Help me With Macro

[Dale H. Cook122 16]

Well, this is interesting.

It occurred to me that one shot with 70 exposures amounts to around 2 gigs. Are people seriously using that much storage? Their houses must look like data centers.

My house doesn't look like a data center. I have 4 TB on the laptop, and 6 TB for the desktop. I use 2 TB SSDs for the C drives, and a single mechanical drive for the remaining D drive storage on each machine. I have a large USB drive for backup. I need a lot of storage. My nearly 40 years as a serious genealogical researcher accounts for about 1 TB of storage, some of it in scanned genealogical books, but most of it in manuscript volumes of old town, city, and county records compiled from page images digitized from LDS microfilms. As someone who began working with mainframes in 1967 I long ago learned that, for a major computer user, there is no such thing as too much storage.

 

[40737015]

Today I realized nobody is taking really good macro photographs of live bugs in the wild, using full-frame or APS-C, with good DOF, without killing, chilling, or gassing them.

Am I wrong?

Yes you are wrong:

These 3 pics were taken on my Z8. This is the level possible using a camera in the wild, There is no barrier to what other people do to get their image they post on Instagram. There seems to be a growing acceptance of images based on actual photographs but edited using Nano Banana AI or similar, which produces technically perfect images that cannot be reproduced outside of AI editing.

Ignore other photographs. Concentrate on your own workflow and get what you can out of it.

Focus stacking does not work on a subject that is moving. Assume anything sitting on a leaf is moving. Focus rails in an outdoor setting are impossible to use, save yourself the frustration.

Handheld focus stacking does work but only with a great deal of practice and a good flash. OEM flashes have real trouble with this process. Get a cheap second hand Godox TT 520.

hOPE ALL THAT HELPS.

cheers
jbo

 

[Dale H. Cook122 16]

I have had good results from my smc Pentax-D FA Macro 100mm f/2.8 WR on my K-70. I am fortunate that I have a camera store in town, so I was able to try the one in their display case on my K-70 before purchasing the last one that they had on the shelf.

 

[40737015]

The focus of this thread seems to be on gear.

10% of nature photography is dependant on gear. 90% of good nature photography is fieldcraft.

To get a good nature photograph you have to:
1 - be in the right place at the right time
2 - be quick. If you take more that 3 seconds to focus you will miss the shot. Apply the settings you need before you lift the camera to your eye. Cameras with FULL AUTO mode are a great advantage. My baseline settings are AUTO ISO + F5 + 1/500 Sec there settings change as the sun goes in and out or if I want to gat a moving subject ( Bumble Bee wings beat really fast so I use 1/10000 Sec). I constantly change my settings as I will not have time to change them when I spot a subject.
3 - make as little noise as possible and dont make sudden lunges.
4 - Resist the temptation to apply a load of deodorant before you leave home. Insects primary method of communication is Pheromones (smell). Wearing deodorant is a like doing bird photography while letting off an air horn every 10 seconds.
5 - patience is a virtue. Staying still and quiet for 10 minutes will get you much better photographs than any amount of gear
6 - get to know the venue. There is a little nature reserve not far from me and I have visited it about 50 times over the last 18 months. I can tell you where the best spots are for dragon flies, Hornets, butterflies, fungi and at what time of year I can expect to see different subjects.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[Dale H. Cook122 16]

10% of nature photography is dependent on gear. 90% of good nature photography is fieldcraft.

I will agree with that. I enjoy photographing flowers, but they are sedentary. I enjoy photographing insects, but I have to be a lot faster for those (except for recently emerged and newly dry cicadas). Butterflies have long been a favorite, but many often have their wings in slow motion when perched, making them more difficult.

Gear does help, and the right macro lens can make it faster to frame, focus, and shoot.

 

[Thiophilos]

A good friend of mine (and a good bug photographer) said that once you have your gear sorted out (implying on-camera diffused flash), the hardest part of bug photography is finding subjects.

Shooting them is easy. Finding them is hard.

 

[smoke665]

The focus of this thread seems to be on gear.

Yup, great response, sound advice. The only other thing I'd add is practice. Its interesting to note that the smallest aperture used in your previous post was f/5.6, yet you STILL managed sharp focus and depth of field, something the OP seems to be struggling with.

 

[Thiophilos]

A few more...

 

[Thiophilos]

All taken this year (2025).

 

[40737015]

Yup, great response, sound advice. The only other thing I'd add is practice. Its interesting to note that the smallest aperture used in your previous post was f/5.6, yet you STILL managed sharp focus and depth of field, something the OP seems to be struggling with.

I dont tend to go above F7. Its a product of the lighting conditions. If its a bit dull I open the aperture to make sure I have enough light to get to my preferred shutter speed without generating a high ISO.

I got 45MP to play with so taking a half step back increases the effective depth of field without altering the light gathering capabilities.

 

[William Baroo]

Yes you are wrong:

That's a relief.

These 3 pics were taken on my Z8. This is the level possible using a camera in the wild, There is no barrier to what other people do to get their image they post on Instagram. There seems to be a growing acceptance of images based on actual photographs but edited using Nano Banana AI or similar, which produces technically perfect images that cannot be reproduced outside of AI editing.

Ignore other photographs. Concentrate on your own workflow and get what you can out of it.

Focus stacking does not work on a subject that is moving. Assume anything sitting on a leaf is moving. Focus rails in an outdoor setting are impossible to use, save yourself the frustration.

Handheld focus stacking does work but only with a great deal of practice and a good flash. OEM flashes have real trouble with this process. Get a cheap second hand Godox TT 520.

hOPE ALL THAT HELPS.

cheers
jbo

How are you getting all that depth of field? Are you backing up and cropping or what? The pictures are fantastic.

Regarding flash, I have been using a Godox V1 with a cheap Angler diffuser.

 

[40737015]

That's a relief.



How are you getting all that depth of field? Are you backing up and cropping or what? The pictures are fantastic.

Regarding flash, I have been using a Godox V1 with a cheap Angler diffuser.

My Z8 has a 45 MP sensor. Half a step back at F5.6 gives about another 5 - 6mm of depth of field then crop.

F11 on the Nikkor 105mm Macro lens produces diffraction and softness so I stay as close to wide open as I can.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[William Baroo]

Thanks. Can I ask how close your lenses are to the bugs?

 

[40737015]

Thanks. Can I ask how close your lenses are to the bugs?

Various between 12 to 24 inches from the end of the lens. I go to about 7 inches If i am focus stacking.

Have a look at my other posts on this forum. I am quite open about my methods.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[40737015]

All taken this year (2025).

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Because you are using a flash you are limited on the R7 to 1/320 shutter speed. Look at my pics, the shutter speed is 1/3200 without flash.

Have a go without the flash (auto ISO) and match aperture with a shutter speed of around 1/2000. You will find that all the pics will be much sharper. Dont worry about ISO in the thousands as pretty much any de-noise software will deal with that.

This was a few years ago with F25 , ISO 12800.

CHEERS
JBO