The world of macro

Mickwreay

Mickwreay

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Mick
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A bit of guidance needed please.

I’ve been very impressed by the Macro shots on the forums :clap: & I think I would like to have a go at this style of photography. After all, the garden is bursting with subjects!

As usual there are so many questions to answer with regard to kit.

I currently have a Canon 50D & have been looking at a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro SLR Lens. Any recommendations for a decent starter lens?

Also most people seem to be using an external flash? I’m guessing we are talking about a flash to sit on the hot shoe :thinking:

Again there are so many types of DSLR flash, what would be a good all-rounder? :shrug:

Mick
 
I am not sure what sort of subjects you want to take, I suspect all and everything at the moment :)

The 50D is a good camera for macro as it has a high resolution screen and you can use live view to zoom in to focus. Most of the time you will use manual focus and there are a variety of tecniques to manage this when up close. The 1.6 crop of this camera also gives you a little more DOF which is always in short supply at macro distances.

The lens you mentioned is good but the focal length may be a bit short for small bugs and flowers. True macro is 1:1, that is a life size image and you will need to get very close with a lens that short. The little critters have usually fled at the sight of a monster piece of glass descending on them :eek::eek:

I am not sure of your budget, the Sigma 105mm produces some quality images for a reasonable price. The disadvantages of it are the focus is noisy and slow (not a problem as you will be manually focusing) and the lens has external focus, this means that it moves out as you focus. Not the end of the world, but it can be a problem when up close.

You mention flash, this is another bag of worms (no pun intended). When close to a subject the light entering the lens reduces and additional light is a must. The camera mounted flashes are not much use as the light is masked by the lens. I would suggest investing in a Canon flash to suit your budget and an off camera cord, this will enable you to mount the flash on some form of bracket to direct the light on the subject.

There is an excellent tutorial by a guy called LordV (Brian) on POTN who produces some of the most amazing macro photographs using fairly basic equipment lashed together with gaffer tape. It is well worth a read as it explains a lot more than I can on here.

The link is here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=807056

I am sure this has raised more questions than it has answered, please ask if you need futher clarification.

Good Luck,

Paul
 
Thanks Paul,

With the 105 Sigma, do I still need an off camera lead?

What sort of flash would you recommend? Just looking at some Canon Flash guns & they seem to be all over £200 which seems a lot for a flash.

I'm not loaded but then again it's better to buy the right kit once. :thumbs:
I bought the Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 and I could not get any decent results with it! Maybe my newbie skills but I returned it to Jessops for a refund. I then bought the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and it was much better.

Thanks in advance.

Mick
 
I recently bought a canon 100mm F2.8 macro from the forums here I found it a fantastic macro lens and it is long enough to creep up on most insects.
Until I started doing some macro I never thought I had particularly shaky hands but I now always use a tripod although other people do fantastic hand held work.
Good luck
 
Mick,

There will be less need for a flash with the 105mm lens and under bright conditions it is probably OK. You can also look around for a s/h flash such as the older 550EX/420EX which are a bit cheaper and still retain the ETTL metering for the flash.

It is probably worth seeing how you get on with the lens and the on camera flash of the 50D, try bouncing the light onto the subject using some white card or silver foil.

It is a fascinating part of photography and certainly presents many challenges without having to travel too far.
 
sarahpix said:
I recently bought a canon 100mm F2.8 macro from the forums here I found it a fantastic macro lens and it is long enough to creep up on most insects.
Until I started doing some macro I never thought I had particularly shaky hands but I now always use a tripod although other people do fantastic hand held work.
Click to expand...

I have used a tripod but by the time I have it sorted the subjects have all run off. I do use the tripod for flowers and things that tend to stay still. Although my hands are not as steady as they used to be I can usually manage to take a resonably sharp picture hand holding, again it depends on the amount of light there is.
 
Although flash isn't a requirement provided you have decent ambient light, Macro at 1:1 is seriously devoid of light and really does benefit from an external source.

I use a Sigma 105 EX DG on an EOS 400D (So your 50D will be very very capable) with a Canon Speedlite 430 EX II as my light source. At present, it is mounted on the hot shoe although I need to get a bracket to move the flash more forward towards the front of the lens as it should be.

I use flash in the vast majority of my shots simply because it's good for freezing movement and also helps permit a faster shutter speed so much less chance of motion blur. Remember, DoF at 1:1 is seriously small so you really need an aperture of around F8 to F13 to maximise DoF and good light. Try a small aperture like that at 1/200th with no light source and you'll probably have to increase ISO at a risk of noise.

So, I shoot most of my stuff at 1/200th, F8 to F13 with the Flash at varying levels of compensation. 430 EX II's can be picked up for under £200 from some outlets but be wary. There are a couple on here that have been mentioned for bad reputations. I'm not going to mention them as it's a public forum and they DO read forums.

Here's a post with 3 of my latest shots. Taken a couple of days ago with the 400D, Sigma 105, 430 EX II combo. All hand held. I don't use a tripod for bug shots as they never stay still and often you find yourself tracking and adjusting.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=251410

Join the world of Macro... it's very good fun :)

Sigma 105 are a touch over £300 and the Speedlite, around £200 so £500 will see you with good enough kit to get into Macro.
 
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Thanks to everyone who has offered advice,

I think I'm gonna look at getting the sigma 105mm
Will be looking for a second hand flash, can someone explain the ETTL metering for the flash?

How much should I be looking at paying for the 550EX/420EX second hand?

