Technique
The season of mists andmellow fruitfulness offers photographers the opportunities to hone their close-up andmacro shooting skills – but you need the right kit. Here’s our pick of great gear to help you get in close Get in close this autumn
Pack it in
against your back designed to help air flow? Other factors to ponder are carrying handles, straps or pockets to take a tripod; number of pockets; and protection levels. For more on camera bags, check out the buyers’ guide in this issue of Photography News . Lowepro: lowepro.co.uk Shimoda: shimodadesignseu.com MindShift Gear andThink Tank: snapperstuff.com Tamrac: intro2020.co.uk Tenba: tenba.com Vanguard: vanguardworld.co.uk
The photo backpack is the ideal outdoors camera bag, offering good capacity and carrying comfort, plus there’s plenty of choice out there in terms of style, capacity and protection levels. We all have differing needs when it comes to handling and usability, so good advice if you want to buy a bag, is visit your usual photo retailer and try candidates for yourself. Right now, that’s not so easy, but visit the bag-makers’ websites and you’ll see illustrated capacity guides that should help, although it doesn’t give you any idea how a bag behaves in the field or how comfortable it is fully laden. Key things to look for are the width and the level of padding in the shoulder straps; are waist and sternum straps fitted?; and is the area of the bag that’s resting LEFT The MindShift First Light 30L is a large backpack at £260, and has plenty of capacity for your photo hardware, but also for essential extras such as waterproofs, food and drink
and that you will be happier if you’re warm and dry. If you’re working at ground level, pack a kneeling mat or kneeling pads for comfort and a heavy-duty bin bag to keep your trousers clean and dry. A bin bag is also useful to sit on or, if it’s muddy, to rest your photo backpack. If you visit your local outdoor shop, check out the small rucksack covers, which make for great camera protectors when the heavens open, and microfibre travel towels to wipe down your kit if it gets wet. Conditions change quickly, so the last tip is to be prepared. Charge your batteries, have plenty of memory and pack your kit in readiness. Good luck!
AUTUMN BRINGS ALONGmany wonderful picture opportunities, especially for photographers keen to get up close and personal. To make the most of the colourful leaves and fungi, having the right kit helps. You can achieve a lot with your usual camera and lens, but supplementing your outfit with some extras will really help fulfil the scene's potential. Start with good self preparation – decent walking shoes or boots, dressing in layers topped with a water- and windproof jacket and a hat. Gloves are worth considering and so too are hand-warming packs. Basically, dress for comfort, bearing in mind that weather can change quickly
Focus bracketing&stacking
shot and the results can be stacked in software either dedicated for the job or in well-featured editing softwares such as Affinity Photo. A few cameras have focus stacking, which is focus bracketing taken one stage further, with the images being merged in-camera. Focus stacking is a great technique to have in your armoury, but it needs a static subject and, ideally, a camera support – although handholding is possible.
worry about. If it gets too annoying to work with, use manual focus. To check depth-of-field, you can use your camera’ preview facility, but with a tripod it’s easier and more effective to take a test shot and have a close look at the preview, making sure it’s sharp where you want it and tweaking the focus if not. Many cameras have automatic focus bracketing, which shoots a number of pictures, automatically varying the distance between each
The closer you get, the less depth-of-field you get, so even at f/11 or f/16, you might only get a few millimetres of sharpness. This means you need to be very critical with focusing, so using a tripod is very much a good thing, because it gives you that stability. When you get towards minimum focus, autofocus macro lenses can rack back and forth trying to find focus, regardless of how good the camera’s AF is, so it’s nothing to
Near focus
Far focus
Focus merged
ABOVE This 50-frame focus bracket was shot on a Fujifilm GFX 50R with the 120mm macro lens and the merge was done using Affinity Photo. Each exposure was 1/60sec at f/5.6, ISO 400
10 Photography News | Issue 82
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