First Pics With a Macro

[mikemet28]

what do u think, took these quick today while me and the girly went to the park, never really used the macro before but i liked it. No editing, camera is a canon eos rebel xsi.

[Erron Spalsbury]

Cool pics! Looks like it focus's in nicely.

Boomers and bugs, eek!

[Joels3000gtsl]

I dont know shit about photography, but I do think that those look really cool

[AudibleSilence]

I feel like they are out of focus slightly...cept #2.. The Hopper pics are great! with more practice you'll learn the proper distance for tac sharp focus and with some post work they will be lighter. I am a fan.

[mikemet28]

Thank you, i havent really got the hang of focusing with it yet, and i dont have the steadiest hand

[AudibleSilence]

It's all in the breathing. It is like shooting a gun...shoot after an exhale between heartbeats.

Also with primes, remember that you have a minimum focusing distance to keep in mind. I.E. Being right on top of the subject doesn't serve you well for focusing.

The rest of this post assumes you're manually focusing doing macro...

How I manually focus:

1) Frame my subject

2) Move the focus ring in either direction till the subject is clear

3) Continue in that direction until the subject goes blurry..you've found the sharpest point of focus and passed it.

4) SLOWLY back the focus ring in the direction you came from. The subject will now start to come back into focus and it will be tack sharp.

I've done this successfully countless times. The computer does the same thing, only faster than we can. This is the method that works best for me, others may suggest better/faster ways but remember that with manual focus your eye is what you have to rely on.

[mikemet28]

Originally Posted by AudibleSilence

It's all in the breathing. It is like shooting a gun...shoot after an exhale between heartbeats.

Also with primes, remember that you have a minimum focusing distance to keep in mind. I.E. Being right on top of the subject doesn't serve you well for focusing.

The rest of this post assumes you're manually focusing doing macro...

How I manually focus:

1) Frame my subject

2) Move the focus ring in either direction till the subject is clear

3) Continue in that direction until the subject goes blurry..you've found the sharpest point of focus and passed it.

4) SLOWLY back the focus ring in the direction you came from. The subject will now start to come back into focus and it will be tack sharp.

I've done this successfully countless times. The computer does the same thing, only faster than we can. This is the method that works best for me, others may suggest better/faster ways but remember that with manual focus your eye is what you have to rely on.

Thank you for the advice!! i do usually do the breathing method sometimes its just hard lol, and yes it was manually focusing and yea sometimes im trying to get the shot, like with the cricket that i dont take the time to focus as good as i should

[chargerx3]

Copy what you did on #5 and you should be good. All the rest are out of focus, lack proper lighting, or are running too high in the iso range (noisy). I would say either increase your lighting, or put your camera on a tripod/mount to get the shots.Mikeys approach works as well, but not always. Good beginnings though. I like.

[HotelKilo06]

I have another method for macro but it depends on the shot. And only if i want to get as close as possible.

Set the focus to the minimum distance. I move the camera itself closer to the subject, or the subject closer to the camera if possible, until the focus is sharp. Works pretty well most of the time, but like i said not always. The downside is you have to be super steady or you'll get shake.

Another for cameras with live view. I put the camera on a tripod and switch to live view and zoom in on the subject as much as possible. I know my focus will be super sharp where i want it to be when i do this. The downside to this is if the depth of field is too short you must be on the best spot for the focus.