How to take Sharp Macro Photos: 4 Things You Must Know
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- In this video I explain 4 factors for taking sharp macro photos. How to focus, how to minimize movement between camera and subject, how to make fast exposures, how to get deep depth of field, and how to minimize diffraction.
Here is a good article about depth of field and diffraction in macro photography, with a useful table. Please note that the article is old and is written when 10 megapixel cameras were common! www.savazzi.net/photography/ma...
Here is my video where I test how much image stabilization helps in macro photography: • Image Stabilization in...
00:00 Intro
00:35 1. Focus
03:55 2. Movement
06:42 3. Exposure time
09:48 4. Depth of field
More regular content from me in these places:
💌 newsletter: mwroll.com
🌄 instagram: / mwroll
🐦 twitter: / micaelwidell
Thanks for watching! Subscribe for more videos! More regular content from me in these places:
💌 newsletter: mwroll.com 🌄 instagram: instagram.com/mwroll
🌆 patreon: patreon.com/micaelwidell 🐦 twitter: twitter.com/micaelwidell
📸 my favorite macro lens: bit.ly/mwlaowa60 (best price + free shipping worldwide at that link :)
It’s good to hear that you have a lot of misses because that’s exactly what I’m finding. It’s sooo hard to get focus on an insects eyes. I definitely think a flash for macro is a MUST! Not even so much for freezing the insect but to combat the light fall off when getting in close.
Using the burst mode helps. When you and your subject are moving slightly, it increases your chances of getting at least one in focus. Thanks for you videos. They have really inspired me.
I’ve found that I’m almost always using a flash with defuser, so bursts don’t work. They do work great when taking wildlife photos with a telephoto lens. 😊
@@danielgoldberg2129 you can use multi mode on flashes so that they can burst as well :)
I use the burst mode, too.
@@danielgoldberg2129 lmao how bursts don't work? I have a shit flash and camera and I can do that
@@davosteve Good for you. Geesh. My flash only fires once during a burst. Obviously my rig is shittier than yours. 😝
The main concepts are very well explained and will be essential to macro beginners.
Clear and simple information package as always!
Great video as always! Thanks! :) I've learned so much from you. You're the best.
Thanks for the video. The technical aspects of macro photography can be quite demanding. I have learned a few new techniques from you.
Another brilliant video packed with excellent tips! Some of them already have been mentioned by you in your previous videos, but it's always good to have some "refreshment" on this topic 😉 Thank you Micael, great job !
Yeah I don’t like repeating myself but I also realize that most people do not watch every video, so I do it more and more :)
I'm finding the Laowa 60mm you recommended to be a usefull addition to my collection, and with the back screen on and a shroud over my head to keep the light out and breathing on hold, is how I shall be spending the next few months. I find I have a 20mm extension on more than I don't.
Last year deep in the depth of a Verbascum thapsus leaves I spied the unmistakable eyes of a jumping spider for the first time in my garden. It's now Spring and minute babies have appeared so it looks like they are staying.
I've noted they like the Cast Iron Chiminea on sunny days and hide under the teeth of an old pulley belt which rests around the girth, and they've had hunting success on it so will probably return.
For the Chiminea and the concrete slabs a small bit of tape stuck to the outer rim of the lens allows sliding along surfaces without scratching or jerkiness. Multiple shots at slightly different focus spots can easily be achieved as your line of focus can be easily seen and even the DOf effect, and you can paint it over your subject if your lucky, line by line. It's at this point you might notice the Chimenea is boiling hot.
Great vid. Thank you, Micael!
Super usefull tips, thank you Micael
Great video managed to sum up all the key points really clearly! Really liked the point in the DoF section about >4x magnification vs 2x and cropping currently going through the process of understanding that with my first 4.5x lens! Seems like f2.8 is the sweet spot for sharpness on that lens so learning how to do handheld focus stacks if the subject permits
Great Tutorial !! Very clearly explained. Thanks :)
Great video, thanks. Very informative.
