Need some CC on a few macro pics.

[Scott Whaley]

I am not real familiar with macro photography and decided to go out and give it a try. Here are some I would like some CC on. Be gentle. My feelings get hurt really easy.
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[SquarePeg37 8]

It Would be helpful for others to know the settings and equipment used in order to offer advice.

 

[Scott Whaley]

I used a Canon 7d mk ii, with the stock 18 to 135mm lens. I had a Tamron wide angle/macro lens stacked on it.. I shot in manual mode using a Canon flash. The shutter speed varies from 40/sec. to 1/200. Apature was set around 9 or 10 and the ISO was set at 400. I did add some vignette to draw attention to the center of the photos.

 

[Derrel]

I am seeing these on my phone, and at least to me I think they are slightly too dark, and that you have applied a little bit too much vignette.

 

[Scott Whaley]

I tend to under expose my photos. I should think about raising it a little. I also lowered the white balance to get rid of some glare.

 

[Overread16 4]

What's a Tamron wide angle macro lens?

 

[Scott Whaley]

I know it sounds odd. My wife's sister got it for her a few years ago. I will post a photo of it when I get a chance.

 

[Overread16 4]

Ok so not being 100% sure, however it sounds like one of those cheaper attachments used to get effects ,but at a great cost to optical quality (esp if its wide angle and macro at the same time).

The above photos are REALLY soft and way below what I'd expect a 7DMII being able to produce. I'm also seeing some purpling going on in many of the photos and I suspect that's some fairly strong chromatic aberrations, again caused by that attachment.

So the attachment might let you get close, but its really costing you in optical quality.



Now your settings are also suggesting that you've a few areas to fix as well:
1) Shutterspeeds. When you shoot macro the magnification and relative distance to your subject means that smaller motions are amplified. This means that any shake gets increased in its effect on the photo. So handshake blur becomes more and more difficult to counter. A monopod or tripod can seriously help in this regard, as can flash.

2) Flash. Now you've used flash and lets focus on that for a bit. Flash works by pulsing up a super fast light to illuminate the scene. When the flash light is the primary light contributing to an exposure (ergo if you kept all the camera settings the same and just turned the flash off you'd get a black shot), then the split second pulse of light from the flash lets you mimic a fast shutter speed in freezing motion. Of course your shutter speed still wants to be fast so that ambient light isn't an issue. Typically with flash I'd have the shutter speed at the highest setting possible for the camera (typically that's around 1/200 or 1/250sec).

3) Aperture. This controls the depth of field and the light entering the lens. For macro many people advocate using a small aperture (big f number) around f13 or f16 or so.* This affords you a sharp shot whilst also getting the most depth of field. For starting out its a good spot to begin with because it gives you a tiny bit more leeway to work with, esp when handholding. However don't get locked into thinking the aperture must ways be this small. There are some outstanding works done in macro with the lens wide open at f2.8. Sure its a lot harder ,but the results are worth it when its done right.


So overall it seems that you've got the method at least broadly correct, however some support might well help you. The optical quality of the shots above I think is being serious hampered by
1) Your underexposing. Which it sounds like you're aware you do. Whilst this can help protect highlights from blowing out, you might want to look into turning the histogram on for photo review (check the camera manual for details on how to turn on the histogram). If you view the histogram you can use that to help you see the exposure in a chart form - far left is pure black under-exposure and far right is pure white overexposure. Ideally you want more of the exposure "lump" on the left side but without touching the far left and overexposing. Of course sometimes you'll get some overexposure no matter how hard you try not too - the photo review should blink to show you where the overexposed spots are. A middle of a lightbulb in a regular scene is fine to overexpose; but not the face of your subject. So you can temper the graph with some visual details and context.

2) A support might well help you out a lot. Though handholding is very doable with practice. A better lens will also help tremendously.

3) Leave the vignetting tools at home for a bit. Focus on the method and the photos themselves.


