IntroductionWelcome| 00:01 | (music playing)
| | 00:04 | Hi! My name is Ben Long, and welcome to
Foundations of Photography: Macro and Close-Up.
| | 00:10 | We spend our days interacting with the
world in a particular scale, a scale that we all
| | 00:15 | share and understand.
| | 00:16 | In our everyday scale, small is something that
I can hold in my fingers, and big is something
| | 00:22 | I can crawl inside.
| | 00:23 | As photographers, we usually build pictures
around this sense of scale, but there is another
| | 00:29 | scale that you work out photographically. A
scale that you can't actually see in everyday life.
| | 00:33 | A scale that might surprise you with its
depth and richness. That scale, of course, is the
| | 00:38 | very small. And, the very small is the
realm of the macro and close-up photographer.
| | 00:42 | In this course, we are going to explore all of
the fundamentals of shooting the very small,
| | 00:46 | as we work from shooting simple close-ups, to
shooting macro-shots with full detail and clarity.
| | 00:53 | We will start by working with gear that you
already have, shooting at a scale that's not
| | 00:57 | too far removed from your everyday experience.
| | 00:59 | Shooting close-ups is a great way of getting
a different take on areas and subjects that
| | 01:03 | you might already be familiar with, and some
of the practices and techniques that you employ
| | 01:07 | in close-up photography are the same
ones you will use for macro photography.
| | 01:11 | So, it's a great way to prepare yourself
for diving into more extreme magnifications.
| | 01:15 | Next, we will ease you into macro
photography by showing how you can easily modify your
| | 01:19 | existing equipment to make
it capable for macro work.
| | 01:22 | From there, we will beef up your arsenal of
macro gear by looking into extension tubes,
| | 01:27 | close-up lenses, and bellows.
| | 01:29 | Of course, serious macro shooters use
dedicated macro lenses, so we will look in depth at
| | 01:33 | how to choose a macro lens, before diving
into all the techniques you need to know to get
| | 01:38 | the most out of whatever macro
lens you choose to work with.
| | 01:41 | Along the way, we will cover
some lighting and aesthetic tips,
| | 01:44 | before we finally head into the extremes of
macro photography, as we explore focus stacking
| | 01:49 | to create images that simply
weren't possible just a few years ago.
| | 01:54 | Macro photographs can be a fascinatingly
different view of the world. And, one of the best things
| | 01:58 | about shooting macro is that you can start
building an extensive macro portfolio without
| | 02:02 | ever leaving your house.
| | 02:04 | Macro expands on the photographic skills that
you already have, and you may find that after
| | 02:08 | working for a while with a very small, you will
begin to see the full-scale world a little differently.
| | 02:13 | So, get a camera and some tiny
subjects, and let's get started.
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| What you need to know for this course| 00:00 | Photography involves a lot a gear, of course,
and macro-shooting can be one of the most
| | 00:05 | gear-heavy photography specialties.
| | 00:07 | You think that getting up close to
something, and taking a picture of it would be pretty
| | 00:11 | simple, but as you will see, there are some
specific macro shooting problems that can
| | 00:16 | only be solved with specialized tools.
| | 00:18 | Now, that said, you can get into macro
shooting at a number of different levels; it doesn't
| | 00:23 | have to be a very expensive pursuit.
| | 00:25 | If you've already got a
macro lens, that's great!
| | 00:28 | If you don't, don't go buy one yet. There
are some inexpensive alternatives to a macro
| | 00:33 | lens, and depending on what you like to shoot,
these alternatives may be all that you need.
| | 00:37 | In this course, we will be working our way
up from the least expensive macro gear to
| | 00:42 | the most expensive, most specialized gear.
| | 00:45 | Depending on the type of close-up in macro
shooting that you like, you might need a particular
| | 00:50 | macro set-up, so it would be best for you to explore a
little bit through this course before you buy anything.
| | 00:56 | Now, you can use just about anything for a
camera, but ideally you want something with
| | 01:00 | some manual exposure control.
