Photography News Issue 44

Photography News | Issue 44 | absolutephoto.com

Technique 23

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Improve your macro lens technique Here are three common close-up problems photographers face and how to beat them

PART 2

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1. Keep it steady

position is locked off on a tripod, then find a way of securing the subject. You can buy bespoke clips, clamps and supports to do this or go down the DIY route using garden ties. Also consider using a windbreak to protect the subject; even your camera bag can help with this. Alternatively, try to shoot indoors, near a window, which will give you the natural light look, without the weather. If you’re handholding the camera, shutter speed becomes a factor, too. Lower speeds will show up more movement, so increase ISO to offset this, freezing minor movements in the subject and from the camera.

Due to the high magnification involved, even small movements from subject or camera position can cause motion blur in macro shots. This becomes even worse when using very high-resolution sensors, which show up more blur than lower resolution versions (the motion covers more pixels, so it’s more visible). And even if you’ve focused perfectly, slight movement can also push the subject out of the zone of sharpness. This is mainly a problem when shooting outdoors as even a light breeze can look like a typhoon under macro focusing. To get around it, first make sure the camera

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3. Get more accurate focus

Focusing macro lenses is as much a mixture of technical challenge as creative choice. The shallow depth-of-field produced by focusing to close to the camera requires great accuracy, and even minor movements from you or the subject will see the point of sharpness shift; even slight misfocusing is the ruination of many macro shots. Autofocus isn’t always the best method when shooting macro and the AF system will often hunt for sharp focus. That can mean you missing the shot completely. Instead, try manual focusing with the viewfinder. For static shots, using live view is a great option because you see exactly what’s being recorded. It’s a very accurate way to work. Switch on the camera’s live view mode and set the focus to manual on the lens. Compose and bring the subject into focus, then activate the magnified view to check the point of sharpness. Many cameras will allow up to a 10x magnification which can be set at any point in the frame. Find the part that you want to be the point of focus and adjust the focusing ring to fine tune the sharpness from there. For added accuracy, if your camera has it, switch on the focus peaking mode. This function will add a coloured overlay to the parts of the subject that are in focus.

The closer you focus on the subject, the shallower the depth-of-field will be and as macro lenses focus just centimetres from the front element, the zone of sharpness is correspondingly small. So, while on a regular lens you might need to use apertures like f/2.8 to get a shallow depth-of-field, with your macro lens focusing at close to its minimum, such a wide aperture might produce an almost unworkably shallow focus. In this way, especially when handholding the camera, or with even minor subject movement, it can be impossible to achieve a consistent point of sharpness. Therefore it’s actually better to close the aperture when you are shooting macro. While the shallow depth- of-field look is initially appealing, if you take a look at many professional-level shots you will find that they’re full of detail thanks to their use higher f numbers. Settings of f/11 or f/16 are useful as they provide more depth-of-field and more room for focusing error, but even these still produce only a small depth-of-field so care is always needed. However, you need to be aware that smaller apertures mean slower shutter speeds, so you’ll either need to lock off the camera or add lots of light if you want to keep the speed up. And if you go beyond f/16, as many macro lenses do, although you’ll get more depth-of-field, you may start to lose the fine details through diffraction. Finally, remember you don’t need to shoot at the minimum focusing distance all the time. Moving back from the subject and a lower magnification gives the benefit of greater depth-of-field. 2. Increase the depth-of-field

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f/11