The subject beetle is probably 3-4mm in length. Camera is a Canon EOS 700D with a standard 200mm zoom lens and a 40mm lens spacer
The subject beetle is probably 3-4mm in length. Camera is a Canon EOS 700D with a standard 200mm zoom lens and a 40mm lens spacer
Great shot. If you want to start working in more macro and improve your game, look into if your canon has focus bracketing. I don’t work with canons, but if you need any help entering the macro world more, hit me up and I’ll help if I can.
I’ve heard of focus stacking but haven’t tried it yet. I suppose I’d need a way to jog the focus in steps or something while taking a series of shots from the same distance? All my pictures are free hand, not on a tripod, and outside where the wind blows things around so I don’t know how I’d get a steady stepped series of shots, if that’s required.
Yes, that’s the general idea. There are different techniques, but the traditional method is physically moving the camera in small steps to create a larger “artificial DoF” than your shot settings produced in a single frame. Fuji and Nikon have “in-camera” focus bracketing that moves your focus from minimum focus distance to infinity, with Fuji offering a better, more robust option. I wouldn’t be surprised if canon had a similar feature by now. This allows the camera to remain in place and move the DoF with optics. Regardless, yeah, free-handing won’t cut it without tons of light so you could stop down for a larger DoF and use a very rapid shutter speed. You could likely get some decent results if you’re sure-handed, but you’d probably want at least a monopod. Then there’s the software side of blending them together to produce the “single” image. So it just depends on if/how much you want to continue exploring the macro world. But it is some fun stuff, so have fun with it and feel free to ask anything any time.