New to the whole macro world

DigitalMom

Finally picked up the 100mm f/2.8 macro this past weekend and finally realized what I've been missing lol

Thought I'd share. Still getting used to it but all hand-held.

C&C always welcome

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DeeCajun

Great shots.. I just got that same lens and after shooting landscape mostly I have also found a whole new world... I can't do the hand held ! Great job.

Lord Vetinari

Good series esp for first go with the lens.
With flash and the camera in M mode you will get much more DOF with the aperture around F11.
Brian V.

DigitalMom

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Good series esp for first go with the lens.
With flash and the camera in M mode you will get much more DOF with the aperture around F11.
Brian V.

Thank you

I have "trained" myself to shoot in manual and with these I did use the flash, with the exception of the spider. I was looking around online and was wondering, is a macro ring flash worth it? On some of the shots, my flash was a little hot for working with macro, so I think I might have answered my own question lol

mehampson

I like the spider -- getting the focal plane lined up where you want it is always challenge, so well done getting such a thin focus on the eyes.

The ring flash may or may not be worth it to you. Do you mean a popup/on-camera or an off-camera flash unit was too hot? If it's on-camera, I wouldn't recommend getting a ring flash before you get a regular flash and off-camera system of some kind. It's too specialized. With a normal flash, you can pull it out of your bag for nearly any purpose, and you'll get comfortable with lighting much faster. It's cheaper, too.

If it's already off-camera, try softening it with a small cheap or DIY diffuser (there are loads of designs and materials you can try) and experiment with brackets and positioning before you give up on it. Lots of people get great results this way.

DigitalMom

mehampson wrote:

I like the spider -- getting the focal plane lined up where you want it is always challenge, so well done getting such a thin focus on the eyes.

The ring flash may or may not be worth it to you. Do you mean a popup/on-camera or an off-camera flash unit was too hot? If it's on-camera, I wouldn't recommend getting a ring flash before you get a regular flash and off-camera system of some kind. It's too specialized. With a normal flash, you can pull it out of your bag for nearly any purpose, and you'll get comfortable with lighting much faster. It's cheaper, too.

If it's already off-camera, try softening it with a small cheap or DIY diffuser (there are loads of designs and materials you can try) and experiment with brackets and positioning before you give up on it. Lots of people get great results this way.

Thanks Michael.

It's an off camera flash. I have the diffuser that came with the flash but it just doesn't seem to diffuse it a whole bunch. I'll look around and see if there's a DIY that I can accomplish before setting off on another direction.

craig_d

DigitalMom wrote:

I was looking around online and was wondering, is a macro ring flash worth it? On some of the shots, my flash was a little hot for working with macro, so I think I might have answered my own question lol

The Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite is a fun accessory for macro work. I just got one recently and have yet to explore all of its possibilities (you can independently adjust the light intensity of each side of the ring, and it can serve as a master for off-camera slave Canon Speedlites). You can see a few pictures I've taken with it (here). Even using it in the simplest way possible, I like it because it doesn't create the harsh shadows that an ordinary direct flash would, and it frees me from worrying about whether I have enough light to stop down to f/11.

Bear in mind that the MR-14EX (and also, I think, the MT-24 Macro Twin Lite) is designed to fit onto the end of a lens that takes 58mm filters. It will fit the EF 100mm f/2.8 USM, but the new IS macro lens requires a 67mm to 58mm step-down ring to mount these macro flashes. I use a Tokina 100mm macro that takes 55mm filters, so I put a 55-58mm step-up ring on it, and the MR-14EX attaches securely to that.

mehampson

DigitalMom wrote:

Thanks Michael.

It's an off camera flash. I have the diffuser that came with the flash but it just doesn't seem to diffuse it a whole bunch. I'll look around and see if there's a DIY that I can accomplish before setting off on another direction.

Yeah, that diffuser won't do much for macro. There's two basic types: the kind that scatters light in more directions directly from the flash head, to bounce it off of walls and ceilings; and the kind that catches light a bit in front of the flash and redirects it onto the subject.

The first kind is what usually comes with a flash, and it's not going to do much for macro, since it's reflecting a low-powered flash pulse off of walls that are way too far away, compared to how close the subject is. It's throwing light away with no benefit, even for non-macro subjects if you're not in the right kind of space.

The kind you want is more like a mini umbrella or softbox. It'll make the light appear softer, because it's making the apparent size of the light source much larger. If you've got a good material diffusing it, it'll also help control the hot spots on a shiny surface, since you're sort of "thinning out" the light over a larger area.

Though honestly, before you put down money on lighting modifiers, I would think about what kind of macro you're most interested in. If the spider really represents what you want to shoot, you'll want to think about a mobile handheld rig to keep up with the critters, something like a bracket with a flash-mounted diffuser, or a ring/twin light. If you're more interested in still lifes, abstracts, textures, that sort of thing, the simplest thing might be to get a cheap light stand, umbrella, and radio triggers. That kit would be pretty powerful and versatile -- based on your name, I assume you probably take photos of kids too, and would also be really handy for lighting them, much more than the ring light would be. Depends entirely on your interests, and of course on how far off the deep end you want to go

Daver2112

Love the last one!! Nice work.

DigitalMom

Thank you everyone!

Craig, the MR-14X is the one I was looking at. I like the fact of the easy portability, stick it on the end of the lens and go.

The spider was just a "find". Shooting insects will be cool but I really don't think that's going to be the area that I want to head. I like the botanical end of it, so triggering my flash just might be my best bet. I have all that anyways, so maybe tomorrow, I'll set it up and see how I like the light coming out of the softbox.

Again...thank you

GOLDENORFE

welcome to the wonderfull world of macro

good first shots.

phil