| | 01:02 | Many point-and-shoot cameras have great macro
capabilities, but you will get better results
| | 01:06 | if you can employ some manual overrides.
| | 01:09 | You will probably need a tripod. I say probably,
because if you not going to get super close,
| | 01:14 | and you are shooting in bright light, then
you can probably get away with working hand-held.
| | 01:18 | For real macro work though, you
are going to need a sturdy tripod.
| | 01:23 | As you will see, there are plenty of other
things you might end up needing: specialized
| | 01:26 | lenses, lens attachments, flashes, light
modifiers, set pieces, camera mounts, focusing aids,
| | 01:32 | the list goes on and on. And, we will look at
each of these as we work through this course.
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1. Close-Up ShootingWhat is close up?| 00:00 | We are going to split some rhetorical
hairs here, because in this course, I am going to
| | 00:04 | draw a line between macro and close-up shooting,
even though when you are shooting macro, you
| | 00:10 | are actually close-up.
| | 00:12 | As you will see, a photo is only a truly a macro
photo if it has very specific characteristics.
| | 00:17 | Close-up photos have no
technical constraints or specificities.
| | 00:20 | We are simply going to talk about close-up
photography as the process of getting in closer
| | 00:25 | to a subject than you normally would.
| | 00:27 | If you have watched any of my other courses,
you know I am a big proponent of getting closer
| | 00:31 | to any subject matter. Closer usually
means simpler in terms of composition.
| | 00:36 | As you get closer, you crop out extraneous
details, and you focus the viewer's attention
| | 00:41 | onto your subject.
| | 00:42 | When I talk about close-up photography, I
am referring to the process of getting close
| | 00:47 | to small objects, or focusing
on the details of large objects.
| | 00:50 | This is the same thing you will do in macro
shooting, but in close-up shooting, you are
| | 00:55 | not going to get quite as close.
| | 00:57 | Usually close-up photography means you are
shooting something that's small, but still
| | 01:00 | too big to warrant true macro shooting.
| | 01:04 | Sometimes, you will employ close-up techniques,
simply because of the small size of your subject,
| | 01:08 | but at other times you might employ close-up
techniques because your subject is too large.
| | 01:13 | Maybe you're a landscape shooter who can't
figure out how to capture a big, broad vista
| | 01:18 | in a way that really represents it well.
| | 01:20 | Often the solution, in that situation, is to
go for fine details, shoot close-ups of
| | 01:25 | things that make up that broad vista.
| | 01:28 | Close-up shooting can be a great
thing to try when you are feeling stuck.
| | 01:31 | Perhaps you had that feeling at home that
you can't shoot around your house or in your
| | 01:35 | neighborhood, because there is nothing to shoot
there. Don't worry; all photographers get that.
| | 01:39 | Our eyes go numb to the
things that we see every day.
| | 01:42 | But if you go out with the idea of shooting
close-ups, finding interesting details, or tiny
| | 01:47 | tableaus, little landscapes, you might find
that there is a whole new realm of subject
| | 01:51 | matter that you had previously missed.
| | 01:54 | For the most part, close-up shooting is no
different than any other type of photography.
| | 01:58 | It all starts with light, and you need to
be constantly on the look out for good light
| | 02:02 | in your small scenes.
| | 02:04 | You need to have a firm understanding of
exposure theory, you need to understand focal length
| | 02:08 | and how it impacts your scene, and you
need to know how to build a good composition.
| | 02:12 | You can go deeper into all of these topics in
the rest of my Foundations of Photography series.
| | 02:17 | If you already feel comfortable with
those things, then let's get started.