Mick
 
E-TTL metering means that the flash works in 2 stages: first there's a pre-flash, where a small amount of light is emitted by the flash unit and the camera measures Through The Lens (TTL for short) how much light is actually falling on and reflected off the subject. Then the flash power is adjusted for the actual shot which follows immediately.

Your eye will not see the 2 separate flashes as they are so close together.

In E-TTL, the normal camera settings will affect AMBIENT light only, in other words the scene as it's metered without the flash. A separate setting called Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) controls the amount of flash light in E-TTL. The flash will attempt to "fill in" the light missing from the ambient exposure.

Many macro shots rely purely on flash to light the scene, that's why the background is black even though they're shot during the day. One of the reasons for this is to get a smaller aperture for a larger Depth of Field.. and the smaller aperture is going to kill the ambient anyway so why not set your camera at flash sync speed (1/250 usually) and freeze the bug with flash!

Go out and practise with a flower, it's a revelation how flash works :)
 
That was a very good explanantion by Vaizki.

I had a quick look on Ebay and there was a 420EX going for around £77 with several bids and two hours to go.

There are several settings on a flash but if you are using E-TTl all you need to worry about in the camera is the speed and aperture. Small aperture for depth of field and set the custom function on the 50D to the synch speed of the flash which is 1/250th. Sorry I cannot remember the custom function number at the moment, from memory on the 50D there are three settings to choose from.

This should give you fairly sharp and well exposed photos and you can go on from there. As Vaizki says try it with flowers, they don't run away, and experiment.
 
I've had both the sigma and Canon on a 50d and if you have the budget I'd look at the Canon 100mm Macro , you can get them for around £330 from the classifieds on here (much better build quality ), they have a longer working distance and internal focusing unlike the sigma which extends as you focus to minimum focus 1:1, There are also a fast focusing prime when not been used for macro. Also as they don't extended when focusing you can getaway using a hotshoe mounted flash.

focusdistance.jpg
 
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Thanks all,

I must admit so far I've got two Canon :) lenses & had a Tamron :razz: 70-300 for a week!

They do seem well made in comparison. I've just been looking at the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM SLR Lens on RGB-Photo.co.uk. I visited the shop when I bought my last lens & was very impressed with the customer services.

My other two lenses are IS, is this essential on macro photography? As it seems to push the price up quite a lot.

Mick

P.S. don't tell the Mrs :thumbs:
 
I mentioned the Sigma 105 as a good starter lens Mike. If you are considering the Canon 100mm then it is in a different league altogether and if you can run to it then that is a better option. It has internal focusing and the build quality is excellent.

I bought the IS version this year, I do not think the IS is that useful at 1:1, at most giving me an extra stop. I think quality wise you would be hard pressed to see the optical difference between the two lenses.

Hope this helps.

Paul
 
I'm going to throw this into array now.. there is a sharper macro lens thats cheaper than both the sigma and canon options, the Tamron SP90 di LD, F2.8, its regularly beaten both the others in independent tests and doubles as an excellent portrait lens.

The autofocus might lack the finesse of the canon noise wise and it hasn't got IS but it produces stunning results for the paltry sum of around £345 if you shop around online, plus Tamron are currently offering a free 5 yr warranty with new lenses.

Its also lighter than the other two, so very easy to carry around all day.
 
iancandler said:
I'm going to throw this into array now.. there is a sharper macro lens thats cheaper than both the sigma and canon options, the Tamron SP90 di LD, F2.8, its regularly beaten both the others in independent tests and doubles as an excellent portrait lens.

The autofocus might lack the finesse of the canon noise wise and it hasn't got IS but it produces stunning results for the paltry sum of around £345 if you shop around online, plus Tamron are currently offering a free 5 yr warranty with new lenses.

Its also lighter than the other two, so very easy to carry around all day.
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Thanks Ian,

I'll certainly take a look, I think I was unlucky with the Tamron 70-300 I had :shrug:

Mick
 
One thing to be aware of is the Tamron has about 1/3 less working distance that the Canon 100mm and only 9mm more than a Canon 60mm.
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
One thing to be aware of is the Tamron has about 1/3 less working distance that the Canon 100mm and only 9mm more than a Canon 60mm.
Click to expand...

Dogfish,

The working distance is the distance from the subject?

How can a 90mm lens be 1/3 less than a 100mm lens?

DOes this greatly cuts down it's useability surely?

Mick
 
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Mickwreay said:
Dogfish,

The working distance is the distance from the subject?

How can a 90mm lens be 1/3 less than a 100mm lens?

DOes this greatly cuts down it's useability surely?

Mick
Click to expand...

See the table i posted in post #12 - MWD is the distance from the end of the lens to subject at maximum magnification.
 
Really good link/post from Paul in post #12 re MWD - which is the thing that matters.

Aside from all the other good advice above, a very cheap, very easy, and amazingly effective way to play with macro is the Raynox DCR-250 adapter which is only £32 on Amazon.

For regular bugs and butterflies in the garden stuff, it's maybe all you need. Also, I think the reality of macro is that you need flash, either a gun on a bracket (or velcroed to the front of the lens with a Stofen diffuser) or preferably a ringflash. The Marumi ringflash is E-TTL and only about £100.
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
See the table i posted in post #12 - MWD is the distance from the end of the lens to subject at maximum magnification.
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul,

As usual, when I pess the submit button I end up seeing the info :cuckoo:

I was sat in the garden this afternoon surrounded by butterflies, so many subjects so close at hand.

Hoppy,

I'll have a looka t the Raynox DCR-250 adapter on Amazon as well.

Too many choices :bang:

Mick
 
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