Thank you for explaining defraction at closer focal points, it was really helpful
Just what I was looking for. Thanks!
Very informative - thank YOU!
Great educational video, very well explained :) Thanks Micael
Very informative. Thanks for your videos.
Very informative and interesting. This has helped me a lot!!!
Very goog tips, especially regards DoF. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I found this to be helpful
This was extremely helpful. Thanks!
Ive been through it all, I couldn’t have explained it better myself im sure its of a great help for all budding macro photographers
Super
Thanks 😊
Very helpful. Thanks so much
I also have the same Laowa for my fuji camera as well I really love it btw great video I've been doing most things the way you describe them but the rule of thumb about the aperture is pretty handy
Hi Micael! Good stuff, simply explained. I think you covered it all from a helicopter point of view, so now you may also go into the practical details maybe one chapter at a time. I’m particularly curious about the optimal flash utilization, including wireless syncing, light distribution, etc. as many interesting subjects are non-stationary in nature.
Hi Micael, cracking tips for macro work, you did mention about commenting if anything was left out, so if I may with greatest respect for for skill.....after 11yrs of macro work I do find that stabilization of the lens has helped a great deal, this may depend on the geolocation of the photographer (as in weather conditions) just getting one stop extra through stabilization can really help with lowering the ISO and resulting in a cleaner shot, in Wales we don't often have that much sun to help with light lol. When using flash as a light to stop movement an image needs to be taken before to ensure it comes out black, if a shutter speed of 'X' is used and a scene can be seen, the shutter speed needs to be increaseed as when a flash is used a double exposure will result, Once again Micael thank you for the great tips, keep up the good work matey.
Those are good points!
Great video Micael! What also helps is adjusting the dioptric correction from time to time. It makes sense as you get older and older.
Thanks for sharing this!
this video really helps a lot,thanks
Great👍👍 Helps me!
Really helpful. thanks
Brilliant informative video. On the topic of diffraction, what it is, why it occurs and why it's more of an issue at at higher magnification. Diffraction is phenomena that occurs which is observed as softness in the resolution of the image . Diffraction is effectively the limitation of the resolving power of the lens. It's analogous to pixel density defining the resolution of the camera. When light hits objects it is either absorbed, reflected or refracted. After light enters the lens it hits things like aperture blades and is reflected, but all these reflections don't end up in the same place, they are spread out over the sensor, therefore the effect is a blurring of the image. As you close down the aperture, light hitting the sensor from these reflections increases as a proportion of the total exposure. Therefore causing more blurring. At higher magnification, the amount of actual diffraction has changed negligibly, as the physical structure of the lens is virtually the same. You're just more zoomed in on the blurriness. Much like you wouldn't want to heavily crop an image beyond what the resolution can handle, perhaps taking a lens to 4x magnification just because you can isn't always the best idea.
Wide open softness comes more from the glass than the lens body. Effects like aberration from how light is refracted through the lens plays more of a role.
Micael, excellent class very clear and helpful. thank you so much
Glad you liked it 😃
A little bit of basic physics, common sense advice, great job Micael.
Fantastic work, following.
I very much enjoyed your teaching style Micael. By showing 'what' you mean and not just talking about it is a great help. e.g. the effective aperture formula. My 'challenge' is trying to hold my Canon 5D MkIV steady with my macro lens. I find tripods are not that flexible when chasing after insects :-(
I will try your tips.. thanks for this video
Quality as always
It's really great I loved the video thanks
Thanks for the content.
Besides the great video, It's nice to see Ricoh GR at your shelf ;-)
Thank you for sharing your great knowledge! As an inspiring macro photographer I find it extremely helpful. Greetings from Poland 🙂
Excellent advice.
Hi Michael. Great video thanks. What do you think of using some of the small adjustable LED panels for lighting for macro vs a flash?
2:46 I do like that also but besides that, I use the depth of focus preview button to see what exactly is in focus and what is not.
I learnt a lot from your videos. Thank you.
Excellent video point by point.
Please make a special video on DoF in macro.