NOTE there are quality macro lens attachments out there. Raynox makes a selection such as the DCR 150 and 250. Canon also makes the 500D which, whilst also being a camera body name, is also the name for their screw on macro attachment. These options are high grade optical glass and deliver fantastic performance.
Another option is extenders which increase the distance of the lens from the camera body. They (like the macro attachments) mean you can't focus far off any more, but they also reduce the minimum focusing distance. Note that Canon's are overpriced, Kenko pro are about the best ones for value for money. Note that there are some dirt cheap ones at a few pounds in cost. These are cheap because they are often of inferior build quality, but also because they don't have any metal contacts to communicate between lens and camera. This means that you can't change the aperture on the lens (it also knocks out AF though in general macro is easier done with manual focusing)



*Remember the aperture also affects sharpness. Typically increasing in sharpness from the widest aperture (smallest f number) until around f8 or f10 (it varies lens to lens). Thereafter the sharpness actually starts to reduce, though most lenses remain very suitable sharp until around f13 or f16. The limit points vary lens to lens.

 

[Scott Whaley]

Now, that's exactly what I wanted. Thanks for your informative suggestions. I am more of a wildlife and landscape photographer and have not played around with macro photography. I have been reading and watching videos about macro photography and it is totally different when you try to put it into practice. I think I will ditch the wide angle/macro thing and stick to what I know I can do. Thanks for your input.

 

[Overread16 4]

Don't let it put you off macro, there's a whole world of wildlife and landscapes behind a macro lens.
But yeah do consider trying it with some different equipment. A set of Kenko extension tubes would be a good starting point and wouldn't set you back too much.

 

[K9Kirk]

All good tips so far. It wasn't very long ago that I started macro myself and I found that when using a flash (with a diffuser, it's important) if I put it in E-TTL mode I didn't have to fiddle with it and it produced good light shot after shot. I would try a bigger aper. and go easy on the vignette. Also, this is important for focusing, you lean forward and back until you find the right spot where the subject is sharpest and then snap the picture or what I do is put my camera in "low" or "high speed continuous" and snap maybe a couple dozen pics of the same thing while doing the leaning technique and hopefully one picture will come out tack sharp. That's a start, I hope that helps.

 

[Scott Whaley]

All good tips so far. It wasn't very long ago that I started macro myself and I found that when using a flash (with a diffuser, it's important) if I put it in E-TTL mode I didn't have to fiddle with it and it produced good light shot after shot. I would try a bigger aper. and go easy on the vignette. Also, this is important for focusing, you lean forward and back until you find the right spot where the subject is sharpest and then snap the picture or what I do is put my camera in "low" or "high speed continuous" and snap maybe a couple dozen pics of the same thing while doing the leaning technique and hopefully one picture will come out tack sharp. That's a start, I hope that helps.

I actually used diffuser. I like the idea of shooting in continuous. As for the vignette, I was trying to draw attention to the subject. I think I will do some more post processing and remove it. Thanks.

 

[K9Kirk]

All good tips so far. It wasn't very long ago that I started macro myself and I found that when using a flash (with a diffuser, it's important) if I put it in E-TTL mode I didn't have to fiddle with it and it produced good light shot after shot. I would try a bigger aper. and go easy on the vignette. Also, this is important for focusing, you lean forward and back until you find the right spot where the subject is sharpest and then snap the picture or what I do is put my camera in "low" or "high speed continuous" and snap maybe a couple dozen pics of the same thing while doing the leaning technique and hopefully one picture will come out tack sharp. That's a start, I hope that helps.

I actually used diffuser. I like the idea of shooting in continuous. As for the vignette, I was trying to draw attention to the subject. I think I will do some more post processing and remove it. Thanks.

It's good you used a diffuser, just have to open up that aper. IMO, a light vignette is ok but it seems a little redundant to highlight a subject that's in your face, if you know what I mean. I'm looking forward to seeing your next set of macros, gl!