First shot with my new Macro

Hi, First of all this is my first post on this forum so please be gentle If it is in the wrong forum I am sorry and understand if it has to be put elsewhere.

I bought a new lens yesterday, a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. This was my third shot with the lens and I can obviously see that many improvements can be made. My problem is how to make them.

Equipment used was a Cannon 500D, The above mentioned lens, onboard flash. I used Auto exposure and I dont know what ISO but think it might have been 400. Distance between lens and stamp was 20 inches appx.

I have been reading many threads on this forum and feel perhaps I should use AV setting. If I do this I assume I should set the apperture to 2.8 and 100 ISO? Would this be better? I do have the ability to use my speedlite 430 EX2 as an off the camera flash.


I would have expected a sharper picture but perhaps postage stamps are not printed to tha quality I expected. One obvious fault in the photo is the out of focus at the bottom. I can understand the DOF principle but an image on the same plane as the rest of the stamp I dont understand why that is way out of focus?

If anyone can offer me help on this shot or basic things that I am doing wrong it would be much appreciated. I am new to Macro photography and although I will be trying to learn from previous threads I feel that direct help will be beneficial at the moment.

Cheers

Nigel

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Not really sure what you want to achieve with this photograph except to have a digital archive image of the stamp. Auto or Av doesn't really matter in this situation - you're shooting on a single plane of focus, not wanting to create any background or foreground effects. The blur in the bottom corner would suggest to me that the stamp was not entirely flat on the table or was otherwise a little bent. DOF in a macro shot is even narrower than you might expect - f6, for example, it still pretty thin.

As soon as I got my 100Macro a couple years ago, I wanted to try it out and here is my first subject using the lens: http://www.nathantpham​.com …on/497102301_c8​rZe-XL.jpg . You will see that where Washington's face is out of the DOF, it is blurry. Additionally, parts of the quarter are out of the DOF area if you inspect it closely: http://www.nathantpham​.com …ao=0#497102301_​c8rZe-O-LB.

I have two suggestions for your. 1) Think of a composition to include this stamp in. For example, it would be nice to see a wooden frame around the stamp in which it is kept and portions of the table around that. 2) Fix your white balance.

Your aperture was f/3.5. Macro lenses have vary shallow depths of field. If there was any deviation in the camera and subject being in the same plane, that's your answer with respect to the out of focus corner. Do yourself a favor and invest in a tripod and remote release. I don't see any reason why this shot should require a flash, especially the pop-up.

May we presume that the stamp was white? If so, you need to adjust levels a bit in post processing in order to bring the white back. For shots of this type where white (or black) predominate, your camera's meter will move the whites (or blacks) to gray because the rule that it uses is that the overall scene should have 18% reflectance. It doesn't know that it's supposed to be white.

Hi... Thanks for those 2 replys. I have taken everything on board.

In reply to Nathan, I am not trying to achieve anything at all, just when I started to play around with the lens the first thing I could think of was what an I take a pic of that is small. I used 2 coins first of all and they came out fine, showing any imperfections that were hard to find with the naked eye. But it was when I got to the stamp that I could not get the focusing right. I believe my equipment is fine but yes, I think I should get another tripod... At the moment, I am using an old but very sturdy Velbon with two legs half out and the back leg fully extended and propped up against a low table... Yes, I will buy a better tripod for sure, should I get one with a level built in? Any suggestions? But in this case, I really dont think the tripod is the problem as it always seems to be the words at the bottom of the stamp that are out of focus, nothing else. Perhaps the lens is not exactly vertical? I took a close look at the printing and it seems ok and if I focus on the words themselves they come out fine. I have used Manual and Auto focus. As for the colouring of the stamp, I did find that switching to fluorescent as I have those rotten energy saving bulbs and that made a difference but that does not bother me as when I have the focussing sorted out I can adjust WB, I know how to do that.

I have also been trying portrait with the lens and being alone here is not an ideal situation so I went hand held, blue tacked a plastic football on to the tripod, put on a wooly hat (on the football) and I have been getting great results, no probs at all. DOF has been brilliant. Its just this close up that I have to learn.

