Macro tricks in the forest: Easy lighting, focus and composition tips
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- Опубликовано: 29 апр 2022
- From focus stacking and lighting tips to how to find macro subjects and an easy creative trick to add some flair to your macro shots, this week's video tutorial sees me exploring the Scottish woodlands looking for beautiful macro photos.
I take my Canon 5D4 and 100mm f/2.8 macro lens into the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park and find lichens, mosses and pine cones to photograph.
Follow me on Instagram: / batteryhq
#Macro #Photography #Tutorial
What do we think to the spray bottle technique?
definitely has its moments!
However I may have to beat you for your pronunciation of lichen 😝
I liked the look of the images when it was used. I will probably try it myself to see how it works for me.
Pretty neat! Combined with the lighting, it definitely made for a cool effect! That small light panel really is useful as well.
Definitely adds to the image, I’m having that. Thanks for posting
Hi Andrew thanks for another great video. The bottle idea is great I will be implementing it in my images when I can going forward
The "seed pods" and the "sprouts" you photographed are the sporophytes of mosses, which release the spores that the mosses use to reproduce (like ferns) The first one looks like a species of polytrichum. Also, the moss you photographed right after the "sprouts" is a species of sphagnum, or bog moss, the same moss that makes up a peat bog/pitcher plant bog.
Love the spray effect , looks cool…
Glad your channel popped up in my feed. Great tips plus scenery😁
the trick with the water is magic! thanks so much!
Great video, loved the idea of spraying during the shoot. I use a spray bottle to place droplets on flowers, but mid-shooting is interesting.
Would also be interesting to do that with a longer shutter speet, to have a sort of rain effect with the motion of the droplets.
Love your videos. Very inspiring. Thanks!
Hi I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your videos. I like the way you are not telling us what we should do, just helping us move on our journey along with you. Easy going informative and enjoyable to watch. Thank you for all your efforts.
Thanks, Andrew!
Good stuff, Andrew. And very pleasurable to watch.
Great bit of forest you found there, I love those mossy glades, and completely agree with you, worth it even if you don't get a shot, but of course you did!
Can’t wait to try the burst while turning the focus ring method.
I'm not sure it'd always work (you have to have a fast shutter speed to avoid blurring when focusing) but it seemed to work well here and I'm going to keep trying to refine the method. Good luck with it!
That water bottle tricks is awesome, love it 👍🏻👍🏻
Awesome! The spray bottle is clever, gonna try that!
Beautiful!
Great content, you make macro look easy. I've never tried the spray bottle technique but aim to give it a go.
Brilliant, thanks
Thanks for these useful tips Andrew. I have tried focus stacking with a tripod, either using a focus rail or by focusing on several different parts of the scene, for still life close-ups (rather than true macro). The problem with focusing on different parts of the subject is that my Canon 60D only has 9 focus points so they often don’t match where I want to focus. Using burst mode while turning the focus ring looks like an option but I guess, for a still-life subject, I could also simply focus on the nearest thing for the first shot and then manually focus a little closer for each successive shot without using burst mode or trying to focus on a specific part of the subject.
Nicely done Andrew. I like your spray bottle tool.
LOVLY EXPLANATIONS. THANKS LOT BRO.
😀
Thank you, very helpful. Just starting out with macro, so need all the help I can get!
Yet another inspirational video that makes me want to get out there and take photos. Excellent - many thanks
Thanks so much, Peter, that's really kind!
very creative. love the waterbottle and the use of the led light
Thanks Eddie!
Good stuff, Andrew. And extremely pleasurable to watch.
Thanks so much, Iain!
awesome macro images. thanks for the great techniques. subscribed.
Great idea the spry water bottle. I'm going to use it in my next photography photoshoot adventure. Ciao!
I am new to macro this was very useful to me great video loved what you done with lighting and the soray bottle , loved your images thank you 👍
Another nice video, I leanred a lot from your videos, thanks for sharing!!!
like the spray bottle, very cool.
