Originally posted by vagabond79 old4570,
I have seen some of your posts in the macro forum as well. I really like your images.
So how has your macro photography evolved? What sort of stuff do you do now to get better images than when you were early in the game? What mistakes did you used to make? Etc.
Cheers.
Ok .. I started slowly , I did one thing at a time , Aperture / ISO / and shutter speed ...
Only after I fully understood , the relationship and needs for macro did I move onto using a flash ...
About this time , I started collecting Macro lenses .. And as I used better gear my photos got substantially better - which also brought along greater understanding .
And every so often I would re-visit the gear used earlier to see what sort of pictures I could take ...
And it was some what of a revelation to see how good the shots were ( using the cheap gear ) after having some Macro miles under my belt .
So the bottom line is as simple as understanding the basic's , and practice , practice some more .. You never stop learning ..
I would have taken thousands and thousand of pictures in the last 12 months , something not possible in the 35mm days .
K100D Super
Sigma 28-90 1:2.8 So called Macro lens
+ 4 close focus filter
That K100D super got a lot of use , it was my practice camera ( I actually had a dedicated practice camera , well 3 actually , Both iSTD cameras and the K100D , all sold now )
If you used the K100D properly , it could take amazing pictures ..
I have been some what lucky picking up used gear at reasonable prices , otherwise I would have got no where near as many shutter actuations under my belt .
So anyone starting out , yeah buy a practice camera ( Cheap ) and don't be afraid of clocking up a serious shutter count ..
Its only by taking photos , then looking at the results that you can see what is going on .. For that , digital rules supreme .. Im still amazed that some camera courses here ( Local - Melbourne - Australia ) specify 35mm cameras to be used for the course .. I think this is seriously antiquated thinking and slows down the learning process monumentally and drives up the expense of learning ..
All it cost me was the price of electricity to recharge my Nimh batteries ... ( And I had nothing better to do anyways - so learning a new skill = priceless )
Changes over time =
Probably the use of better more dedicated gear ...
Mistakes = Probably all of them at one time or another ...
What's important is to recognise the mistake , then find a way to correct it ...
Early to now :
The secret to Macro is LIGHT ! , you need to make sure you have enough off it ..
Be you shooting natural light , or with a flash ...
The rest is the basic photography rules .. But you do need to learn the relationship between light and the rest as its just so much more critical in macro ..
Also what sort of Macro ?
I see a lot of shallow depth of focus shots , but the colours , and the layout of the picture work .
My photography is more subject focused , and I want the entire subject in Focus , so over all the entire photo may be less appealing . even though the subject is razor sharp .
And the location where you are taking photos , may be very limited ( Angles - the amount of time you have ) , especially with say bees ( I do like bees ) as the window of opportunity may be very short .
I often find that with bees I have less than 5 seconds to get the shot , that's not a lot of time to get creative . Its more like shoot and shoot some more and your lucky if you score a good photo .
You may have lots of bees in focus , but the light might be bad , the angle is bad , etc ..
So in that regard my gear has evolved for the fast macro shot , and to maximize opportunity . This is all very individual , and is something folks have to develop for themselves .