GREAT LESSON
Thanks for the tips
If you have a mirrorless camera then turning on focus magnification is a good idea when doing manual focus, but another useful tool is to turn on focus peaking.
When you turn on focus peaking the part of the LCD display, or viewfinder that is in focus will change color. The mirrorless cameras I have used (Samsung NX300, and Sony a74) have focus peaking, and I think you can do focus peaking on most mirrorless cameras.
You can have all that using FREE Magic Lantern firmware on a Cheap Canon DSLR.
A mirrorless camera is inferior since using a DSLR, you can turn on the Macro Flash LED lamp and focus using the OVF (in the dark/low light situation) and then fire the ETTL macro flash.
"A pin-hole camera or smart phone is also mirrorless".
Thank you
Надо пересмотреть ещё раз. Спасибо!
Та ничего там такого нет, говорит о базовых вещах которые мы все и так знаем.
I've been using autofocus in macro for 15 years now - even early DSLR from Nikon like D70 and D50 can focusing in macro. Now i using m4/3 olympus and panasonic cameras with olympus 60/2.8 macro lens - no problem with autofocus.
Should I continue to use f8 at 2X magnification with a 61mp A7riv? Does the high pixel count change how I should use my aperature?
Great lesson simple and important for the subject and thank you. Can you give me please an example, a proposal, which fast flash is proper for my Nikon Z6?
I use the Meike mk320 which is cheap and good. Check my video about it.
Relating to DoF - would be cool if Venus Optics would make a more compact and lightweight Laowa mirrorless design 2x 100mm f/4 FF lens. And also add weather sealing. Thanks for the nice video! 😃
Weather sealing would be nice, I had to sprint inside the other day because of rain 😆
@@lShishkaBerryl Yes 🌧️😱 😂
Thanks for this!
My only question is when you are shooting targets in darker spots it can be impossible to see them in the viewfinder to get the correct focus. I've been using bright monitoring on my sony camera to fix this to some extent but its got its own problems (framerate can drop making it hard to focus).
Is the only solution getting a flash with AF assist LEDs? Or just never take macro pictures in dark locations?
Yeah an assist light can possibly help a bit. But I don’t have much more to recommend. You have to accept that the viewfinder gets a bit laggy
Look, I don't know what you said there, although my English is probably slowly progressing .... but I already wanted to throw out my Laove lens for 300 euros.! I watched your video, took out a camera, and macro photos began to turn out!!!! I can proof with my foto!
for wide DOF i have fifth point - it is not always necessary to strive for the maximum increase, because by increasing the focus distance, we also increase the value of DOF without aperture increasing.
When you use flash it goes at the beginning of the shoot or at the rear ?
Hi Michael, thank you, very good video. I took macro photo with reverse lens, but I want to buy my first macro lens. I'm looking for the Laowa 100mm or the 65mm. I use a Canon mirrorless camera and I have an adapter ef-m to ef. Which one of these lens do you suggest for begining? Thank you very much.
I would definitely buy the 65mm for a canon M camera. That lens is much smaller while giving you the same image quality as the 100mm.
Hi Michael, thanks for this newbie guide. Do you still focus manually if you focus stack?
Yes in focus stacking that is pretty much a must
Thanks
nice tips. Talk about macro video
What post processing do you use' and how important is your monitor in post?Loved those images.
Light editing in Lightroom classic. Check my playlist for Lightroom to see me in action.
I am looking into your favorite macro lens. Yours is a 60mm, yet in the site you posted, yours looks like a 100mm. how old is your lens? Have they changed them this much in size?
Thank you Micael. This was very instructive. You said that IBIS makes no difference, but didn't explain your reasoning. Can you let us know why?
Check the video about IBIS I linked in the description of this video. There I explain it in detail
What lens are you using on your Fuji? Thank you for the video!
Laowa 65mm most of the time - I think it is the best macro lens for Fuji. bit.ly/mwlaowa65
Hi Micael, I recently purchase Laowa 60mm, when I trying came across that its difficult to get equally sharper photos. ex. if shoot a flower some petals are sharper while some are blur. thanks if you can let me know how to over come this.
