Macro Shutter-speed for Insects?

J

Jayceyned

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Hey guys,

Happy Easter. I've just gotten hold of a set of extension tubes for my 1000D, have been using them with the standard 18-55 kit lens @ 55mm & am trying to capture insects; a spider, some ants etc.

Any ideas what shutter-speeds would be good to freeze the ant's tiny movements? I figured set the speed, then reduce aperture as much as poss to get as much DOF as possible?

Any help on macro photography in general would also be much appreciated.

Thanks loads,

Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday,

Jay.
 
Can i ask jay what extention tubes you got? I'm looking at getting some
 
Are you using flash? If you are dont worry about the shutter speed as the duration of the flash will freeze any movement. If you are using natural light I guess you'll just have to experiment. HTH
 
I managed to get hold of some second-hand tubes from a shop in Brighton, they're Jessop branded, cost £99 and have electrical contacts in them so aperature & auto-focus still works through them; 13, 23 & 32mm in length I think, something like that. I can check if you'd like?

Ps. Not using flash btw. & thanks for the 1/125 advice.
 
Thanks jay I was looking at some cheap online versions but if your happy with results I may save a bit longer , do you have any photos you can upload
 
I couldn't say whether i'm happy with the results because I've not taken any decent shots yet. I'm almost certain it's me as opposed to the kit though, I'm a beginner.

I've not nailed working with such a narrow depth of field yet but when / if I do I'll be sure to upload for critique. If you'd like I could upload a few images just so you know what kind of magnification you get with an 18-55 lens and the specific lengths of the tubes

Let me know.
 
They're pretty bad... but you asked for them.

Enjoy:

ps. any more tips would be most welcome; I don't have a ring flash and have been trying to keep aperature at around f/16 to gain as much DOF as poss. and using correspsonding shutter speed to compensate. I've also been working at around ISO 800, again to compensate for the smaller aperature.

(just uploading to Flickr now... then will post asap).
 
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All taken with my standard kit 18-55, @55mm with all 3 tubes (65mm extension) at diff. focus. Unsure if any of that is the 'correct' thing to do or not, but as I said, I'm a beginner.

Hope it helps?
 
Just had a look and they are a nice of photos thanks for showing them, Harvey:thumbs:
 
Wouldn't say that but thank you. Are you going to get a set of extension tubes or get a macro lens?
 
To get the biggest magnification with tubes use manual focus and set the focus ring to minimum focus position, then focus by moving the camera backwards and forwards, personally i mostly use 1/200 ISO200 and between f11 & F16 with a diffused flash for macro bugs.

ruffdog64 said:
Not sure yet but the extention tubes look better than I thought they would
Click to expand...

Theres no glass in tubes so IQ will not be affected when you use them, the better the lens the better the IQ - you'll just lose some light
 
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I usually use flash sync settings ie my flash sync is 1/250th sec so I use 1/250sec shutter, f14/F16, ISO 200, flash set to between 0 and -2 compensation
 
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