Glad I found your channel you have some very interesting macro techniques that I will definatley try out. I can hardly wait to try out the burst mode focus stacking technique. Thanks
Thanks, Jan!
Really like the spray bottle photos. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much!
Really appreciate the focus stacking techniques, I always feel scuff trying to get it nice and in focus, I need to figure out my burst key it will make it tons easier. And I have the same light I will start using it :3
Great content,Thanks for these useful tips Andrew
Good morning Mr Lanxon ! Ive seeing a few of your video,s and Im hooked ! I really like your approach your video,s have a out with a friend feel than a instructional do this do that if that makes sense the water bottle adds a beautiful touch and something I will definitely add to my bag other than that I have pretty similar Kit except a actual Macro lens ! your light panel also caught my eye apart from the flash il use anything from a head torch to the light on my phone. Great content I look forward to your next video and catching up on more of your previous ones. Best regards Pat.
Wow thank you for video!! Amazing! Love photos. Im into macro photography now!!
Would love to see your post processing work.
Weeds can make beautiful macro subjects. I’m always finding pretty flowers and discovering that they are weeds.
Some great advice and o will be using your macro stacking technique as .I only usually do 3 to 4 images stacked !
Thanks!
Loved your tips. Certainly going to get a small water spray and an additional external light solution. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
The ones with a sprayed water are really cool! Have to try it too :P
Very interesting . Going to Experiment with Macro Photography after seeing Your Video .
Великолепно! Спрей очень улучшает картинку. Буду использовать этот прием.
Great video. I am a bit of a macro newbie so thanks for this!
Thank you for watching, Mike!
Great video Andrew i really enjoyed it from start to finish and i like the tip using a spay bottle of water to make a misty morning look must give it a try myself and see how it's turns out for me thanks for sharing and keep safe Andrew 👍👊
Awesome 😎
nice video, really enjoyed it
Great video, definitely going to add a spray bottle into my kit bag
Awesome vid, very helpfull Andrew!
Thanks Bas!
Very well explained and easy to follow tutorial. Thanks. Vijay.
The trick to harsh lit days is to bring a shade or bounce. Your phones LED light can fill so nice if you don’t want to lug around a flash or forget the panel. 👍👍
Your process if very interesting and eye opening. Thanks for breaking things down for us. I'll keep this spray trick in my pocket if you don't mind hehe
Sphagnum moss the last one, they are forming peat moss. Beautiful shots.
Thank you!
I am so happy your channel popped up in my feed. I love macro photography and so far was doing everything with trial and error but your tips are amazing and I can't wait to try them out. I am just waiting for my Canon 6D to arrive (so far I used a 100D) and rent the 100mm macro lens from a shop :D
Thanks so much! I hope you get some good stuff with your canon 6d. I used one professionally for many years and it's great. I also recommend the 50mm f2.5 macro lens which is MUCH cheaper than the 100 and a great way to get started.
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Thanks for the tip! Will check that one out :)
I have a little spray bottle like that and find it very usefull for macro and even fine mist on spiders web. Great video Andrew.
Great minds think alike, thanks Bob!
Thanks for your videos, really enjoy them! What do you use for your panel light
Rather than a water spray you can also use a pocket mod vaporizer and blow it around downwind through sunshafts. If there isn't much wind it will slowly expand around the spot you blow towards and become thin and very photogenic through sun rays like morning mist!
That's a great tactic! I've used a vape often when I'm working in studio but I've not tried it outside - the Scottish weather is rarely that still! But I think I might start adding it to my kitbag just in case
Hello Andrew, I like your work here! Regards from Cebu island, Philippines.
Spray bottle. Nice.
GREAT EXPLANATION VIDEO :)
I WAS SO MUCH ENJOYED WATCHING THAT I DID A THUMB-UP ABOUT THE ART AND SUBSCRIBED TO THE GALLERY ;)
THANK YOU FOR SHARING :)
THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)
Another great video! Do you have to use a subscription type editing software to photo stack or can you use the Canon freeware? Thanks. You are making me want to try it.