Hi! Yes this is one of the major challenges in macro photography. It is simply a law of physics: the closer you focus a lens, the shorter the depth of field. It is normal and expected to have only like a millimeter of sharpness in a macro photo. The best way to battle this is is to use a rather small aperture like f/11 and a flash to get enough light, or to do Focus Stacking.
Is it okay if i can buy lens from my xt30? i think macro is very fun and challenging. I am newbie in photography. Thanks for this kind of video
Not sure what lens you are referring to? For your camera my recommendation is the Laowa 65mm lens.
Hi, may i know you use film simulation(fuji camera) for macro photography? thanks.
No I never do that. I shoot raw and edit lightly in Lightroom
The first thing I noticed about macro photography is that trying to shoot spiders with a Nikon DX 40mm is quite scary.
If you focus by moving the camera, then hand hold. Correct? If so can you focus stack without using a tripod? Thanks for any help.
Yes. Search my name and handheld focus stacking and you can see how I do it
Thx for this vid'
1 flash question : how can i shoot under shutter speed sync (1/200s) like you do on exemple of ladybug without having my image half black because of the curtain ?
Thx.
You need to shoot at shutter speeds that your camera supports. If you see a half black photo due to the curtain it is probably because the camera does not support flash syncing at that speed. Try a different shutter speed and it will likely work better.
@@MicaelWidell yeah but with fuji and Sony i experience same thing. And like i thought you own same stuff, i was asking.
@@MartinScore16 When the frame is partly black it is usually due to shooting with a shutter speed faster than your cameras flash sync speed. If you are getting a half black frame while shooting slower than sync speed you may have a problem with the flash and camera not communicating correctly. Try a speed of say 1/60 and see if the problem is gone. If it is ok, try faster speeds until it reappears.
@@paulstickley4819 omg i m so sorry i realize my problem appears only at faster-than-sync speeds, not slower ones. Btw thanks for the answers^^
Niceee
Focus Peaking may be the greatest setting on my A7II lol, especially with my eyesight
Good video. I'm a beginner, in fact I am planning to buy my first camera and lens within the next month. I thought about Canon EOS RP (+ adapter) with Canon 100 mm IS macro lens. Too overkill or will I be satisfied for the near future? Cheers.
If you plan on shooting insects buy the Laowa 100mm so you get 2x magnification at half the price.
@@MicaelWidell I plan on shooting small creatures, you are correct. But also some stationary scenes in my home.
I've read up on every macro lens there is, just thought sticking to same brand (camera + lens) would help avoiding gear conflicts. Laowa, even Sigma 105 mm have been into my mind as well. Also Olympus 60 mm. Too much to choose from. I'll consider the Laowa one once again!
You shouldn’t worry about conflicts. No need to buy canon lenses for canon camera. The lens you mentioned is very good, but honestly I never want to go back to 1x lenses like that one. IS is completely unnecessary in macro photography - see my video about ibis in macro photography.
@@MicaelWidell Really appreciate your response. This will help me deciding what to buy, saving some money buying a cheaper lens means I could spend some extra on a flash, tripod or something else. Cheers, look forward to the world of macro.
@@MicaelWidell After some thinking, I might go this route: Canon RP + Laowa 100mm RF mount, will save me 6000 SEK!
Of course that, if you don't use flash, the use of very small apertures has another problem, the image gets very dark, if you don't use to high ISO values, or to long exposure times.
And how can I shoot a scenic shot on macro ? I mean what occurs other than diffraction and photo noise ? How can I reduce that blurry picture when I zoom in ?
Im selling all my gear
keeping my olympus 12-100mm
And selling 3 systems and going for the om-1 a 60mm macro lens 45mm
And a zoom 100-400mm
I'll keep my panasonic 12mm unless they come out with a wider lens
Hi MW, we have a few things in common. We both are wearing black T-shirt. My photos are same as the lighting covering left bottom and left bottom of this video....sorry just kidding! Very nice video, nicely summed up. Thankx a lot. I am not on Instagram or Facebook. Any other way I can send you my images for a review/advice?
