can make adjustments to the composi-
tion, depth of field, focus, shutter speed
and ISO much more easily while on the
tripod. Also, as you get closer and closer
to your subject, you lose light and depth
of field, requiring slower shutter speeds
that potentially you can’t handhold.
When on the tripod, I like to use my
camera’s 2-second self-timer to release
the shutter so that I’m hands-free and
not introducing movement by handling
the camera. You can also use a cable
release or remote control smartphone
app if your camera has one.
If shooting with a DSLR, the mirror
movement can also cause vibration; use
the camera’s Mirror Lock-up mode with
shutter speeds slower than 1/30 sec. to
avoid camera shake.
- While on the tripod, I recommend
that you use Live View if shooting with
a DSLR. I use it not as much for the
composition of the image but to check
for sharpness from edge to edge. I can
magnify the image in Live View from
1x up to 10x to check for sharpness and
toggle it around the image to make sure
key elements are in focus. - Make sure your subject is in focus
and parallel to the back of the camera.
Even being just ever-so-slightly off from
parallel may cause some critical portion
of your photograph to be out of focus. - For macro photography, I always
manually focus if at all possible. In
close-up photography, the depth of field
can be so shallow that the camera can’t
autofocus properly or fails to focus on
what you want to be in focus. - By moving in closer and closer to
your subject, you’re making it bigger in
the frame. I like to take several photo-
graphs at different distances and focus
points, then select which images I like
the best in the editing process. - If you have two subjects in your
image, make sure they’re both sharp. If
both aren’t in focus, I simply don’t keep
the image. An exception might be if the
second subject is totally out of focus and
in the background and doesn’t draw too
much attention away from the main subject. - We haven’t mentioned lighting to
this point, but along with sharpness and
simple backgrounds, lighting is a key in
creating a successful macro image.
Lighting can come from natural light
(I prefer overcast days), flash, a com-
bination of flash and natural light (fill
flash), softboxes, diffusers and reflectors.
I use all of these light sources, often in
combination with each other.
My flash equipment is the Canon
Speedlite 600EX II-RT and Canon Macro
Twin Lite MT-24EX. The Twin Lite is
especially good for macro photography,
as the flash head unit is mounted onto the
front of the lens. This allows the light to
come in closer to the subject. Also, the Twin
Lite flashes can be rotated and angled in or
out from the subject. You can even adjust
their output strength independently.
Ring lights are another option for
macro work, though I’m not personally
a fan because of the flatter light that thesetypically produce—I like a little more
contrast.
Usually with my flash photography,
I’m dialing back the power from full flash
to a -1 or -1.5 output setting and using
both the natural light and flash. My goal
is for the viewer not to know that it was
a flash photograph. An example of this
is the tailless swallowtail butterfly image
shown in this article.
Full flash is sometimes necessary, like
in the case of photographing the emer-
ald-eyed tree frog, which was done at a
workshop indoors. Using the Twin Lite
MT-24EX flash, I got a 1/200 sec. shut-
ter speed to stop any movement of the
subject or camera shake and the needed
depth of field at ƒ/27.
I use one or two softboxes for lightingoutdoorphotographer.com April 2020 37