I have a couple of questions.... Joedlh said this shot does not really need flash, but does that go for all close up macro work?

Would an off camera flash be useful, I can use that if needed.

Should everything on the same plane be in focus or only the centre be in focus.

Sorry for the stupid questions,

Cheers

Nigel.

There are no stupid questions, so feel free to keep asking them.

Regarding the tripod issue, if you're shooting inside it won't matter terribly if you use a cheap one. It's when you go outside that you may find you need a better tripod. A tripod is needed in macro photography for stability. Outside, the wind or rough terrain can cause your tripod to shake. I don't think you will experience much indoors.

That said, for macro you should look for a remote shutter release. The reason is because when you press the shutter release button with your finger, at such close focusing with a macro lens you will pick up camera shake. They can be had for cheap on ebay. Read about them here: https://photography-on-the.net …60&highlight=eb​ay+trigger

You don't need flash because there's no depth to a stamp. It's flat and you don't need directional light. Subjects like jewelry or bugs have dimension to them and you want lighting to help bring out details. I disagree with joedlh, however, because you might want to play around with some lighting sources to get the reflectivity of the silver bust in the upper left of the stamp. Off camera flash can be helpful and a lot of people use ring flash for macro photography.

Thanks for that reply Nathan, I do have a remote Shutter release but have only used it once. I will check the battery use it a lot more from now on. My tripod is a very steady one even though it is old but I will have to get a better one some time so I may as well do that sooner rather than later. I will get one with a bubble in it so that I will then know the lens is 90 deg from the ground, therefore eliminating any out of focus parts of a close up subject. Perhaps I may see some docile wasps or the like soon and will try to get a few close up's of them.

I drive up to Leeds area in the morning, not much there to see but from there I will be going to close by Aberdeen and hope to get more use of my new lens there.

Cheers

Nigel

The bubble level won't solve your problems. The best thing for you to do is to shoot the photo and then zoom into your LCD or tether to a laptop and check for sharpness.

Did you figure out why that lower left corner of the stamp was out of focus? Again, I think it was because the corner was slightly bent upwards. The rest of the stamp looks flat, so the camera seems level with the stamp.

Thanks again for those replies. I have driven up to Scotland for a couple of weeks so may not be online every night. I think that going to be a long time before I am fully used to the macro lens. It seems to be a complete different ball game now. I look at various photos taken with almost identical equipment to mine and the results are stunning.

I am 98% certain that the stamp was flat. I understand that dof will be very shallow but why the bottom of the stamp was out of focus by so much baffles me right now.

I will give the camera settings that I try to take close ups of insects with... Are they alright?

1) Fully Auto.
2) AV... Aperture of appx f8, ISO of 100, WB as required, The lens is a 2.8 so if I set the camera aperture to f8 or f11, would that give me a slightly longer dof.
3)TV... Shutter speed appx 160, ISO 100, WB as required.

My main question wounld be... If I set the aperture on the camera to f5.6 of higher, would that give me a slightly larger dof or would that get over ridden by the fact that my lens is a 2.8 and regardless of how my camera is set, I will always have an aperture of f2.8.

Cheers

Nigel.

Depth of field is a calculation based, in part, on your f-number, focal length and distance to the subject. I never did understand the math part of it, though, since I never studied it carefully. To answer your question, all things being equal, your depth of field will increase as your aperture gets smaller. In other words, as your f-number gets higher -- say from f2.8 to f11 -- your depth of field will get larger. You're not fixed to f2.8.

Find a nonflat subject and take photos. You need to see this in real life. You'll begin to see what all of this means. Reading about it and not trying it out will not train your photographic skills. Insects will be tough to photograph as you are first starting out. Try a dead one in a display case... or try shooting some jewelry... Even try shooting the buttons on your cell phone or a piece of bread... shoot anything at all, but the fact remains that you have to shoot something with depth.

you dont have bugs lying around your house? they are better subjects. IMHO