Macro photography technique

Thankful to be getting a lot of great feedback from different fora on macros, a lot of this has been due to openly shared knowledge and techniques by selfless folks.

Thought it would be only fair to keep "paying this forward"

Will try breaking down technique (or the lack of it :D ) -

1. Magnification: The Zuik0 60mm on a MFT sensor provides decent magnification. However as needed I often add on an extension tube and Raynox DCR 250

2. Focusing : High magnification requires high precision. Most times the camera is set to the smallest focus area selector possible. Contrast on edges/wings/leaves is often used to lock on AF. In tricky situations, I will switch to MF (have configured the FN1 button for this) and sway the setup to bring things in focus.
Staying as perpendicular to the area of focus one's interested in helps make use of the razor thin DoF to it's max.

3. Exposure : Plays a critical role in showing detail and right colors/texture. The black background in most of my images is predominantly due to the overall exposure, I shoot what one would call "full flash photography" - if an image is taken at the native exposure, it would essentially go fully black, exposure is defined by the "reach and intensity" of flash. Plus, most of the insects I shoot are found under thick canopy/shade.
My settings generally are ISO 200, 1/160, f10-13, Flash on ETTL with FEC based on subject
External flash helps add microcontrast and also freeze motion to an extent. I also diffuse the light enough to make it soft, that way both highlights and shadows are decently exposed

Earlier thoughts on macro technique and lighting can be found here -
http://iridealone.blogspot.com/2018/04/high-magnification-macro-and-lighting.html

Thoughts on macro photography with lenses already present in your kit -
http://iridealone.blogspot.com/2012/06/macro-for-not-much.html

Link to the simple two stage diffuser -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hayath/44807796464/

Cheers!
Hayath

High magnification macro and lighting - Thoughts and tips

Real macro and the fascination of the small world begins at 1:1 and beyond. Various problems arise. The inverse square law governs most of optical physics and becomes evident in high magnification macro. Two things to be considered -
1. Change in effective aperture. This translates to lesser light reaching the sensor. Read more on effective aperture here -
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread1358.htm
2. Greater DoF fall-off. Of course, dialling down the aperture to larger f-stop would help in getting a thicker DoF slab, but diffraction sets in pretty quick and becomes counterproductive in achieving image sharpness.

In both cases a smaller aperture meant the need for larger amount of light. This meant either
1. Bump up ISO and balance with lowering shutter speed. This needs a camera body that can perform at higher ISO and produce clean images, else sticking to lower ISO will mean reduced shutter speed (and lower shutter speed = more camera shake/movement of the subject due to wind)
2. Use artificial lighting

I chose to focus on the latter given that it also helped me with freezing motion and providing better micro contrast. This brought in a different set of challenges (Like the saying goes - There's a devil for every level) - blown out highlights and lost detail.

Here's the setup with a lot of trial and research, have taken inspiration from a lot of folks who've been kind enough to share their lighting setup


I used a C-bracket with a small ballhead to bring the flash as close to the front element as possible (thanks to the inverse square law that quadruples the amount of light when the distance is halved). Layers of diffusion (packing foam sandwiched between tracing paper) were added to reduce the harshness of light.
As with all contraptions - the "effective" lighting zone is limited close to the lens' front element, works best at magnification ranges closer to or greater than 1:1

Based on the amount of lighting I also make use of Flash exposure compensation (FEC) to get the right amount of light on the subject.

Some examples of lighting













Hoping this was helpful in some form.

Cheers!
Hayath