Originally posted by chuck_c Nice shots Doundounba. Your "Blue Weirdo" looks like it's wearing a gas mask.
Thanks chuck_c! Over in the "Show me your insects" thread, hangman43 identified it as a "painted wing fly" (delphinia picta). Very weird indeed and, at least over here in Montreal, uncommon.
Originally posted by Wild Mark Love the macro's - very hard to do getting focus right and handshake. I am struggling that is for sure.
Thanks Wild Mark! It
is hard, and you also need to not spook the critters, especially with a 50mm. Some advice for shooting macro handheld and flashless, if I may? I'm still a n00b, but here are my observations so far:
- Unless you have a special reason to, don't shoot under F/8, and aim for at least F/11, if possible. Depth of field is so thin when you're close, and this will help a little.
- Turn on focus peaking, of course. What I actually do is prefocus the lens, and then move in very slowly until focus peaks and I see maximum details in the viewfinder. Then hit the shutter. (I'm also experimenting with the two-second shutter delay to minimize shake from shutter actuation, but this sometimes makes it harder if I'm holding the camera in a tiring position. I might try slow continuous shooting too, I think.)
- Don't hesitate to manually set iso 800 (or even 1600, if you must) to get faster shutter speed. (With a 50mm, a shutter slower than about 1/60 is pretty much hopeless.)
- Go out when there's a ton of light. Super bright, sunny days. From late afternoon, the light also has great quality, usually. (The down side to this is that direct sunlight on shiny bugs may cause blown highlights. You'd need a diffuser for the Sun. Days with a very thin cloud cover are actually pretty good.)
- Shoot a lot! Your hand movements will cause many shots to be blurry or just poorly framed. This is pretty much unavoidable, in my limited experience.
- Take your time and observe. It's amazing to realize how much stuff you don't see until you just stand completely still and observe. A patch of flowers will seem empty, and then after a few seconds it will come alive with insect life.
BTW, if you're shooting with a 50mm, it might be possible to use the onboard flash. At least for me, I can use my 50mm F/4 Macro with a 20mm extension (which gives me 1:1.1 macro) and get full coverage from the onboard flash. Any more extension though, and I get a lens shadow in the frame at MFD. (Still waiting on the cheap diffuser coming from China.)
Good luck!