A7x or Z6/7. Fine on expensive A1/Z9/R5 etc but also useable on some m43 and 1 inch like Nikon 1 with 1/60 to 1/80 sec read tiimes The problem is that the stacking programme cant deal with the frame to frame “flutter” handheld and you get horrible artifacts lije halos/ ghosting ]

Thanks for that Richard, much appreciated.

 

[Sangoma]

Yes, for two reasons, first there will probably be one shot in focus, and secondly using focus merge in Affinity is quite effective.
It aligns the shots and then merges with quite good results, and it doesn't care what order the shots are in.

Not good photos, but to show how it helps with very little effort.
Just took them now, so light not ideal.

The first one is the best out of the burst






The second one is from Affinity, when I took the burst, I could see the image moving around the screen quite a bit

 

[Gav.]

Learn something every day

 

[swanseamale47]

Never tried it for macro I tend to go for manual focus, but make sure your in the right focus mode, some camera lock focus on the first shot in burst shooting in some focus modes.

 

[Sangoma]

Never tried it for macro I tend to go for manual focus, but make sure your in the right focus mode, some camera lock focus on the first shot in burst shooting in some focus modes.

Because it is hand held, I am counting on it locking the focus on the first shot, and counting on the movement of the camera to get various focus points to merge.

If the camera is on a tripod, I let it do a bracket focus, either side of the fist focus point.

If it was a different subject, then I wouldn't want the focus to lock on the first shot, but for hand held on a relatively still subject, I use that and the movement of the camera to get the results.

 

[woof woof]

I've never done bursts when doing close up photography but I do often take more than one picture when I think I'm pushing what me or the camera can do. I suppose one thing to think about with close up photography is that any movement or change in the camera to subject distance will affect the end result and as bursts take time and could potentially cause vibration and therefore there could be movement I think the electronic shutter could help to keep things as stable as possible.

 

[Crotal Bell]

Yes, for two reasons, first there will probably be one shot in focus, and secondly using focus merge in Affinity is quite effective.
It aligns the shots and then merges with quite good results, and it doesn't care what order the shots are in.

Not good photos, but to show how it helps with very little effort.
Just took them now, so light not ideal.

The first one is the best out of the burst

View attachment 361796




The second one is from Affinity, when I took the burst, I could see the image moving around the screen quite a bit

View attachment 361797

Thanks for the images buddy, helpful stuff.

 

[Adam-G]

I'll generally set manual focus and move the camera back and forth hitting multiple single shots (if that makes sense?). As the focal plain is so narrow, I'm trying to find the shot that has the element I want to be the focal point of the image (usually the eyes) in sharp focus. If your camera has focus peaking functionality this also helps as does a steady hand combined with lens or body stabilisation.

Here's an example I posted in the Macro forum. Since practising the above technique my hit rate is much higher, I'm getting the eyes sharp once in every 3-4 shots now which is a big improvement for me.

https://flic.kr/p/2nxPkKX

 

[piper]

I meant to add something about burst mode and or stacking specifically with my Z6 and the newly upgraded-for-Z Tamron SP90 F017 - maybe with a few snaps - but I have failed.

I usually use small sensor bodies and ALWAYS manual focus lenses eg the Tamron adaptall SP90 f2.5 macro 52B or many others for this.

Maybe its just me though maybe its the Z6 but, in my experience, the Z native focus by wire lenses do not work well in burst mode if you are trying to focus during a burst i.e. focus pulling. I only discovered this when I replied to someone having problems on his Z50 on another forum and, sure enough, found the same probs with my Z - basically you could not get a nice focus plane progression shot to shot - it was erratic.

Thought it might be better with the F017 - switched to MF and lens to MF, IBIS and lens VF OFF etc etc but just couldn't get a nice set to stack. Completely weird since the Tamron has a mechanical focus not FBW but. somehow, the focus motor is being actuated during the burst. Anyway will try again with a properly decoupled MF legacy lens.

Here's one I did earlier ( about 1 year ago ) stacked with Affinity or Helicon. Nikon 1 V2 or V3, 10 -15 fps burst and probably with that old Tamron 52B at f4 ish