Nice video, I love all of your tips Andrew! I also like to use a spray mister from time to time to add interest. I try to create natural looks with it in line with a "found" scene. I was interested in your burst mode focus stack where you focus while shooting bursts. How careful are you with the selection of images for stacking? I'd imagine that you get a lot of images with nearly identical focus. Do you try to use the minimum # of images in the stack or do you just stack them all and let PS figure it out? I noted that the British Soldier Lichen was from a 50 image stack.
Thanks Thomas! It's my first time using one to create the mist effect but I'm going to use it more often I think. I think I pretty much used all of them for the stack to give as much info as possible to create a neat stack. I learned my lesson after my failed stack from a few weeks ago!
This is the video that made me subscribe
Awesome content - and what a beautiful little tool that spray bottle is indeed 😂
Hi Andrew. We are so delayed here in Delaware USA for Spring. I’m absolutely ready to get out and follow your lead. I was not successful last week when I tried photo stacking. I use a Nikon D500 which is new to me but I’m having trouble “zooming in” to ensure “spot on focus” for each shot. I am not going to give up. Hope to get out a little tomorrow. Great video. Love, love, love the tiny line of little bits on that moss covered broken off branch. Have a wonderful day.
Thanks so much, Tamara! Have you Googled zooming in using live view? It's probably an easy trick once you find the right combination of buttons!
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography I will do that tomorrow for sure. Thank you for the suggestion.
@@tamarawilliams3699 Won't take long and you can do it. God bless you.
Hi Andrew, i'm a landscape photography and i'm approaching to macro with 105 Sigma Art. What technique do you prefer, moving focus or using a micrometric slider? Your videos are awesome, you have a new follower.
Hi Andrew just found your channel & really enjoyed the chilled out steady away approach ( well done). Just wondered if you could send a link for the light panel you used it looked really useful. Thanks Martin.
Hey Martin, thanks so much for the kind words! It's the Aputure Mc LED panel. Handy little bit of kit!
Thanks for the video. I'm fortunate to own 11 acres on pristine woods in West Central Oregon, except for where the power company went through around there line and left devastation. I've been shooting with the Sony ZV-1. Most of my life I used film camera's 35mm and 110mm.
Wow that sounds amazing! Well, except for the devastation bit. I'd love to have my own space like that for some macro exploration. I don't even have a garden sadly so I have to make special trips every time!
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography I have some video of my place on my personal channel if you want to see it. You have what we used to call in the 60's a good Vivbe
Bagus sekali❤
wonderful videos, i already saw most of your content! one question why do you use the Canon 5d4 instead your Canon R5? regards!
Hi Andrew,
Which is your favorite lens for Macro?
Thank you
Hello mate, I am a fellow photographer from Edinburgh too and a beginner in macro (focused on insects mostly last year). I have just watched your video and loved it. You inspired me to try macro in my garden for plants (it appears I also have British soldier lichen on some moss!).
I have tried using a spray too for some background 'rain' but without success AT ALL... the only sign of water is visible from the droplets on the plants, not in the background. Do you have any advice on how to make it work?
I use a flash as well so am able to freeze the moment.
Thanks!
Antoine
Ok I think I have an obvious answer rewatching your video: today is overcast so I don't have sun backlighting to make the drops more visible...
I like the spray bottle technique but I forget to take mine with me, most of the time!!
Nice video 😊😊
Thank you!
Thank you for the video. I have mixed feelings about the spray... Although the effect is really nice, it is not really part of the scene. Anyway, I think I will give it a try too. Just one technical question: why do you prefer shooting at f/4.5 instead of f/11? With a smaller aperture you might have to use less frames for stacking. Is there another reason for the wider aperture? Cheers!
-My guess is to keep the background out of focus, thereby isolating the subject.
Hello Andrew. Very nice video. What lens did you use in this video. I’m using the canon 100mm F2 macro. But yours looked a bit smaller.