Sorry I do not have time to review photos. People send too many so I say not to all of them. Sometimes I make videos where I review a bunch of photos.
Thanks for the video. Perhaps its a bit incomplete without a discussion of using flash.
Thank you. Didn’t want to make the video too long. If you want more details on how I recommend to use a flash in macro photography, please see my macro settings video and my “7 foolproof steps to a perfect macro photo” video
For the life of me I can’t get the focus correct on my laowa 100mm 2.8. Particularly on the eye. I want to get it tack sharp but it seems to focus around eyelashes and the middle of the eye is “ok” sharp but not super sharp. This is with an f11 aperture and focus peaking. I believe it may be a depth of field issue but I really want to fill the frame with the eye
How close are you focusing? If it is a closeup of the eye you might not be able to get it all in focus due to the extremely shallow DOF at close distances. This is due to laws of physics and not something you can ever fix, other than with focus stacking.
@@MicaelWidell not sure why I’m not getting notifications for responses. Anyways, so I’m focusing pretty close maybe 6-12 inches away. I did some macro work yesterday outside and the results were much better. I definitely had to use a flash due to light fall off but I was able to nail focus much more often. “Easy with stationary subjects” insects, I think I nailed 2 out of 50 😆. I’m going to try the focus stacking method while doing handheld to see if that gets any better results. The problem I have right now is just getting insects eyes in focus but maybe after more practice. “It seems like the focus peaking isn’t quite accurate in some cases but it’s certainly helpful”
I use focus stacking, but not so easy.
So, as per formula, our lense should be as per nominal appetite or effective aperture???
The nominal aperture is what you set on your lens, and the effective aperture is what you will get in terms of darkness and diffraction.
What macro lens are you using please?
@@cupcakeuk100 I own many macro lenses but most often I use the Laowa 60mm. See my video about it.
I’m using Sony 90mm
Sounds like I should be looking at videos on how to shoot macro with flash that doesn't look like flash
Micael has a lot of videos showing how he diffuses the flash. He has really helped me grow as a photographer! Keep watching.
Thanks for the Good Macro video.I am a beginner also. What is your Instagram page .
I Realy need help I'm using a Cannon 1300d T6 camera with Sigma70-300 macro lens ,also 50mm,90mm Tamron lens.Sometimes I get confused or forget what to do.
I recommend this video if you are a beginner: ruclips.net/video/YTl9-VWe1xg/видео.html My instagram: instagram.com/mwroll
I also prefer manual focus.
Do you ever use a tilt lens to get more depth of field in macro photography?
I doubt it will help much but I haven’t tried it yet.
@@MicaelWidell was looking at something like this...ruclips.net/video/QAraCdC8UHA/видео.html
this might be a dumb question.... but I'll risk the internet scorn and ask anyway. if I understand properly the wider the angle of a lens the more DOF it will have. is it easier to get sharp photos with the 25mm 2.5-5x than the 60 or 100mm 2x? I'm going to get a new macro lens, I have a Tamron G2 90mm 1x and I'm worried that I will get too frustrated with sharpness at 5x. do I have to stack every time of does it get sharp images with enough DOF SOOC?
thank you if anyone has time to answer
Focal length is of less importance the closer you get. At 1x magnification and above it is not very relevant at all. I cannot see a difference at least. DOF is always miniscule at 2x and above, especially as you have to shoot at very alrge aperture to avoid diffraction.
@@MicaelWidell I'm just wondering if I might get frustrated more getting a 2x and not getting the image I want in my mind or maybe if I get 2×-5× I get frustrated because I don't get any images lol I just know that 1:1 doesn't get me enough magnification, but is 2× enough and perhaps enough of a jump to start or should I just jump into the deep end of the pool and figure it out
Thank you for taking the time.
All 4 of these were “focus”.
Thank you
Thank you