Macro shooting - leaning in or hand focusing?

Hey everyone,

I’m hoping to get some advice on best ways to focus while doing macro shooting. Should I be leaning in and out or should I be focusing with the lens barrel directly? I’ve heard people discuss doing it both ways, and I’m finding it difficult using the lens barrel technique on my 100mm macro. The DOF is just so thin! But I’m also worried that leaning out and in might be frowned upon, and I don’t want to get myself into bad habits.

Any advice is appreciated!

Mark

Hey Mark

I’m only new around here, but I do macro photography and think that the leaning in and out method works best. Sometimes you don’t have time to be focusing with your hand - the big can disappear quicker than you think!

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the leaning in and out method. It gets good results and doesn’t remove the challenge of macro photography, so knock yourself out!

Matt

I do auto focus then lean in/out, then take a bunch of frames. If you are hand held I don't know what else you would do. Just taking a breath moves you more than your depth of field can handle.

You need to move either forward or back. If you use the lens barrel, you change the magnification.

I would think moving in and out would duplicate the movement of a set of focusing rails on a tripod. I can't see anything wrong with that.

With insects particularly, set the amount of magnification you want, then lean in and out attempting to immerse your subject in the DOF.

Using the focusing ring annoys the hell out of bugs and is almost always less efficient than leaning. Using Autofocus is quite the most futile thing imaginable! One keeper out of every twenty shots you take and not one of those will actually turn out to be genuine 1:1 Macro.

For insects high up it is worth carrying a beanpole around as a support.

I find that leaning is just more comfortable and I feel like my keeper rate is higher. As you mentioned, the depth of field is so tiny that even a breath alters your focus. Once I started the leaning method I quickly learned to control my breath and just know when I'm going to reach my desired focus point so I can time the shot better.

With insects, having your hand on the barrel also presents more 'stuff' coming at them which might scare them more easily.

When doing manual focus I use my hand and focus it about where I want then lean.