Hey Lars, thanks for watching! Same lens actually! Maybe you have it on a fancy smaller mirrorless camera so it looks smaller on my old fashioned dslr by comparison!
at 3:30 i would have sprayed it up and let the water fall, it looks more like rain than morning dew in that one
Nice video!
I'm also enjoying the process of learning to do macro. 😁
I think those little sprouting things are the spore heads of the moss, that will in due time release spores.
When focus stacking complicated subjects with a lot of criss crossing lines, I have found that a too wide aperture makes the stacking hard I impossible to do well so sometimes, I just need to stop down.
Otherwise the out of focus foreground is just too wide a blur and covers the parts that should be sharp. (I hope that makes sense!).
Have you ever seen the same when shooting macro and focus stacking?
Thanks Tim! I think it would definitely make things easier to stop down but I was really keen to keep that shallow depth of field look with the background so I made sure to take LOADS of photos at wider apertures to make sure that every bit was covered. I think it worked out fairly well here but it's certainly more time consuming!
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography The thing is, that even with a lot of photos, for some subjects at shallow apertures things in the foreground get in the way of a sharp background because wide out of focus parts hide them!
That's absolutely true! I guess like any photography there's no one way that'll fit every image. I think it worked fairly well here to maximise that depth of field but maybe with things like extreme macro (maybe like real close ups on detailed insects) it wouldn't work quite as well.
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography I had this problem specifically with some flowers actually, that have a lot of threads sticking out forward in front of other threads or petals. 😅 I only don't think I can show you part of an image here in a RUclips comment thread! 😁
Great video. Subbed!
ps. I'm pretty sure lichen is a hard K sound for the ch :D
My mum agrees with you!
Waooui😃😀
Great video as usual Andrew. I never saw technique of turning focus ring while in burst mode, do you find success doing that ?
Thanks Ann! I found it worked quite well here as it meant I had every bit of the subject covered. I probably shot more than I needed to, but previously I have found I don't shoot enough and this way was certainly preferable!
In a recent video of Andrew stating macro failure I had made this comment: The way you proceed for focus bracketing is tedious. I suggest that you try the method I use for hand held focus bracketing scenes with moving insects. I set the camera to high speed burst. Then I focus at the closest part of the subject, then a little bit closer. You can test how far to focus before the shot as a practice. Once I'm well steadied, I keep the shutter button pressed while regularly turning the focusing ring towards infinity, until I get past the area of interest. With my set up (Canon 90D, CRaw format) I can get up to 35 photos before the buffer quits. This is done in 4 seconds or less. It may take some practice to get the right focus shift pace. Once back home, you can cull the useless pictures at the start and at the end, and proceed with the actual focus stacking. You will find many examples of this technique in my iNaturalist page: www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=cback&verifiable=any . It is nice to see Andrew demonstrate it.
I've done that for years. It works fine provided there is enough light for a fairly fast shutter speed and things are not moving around very much. I prefer to have the camera on a tripod while doing that but quite often a tripod just isn't practical.
Can I ask where you got your spray bottle?
Very useful video Andrew. Can I ask what sort of lens you use?
Thanks Warren! I'm using a Canon 100mm f/2.8 here.
@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Thanks mate
Hi)
I am a beginner photographer and I wanna know about your tripod.
What kind of tripod have you used?
By the way, thanks for useful content.
what is the exact model of your led panel please ?
what as the rectangular light you used?
LED
Ever heard of Karl Malone? Strong Mofu from Blackburn.
What’s with the tag on your hat?
Haha well it's supposed to just be the branding label but it does stand out a bit.
walking alone ??
Hanging your keys on a twig? If you make a habit of doing that, sooner or later you'll lose them. One day you're going to be so absorbed taking pictures, that you'll forget the keys till you get to your car. Then you'll have to walk all the way back, and hopefully the keys will still be there and not snatched by a Magpie, and hopefully you can find the place...