How to Shoot Macro Photos

Using a macro lens often times requires the use of a tripod, mirror lock, and remote timer.  This will minimize the shake and camera movement factors from your shots.  You can achieve the perfect macro shot by using a little planning and ensuring no camera shake will occur.  Only if using a ring flash or external lights will you be able to get enough light at narrow apertures to ensure proper exposure.

When using the Canon EF 100 2.8 Macro lens, you are shooting at a very close focusing distance, yet using a lens with a 100 mm focal length….   This means depth of field is very narrow! 

Here we take the Canon and mount it on a tripod. This establishes the stability we need to take a photo using extremely narrow DOF. It also allows us to get close and use Live View for focusing.

Using live view mode we can actually see the current DOF of our lens aperture. Because I have a 100 F/2.8 lens in live view we see F/2.8. That is where the trick comes in, we can see the F/2.8 aperture DOF but we can also see other aperture stop DOF’s…. How? We simply press the DOF Preview button located on the bottom left of your canon. Its in the front of your camera below the lens release button. Press it and live view will add extra illumination and at the same time now show you the actual DOF that will be achieved in your shot! We have shots with 3 apertures,  F2.8, F10 and F18.

Here we start with Av mode, we select F/10 and activate live view. We see instantly our image, but the DOF is actually the widest the lens is capable of…

By pressing the DOF preview button on your XSi or other digital SLR, we can now see the DOF of the aperture you have selected.

By reducing the aperture even further, we are now able to see the full extent of what we will be shooting.

Contrary to all other advise in landscape and DOF lessons where we suggest staying away from narrow apertures above F/8 or F/11, when shooting Macro the photographer is forced to use apertures narrower than F/11. In this instance I am willing to use F/18 to increase DOF to an adequate ammount. However, if you went to the maximum of this lens F/32 you would then see a blur from diffraction. There is a balance with macro lenses, and the aperture can be narrower than F/11 without need to worry about diffraction until extreme apertures are selected (likely above F/22).

 

As you can see, the narrower our aperture the more DOF we have.  In the macro environment it is appropriate to use a very narrow aperture to achieve the DOF that you require. Using these techniques you can photograph any subject matter you need up close and control the aperture to ensure adequate DOF for your image.

Macro Gallery