1st macro photo of a Bee with my EF 100mm macro lens

[Dao]

Photo taken hand held at City Garden in St. Louis
Bought a used EF 100mm F/2.8 macro lens (non-usm)
Photo taken with AV mode, aperture F/2.8, shutter speed 1/250. PP done with GIMP.

Even with 100mm, I still feel I stand too close to the bee . Imagine using 50mm macro lens. Now I know why others say 180mm is better! (but cost a lot more)

 

[WTF?]

itd be better if the whole, or more of the bee was in focus, but certainly a very good first go.

 

[Dao]

Thanks for your comment. I agree. I will try to use a smaller aperture and find another bee today.

 

[Overread]

Welcome to macro work - and yes our working distances are tiny!

You have already hit the first hurdle, the tiny depth of field, and you have done very well to frame the shot and compose it with focus right where it needs to be (eyes!). Of course at f2.8 you don't have much depth and if you want to go for more whilst retaining your handholding speeds you have a few options:

1) Raising the ISO - I don't like this idea personally since I find higher ISOs kill finer shot details, and a great attraction to me (And I know many other macro shooters) is capturing those fine details/

2) Reflectors and boosting natural lighting - working in the hight of the day and using reflectors to direct more light onto your subject. Of course the downside toworking later in the day is that the bug are far more active and will move around a lot - making shooting tricky.

3) Flash - this is a complex area once you get into it, done well it can give you fantastic results at far smaller apertures without having to lose your shutter speed. Downside is that its not only costly, but complext at times - if you do this rout start simple and work your way up is my advice.

I do like hte shot and the wide aperture has given it a fantastic cream bokeh - well done.

 

[Soocom1]

My macro photography is not the best, as I too am only starting out.
So an additiona question would be, what if you use the rule of aiming for center mass. Even if it is assumed? Set the apature one stop higher, and voila, the bee is in focus all around? or am I blowing smoke here?

 

[Overread]

The problem is the tiny depth of field - even at small apertures like f13, you still have very little actual depth to work with. What you describe might work sometimes, provided that you were targetting a smaller bug and with the right angle, but usualy the best place to aim is for the eyes - since that is what most people look to first with an animal shot

 

[Dao]

Overread. Thank you so much for your comments. I will try your suggestions especially with the reflector. And will try the flash and see what happened.

As for reflector, do you think the one that mount on the lens is better for this type of photos?

 

[Overread]

Well for macro you don't need a massive reflector to change the lighting - and yes one mounted on the lens would work well - I have even considered using one myself on the underside so that as flash throws light over the top the reflector will reflect flashlight up to the underside of the subject (least in theory).
Experiment and see what works best for you -

 

[kundalini]

YIKES!!! f/2.8 and you were able to get that much in (sharp) focus?

Well done.

 

[Barking Mad]

YIKES!!! f/2.8 and you were able to get that much in (sharp) focus?

Well done.

I'm going to have to agree with Kundalini!

I've only just started macro shooting and with f/2.8 I could only dream of getting something that sharp. The sharpness of the eyes is really amazing, and as someone who is deathly allergic to bees, I wouldn't want to get that close to one, macro or not.

The only thing I would have done differently in PP is bump the saturation up a tiny bit. I'm really fond of the colours you have going there, would just be nice if they "popped" a bit more.