Critique First attempt at insect macro

SteveSc · 3 Jul 2015

Loving all the insect macros on here I have been wanting to have a go, so today for an hour at lunch I went out into the garden and had a go. I used my extension tubes and a reversing ring to mount a 50mm, I have yet to sort out a flash and diffuser so was hoping that I would be able to get something in just the sunlight.

I have even more respect for all your images on here now after hunting around for bugs and trying to creep up on the ones I did find and then trying to get a reasonable angle for a photo. Out of the 100+ photos that I took these were the best two:

#1

Garden Macro by Steve, on Flickr

#2

Fly by Steve, on Flickr

Number 2 is my first attempt at a stack (2 images blended in photoshop elements) and have just noticed that I have not cropped quite right so please ignore the bit of white on the borders.

I know that they are not the best images and would welcome advice on how to improve them.

hoftwi · 4 Jul 2015

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the macro world,especially the bugs one

Your first attempt is quite good and you managed to stack 2 images!!!! Everyone has different way to do macro and I would share mine to you. I use manual focus only, spot the bug, get close to it slowly, raise my camera to it. Then move the focus ring on the lens and move back and forth till the object is in focus. I know it is not easy as I got very shaky hands, but when I know I am more or less get into focus,I will hold my breath, press the shutter and take a few shots. In this way, I normally will achieve the shots I like.

Before you go out and hunt, try to practice something non-moving first, to get used to this technique and your set up. I used M&M, a ring etc, put them on the desk then practice. When the time I felt a bit more comfortable of this new skill, I went to the garden to bugs hunt. This way, you should have a noticeable improvement. Old boring say but so true, practice makes perfect.

Hope it helps

SteveSc · 4 Jul 2015

Thanks for your comments. I have been taking a few macro/close up photos for a little while (non moving objects like you mention) and focusing mainly in the same way as you, but having seen so many great bug ones here I thought I would have a go.

Hope you don't mind me asking but what sort of shutter speed and aperture do you use. I was finding it hard to see much through the viewfinder past about f8 and at that aperture I was finding the shutter speed to slow to hand hold, particularly as there was a breeze that was also moving the leaves/plants. I ended up mainly using f4 which was much easier to see and meant I could use a faster shutter speed but then I was struggling to have enough DOF (which is why I had a go at stacking.

Will keep practising!

hoftwi · 4 Jul 2015

The only thing you need is a flash, it is a must as dof is very shallow in macro like what you experienced. I use 1/200,F.11 with a flash. A flash will make shooting a lot easier. But like I said, you did quite a good job in first attempt. Hope to see more from you soon.

Tintin124 · 8 Jul 2015

Welcome Steve... its amazing that everyone says that when they start they didn't realise how hard it is and it imho is the hardest type of photography.

Try and aim for focus on the eyes use f11 and if ambient light dont be afraid to bump up the iso to get shutter speed to 1/200s.

Look forward to seeing your progress.

Neil Burnell · 8 Jul 2015

Hi Steve, welcome to Macro! Like Bryn said above it's a very hard type of photography, but luckily I think it's the easiest to get into (if that makes sense)! What I mean by that is you don't need a lot of time to improve and practice, I find myself popping into the garden for 10-20mins at times and seeing what I can find, you don't need hours of time to practice! I've gone from using a Raynox 250 on a 70-300 to a dedicated macro lens with dual flash with many changes to my kit along the way, be warned it's very addictive!

SteveSc · 8 Jul 2015

Thanks for your comments and encouragement.

Tintin124 said:
Try and aim for focus on the eyes use f11 and if ambient light dont be afraid to bump up the iso to get shutter speed to 1/200s.

I have a D80 so I'm limited to how far I can push the iso before it starts getting to much noise, anything over about 400 starts losing a lot of detail.

Neil Burnell said:
be warned it's very addictive

Already found this, spent some time on Sunday evening messing about with cardboard and a pringles tube trying to sort out something for using the flash and was out for a bit last night having a go. It's good for me at the moment as with a young family I don't get much time to travel out so being able to pop out quickly in the evening works well.

iwols · 10 Jul 2015

Neil Burnell said:
Hi Steve, welcome to Macro! Like Bryn said above it's a very hard type of photography, but luckily I think it's the easiest to get into (if that makes sense)! What I mean by that is you don't need a lot of time to improve and practice, I find myself popping into the garden for 10-20mins at times and seeing what I can find, you don't need hours of time to practice! I've gone from using a Raynox 250 on a 70-300 to a dedicated macro lens with dual flash with many changes to my kit along the way, be warned it's very addictive!

hi neil which macro lens did you finish up with cheers

ChrisA · 10 Jul 2015

Not sure if those were natural light or flashlit, but with things like that I would use your pringles setup and flash. ISO 200 and flash F11 to start with. I guess from your comments the tubes are manual - so getting ones with electrical contacts to work the aperture is best. They will keep the lens wide open then till you pull the trigger, and as you can tell it's much easier to see the bugs like that.

SteveSc · 10 Jul 2015

ChrisA said:
Not sure if those were natural light or flashlit, but with things like that I would use your pringles setup and flash. ISO 200 and flash F11 to start with. I guess from your comments the tubes are manual - so getting ones with electrical contacts to work the aperture is best. They will keep the lens wide open then till you pull the trigger, and as you can tell it's much easier to see the bugs like that.

These were taken in natural light, I hadn't made the pringle set up at this stage. I've had a couple of goes now with the pringles tube but have not had chance to edit them yet.

You are correct, the tubes are manual ones and I hadn't thought of the advantage of having the ones with electrical contacts keeping the lens open to make it easier to see. I have been wondering how people were focusing accurately at f11 when I can barely see anything at that setting, I have even been considering having to set up a torch or some type to give me more light to see by.