Eye Macro

[amikhchi]

I have the Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro USM (literally just bought it a few days ago along with a 580 ex II), I'm trying to get some good macro shots of my friends eye. I tried a few methods (nto sure if i'm supposed to use flash or not)

Lights on, flash bouncing from ceiling, hard to get the focus on the iris, sometimes it's on eyelid, sometimes iris. but my reflection is clear as day in some of them. And the flash going off (when it's aimed up at an angle) is very bright in the reflection (not to mention pretty much everything around me is clear in the reflection as well)

also tried focusing on the iris, turning lights off and then shooting in the hopes of getting a wide open pupil shot, but i just got this flash so i'm not sure how to use it properly... but any tips or basic how-to ideas would be appreciated...

this was IMO one of the better ones
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1900/img1425q.jpg

f/2.8 1/60 ISO-800
not sure what the flash was set at... in retrospect maybe i should've put the iso a bit lower? but i know that's not the only problem

thanks in advance...

[wickerprints]

Well, based on your reflection, you are doing some funny stabilization thing with your arm/hand.

First of all, I should address the lighting. You can see your reflection in the subject's eye because you are illuminating yourself with the lighting. The light that reaches the subject's eye is being bounced off of the whole room and its contents, and that includes you.

If you don't want to show up in the reflection, you have to illuminate the subject directly. That means a twin light or ring light. But since you don't have those you would just point the 580 at your subject. There's not much need to bounce. You will want to select a faster shutter speed, lower ISO, and/or smaller aperture, so that the majority of the light entering the lens is coming from flash, not the ambient lighting. This is the first rule of flash: control the ratio of flash to ambient.

The second issue, AF, can be resolved by using manual focus. The way you do this is to practice your macro technique at distances close to the minimum focusing distance. Instead of turning the focusing ring, move your camera. LordV did this amazing tutorial (don't have a link handy) where he talks about swaying front-to-back a bit and timing the shot, rather than trying to hold the camera perfectly steady.

Finally, I should also address the exposure. You are clearly at least one full stop overexposed. This is because you are relying on your meter when the subject in question is not supposed to be 18% gray. So you should also adjust your exposure accordingly.