Macro was dead to me till I saw this!!!!

I am a gear junkie and when I saw what a 100mm canon macro could do I was sold, after owning one and shooting alot in the first month I started to not like it, I always has too much dof and almost every shot was blury!, I can get very nice pics of flowers and other non living or should I say mobile things, as soon as I see a bug they run,fly or walk away..

So it sits with my other gear unused.

BUT today I see this!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com …eature=feedrec_​grec_index

F22 !!!!! at 250!!!!!!!!!! WOW

My question is this, will a ring light make macro easy and fun?

Will it let me get more DOF and sharp shots of bugs?


If so what ring flash is good?

Have you not been using any flash? Most macro photography almost requires flash. I would use some kind of flash + diffuser, ring flash is hardly necessary.

F22 is a bit excessive to me, but whatever floats your boat.

You also know that the 7D has a special servo mode that kicks in when it detects you are using a Canon USM macro lens right?

themadman wrote in post #11964896
Have you not been using any flash? Most macro photography almost requires flash. I would use some kind of flash + diffuser, ring flash is hardly necessary.

F22 is a bit excessive to me, but whatever floats your boat.

You also know that the 7D has a special servo mode that kicks in when it detects you are using a Canon USM macro lens right?

I have a 430ex but never used it.....

Never mounted my 100mm on my 7d as I was bored of macro at the time,also I bought the 7D in winter so my world was snow.

Will the 430 be anything like a ring flash?

Oh man you have lots to explore. 430ex is what I use, natural light or the 580ex. You either like macro or you don't. f/8 to f/13 is where I like to be.

A flash is almost a necessity for most macro photography, especially for anything higher than 1:2 magnification.

Like the poster above, I also find f/22 a bit excessive; while you get more DOF, optical diffraction starts to become apparent, and more post-processing will be needed to make your images sharp again. I typically shoot at about f/11, which I've found to be the sweet spot for sharpness in the macro lenses I've used. Instead of aiming for maximum depth of field, I usually like to leave the lens in manual focus and just worry about getting the eyes in focus by moving the camera back and forth.

A ring light, or any flash at all will almost certainly help you get more shots of bugs, but it won't necessarily make macro any easier; I still find Macro to be one of the most challenging types of photography and it requires a lot of patience, steady hands, and technical skill. You'll find that a lot of people here don't even use a ring light; I personally use a 430EX positioned at an angle with an off-camera cord for most of my lighting needs, and other members have had great results wish similar setups.

As for whether it is fun, that's for you to decide; I think crawling on my stomach on a gravel beach and scraping up my arms to sneak up on a single dragonfly is fun, but that's just me.

I am in the "show me your rig" thread and I am such a moron!

I have everything I need to set up my camera to do this right and I just never did it.

I can even pose a humming bird .

shayneyasinski wrote in post #11964987
I am in the "show me your rig" thread and I am such a moron!

I have everything I need to set up my camera to do this right and I just never did it.

I can even pose a humming bird .

It's a great thread that will really teach you about what an ideal macro setup looks like. Natural light shots are obviously more difficult and tripod is pretty much a must. Your flash will work fine with the setup, just see if you can explore some bracket and diffuser setups that make for good photographs

I built up a frankenstien bracket with my 5d and 430 , I can now hand hold at f7.1 to 22 and get very nice results, I will work on a better bracket for the flash and wait till bug season starts!!

thanks for the help.

Glad you are enjoying macro again! =)

Did your little hummer stay in Canada for the winter? They do make pretty good pets, but they need room to fly, and the right food, which is spiders and nectar. Kind of cool if he has decided to become tame. In the wild, they live 4 years, but they can live up to 13 years if tame.

canonloader wrote in post #11978983
Did your little hummer stay in Canada for the winter? They do make pretty good pets, but they need room to fly, and the right food, which is spiders and nectar. Kind of cool if he has decided to become tame. In the wild, they live 4 years, but they can live up to 13 years if tame.

About 6 to 15 a year come to me and sit and play, I always put them on a feeder then run and hide so they go away.

I hope to get some really good shots this year.

My grandfather, his daughter (my mom) and I all can call birds and they will fly to us and sit, Both mom and grandpa have passed and I am not as good as they were but I still get alot of hummingbirds.

neat pic!!

Never mind the picture...a little blurry...being able to call birds to you like that is bloody awesome.

Make sure you build yourself a diffuser for the 430Ex. It makes such a huge difference in the image quality. If I could offer you only one tip on macro photography, diffusing your flash would be it.

CheerS!

personally, i dont like dark backgrounds...