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Monday, August 22, 2011
thistles
I was reading a photography blog the other day and the author posted a simple question: What is your most under-used piece of equipment? I thought about it and decided that my 100mm macro lens is the piece of equipment that I use the least. I've just never gotten into macro photography as much as I thought I would when I bought the lens. This being the case, I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon and try to find interesting things to shoot with my macro lens. Enjoy the results.
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That 100mm macro looks great. The bokeh is really smooth. Have you seen on the distance meter on the lens where it tells you what magnification you're getting? The closer you are to your subject, the closer you are to a 1:1 magnification. I usually don't worry about getting it spot on because it's a pain, but I do try to get as close as I can. I put my camera in AI Servo mode so the autofocus is constantly on the move, then let it shift it's focus as I move in closer and closer until I'm about as close as I can get. I also like to throw the flash on my camera, too so I can shoot at higher apertures (depth of field when you're that close is paper thin), but still keep a decent shutter speed. Being that close to your subject, you should be able to shoot at f/8 or higher without issue. I like to put some kind of bounce card or something on my flash, too, to get some more light on the subject (since the flash sits so much higher than the lens). Just some food for thought. Cool photos, though. I'm about to start on photos I took in San Francisco with Mushna last week.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't using a tripod, so I didn't check the magnification factor. I was quite close to the thistles, but not ridiculously so. For the ones with bugs, that was probably for the best anyway.
ReplyDeleteI was using AI Servo mode for these pics for the same reasons you mentioned. One of these days, I'll have to get out there with a tripod and try some other stuff. I have yet to do that with this lens, but to the point I made in this post, I've rarely used this lens. I should use it more--it's great for both macro shots and portraits. I've also done some interesting nighttime street photography with it. Check out my photos from Key West in May of last year for examples.