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| Understanding minimum focus distance| 00:00 | So, let's say you are out in the world, and
you see the cool, small thing, or the fascinating
| | 00:05 | detail, and you get in close with your lens,
and you frame up the perfect shot, but when
| | 00:10 | you have pressed the shutter button to focus,
the camera just hunts around, and it never locks on.
| | 00:15 | This is going to be the first big problem that
you are going to encounter with close-up shooting.
| | 00:19 | Sometimes, you simply won't be able to get
your lens to focus when you're in close.
| | 00:24 | This happens because every lens has a
minimum focus distance; inside that distance, your
| | 00:30 | lens won't be capable of focusing.
| | 00:32 | For example, if your lens has a minimum
focus distance of 8 inches, then you'll have to
| | 00:37 | be at least 8 inches from your
subject for the camera to focus.
| | 00:42 | Now, if you are using a zoom lens, that
minimum focus distance is the same, no matter what
| | 00:47 | focal length you have the lens set to.
| | 00:50 | This means that I may not be able to solve my focus
problem by changing camera position and focal length.
| | 00:56 | Here's what I mean.
| | 00:57 | Let's say I want to take a picture of this
flower. So, I am going to come in here, and
| | 01:03 | frame up my shot the way that I want. And, I
really want my shot to fill the whole frame,
| | 01:09 | and I can't get it in focus.
| | 01:12 | No matter where I turn the focus ring,
it's still just a little bit soft.
| | 01:15 | If I pull my camera back . . . Oh, okay, now I can
get in focus, but I can't really fill the
| | 01:21 | frame the way that I want to.
| | 01:24 | So, you might think, "Well, I will go wider
and then come in. "Well, no. Now, I am inside
| | 01:28 | the minimum focusing distance.
| | 01:29 | I cannot get this lens to
focus if it's any closer than here.
| | 01:34 | It does not matter what focal length I am at.
| | 01:38 | Now, you can look up the minimum focus distance
in your camera's manual or your lens's manual.
| | 01:44 | The focus distance markings on your lens
might tell you what the minimum focus distance is,
| | 01:50 | but you can't always count on this.
| | 01:52 | For example, on this lens, the closest focus
distance that is shown is 0.7 meters, or 2.3 feet.
| | 02:02 | But it also has this area here, which says Macro.
| | 02:05 | Now, this is actually all kind of annoying,
because this macro range that it's indicating
| | 02:10 | does not turn the lens into a macro lens;
it's simply indicating that when you're down
| | 02:15 | here in this zone, you're in
the closest focusing range.
| | 02:18 | So, macro on here doesn't mean that I have
a true macro lens. But it also doesn't tell
| | 02:23 | me what the minimum focusing distance is, because
this lens can focus closer than 0.7 meters.
| | 02:30 | If I look in the manual, I learn what the
minimum focusing distance is 1.48 feet or 0.45 meters.
| | 02:37 | Now, you might think, "Why should I care
what the exact minimum focusing distance is? I
| | 02:41 | will just see how close I
can get." And, you're right.
| | 02:44 | You can figure out your lens's minimum focus
distance simply by seeing how close you can
| | 02:48 | get to a subject, and still achieve focus.
| | 02:51 | But if you have multiple lenses, it's
worth knowing their minimum focusing distances,
| | 02:55 | especially if their
focal length ranges overlap.
| | 02:58 | For example, I have this Canon 24-105mm,
which has a minimum focusing distance of 1.48 feet
| | 03:05 | or 0.45 m, but I also have this Canon 16-35.
| | 03:10 | Now, focal length-wise, I've got some overlap.
| | 03:13 | Both lenses have a range of 24 to 35 mm,
but the minimum focusing distance on the 16-35
| | 03:19 | is only 0.92 feet, as
compared to the 24-105's 1 1/2 feet.
| | 03:25 | So, as long as I don't need those longer focal
lengths, I can actually get closer with this
| | 03:30 | lens than with this lens.
| | 03:32 | In other words, if I investigate my minimum
focus distance, I learn that I can get closer
| | 03:36 | with my wide-angle lens than with my longer
lens, which might seem counterintuitive simply
| | 03:41 | because we think of long
lenses as the way to get close-ups.
| | 03:45 | This brings us to our next question. When
working close-up, is it better to shoot with
| | 03:50 | a shorter or longer focal length?
| | 03:52 | We are going to look at that
question in the next movie.
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| Comparing wide lens and telephoto| 00:00 | As you start framing up your close-up shots,
you might find that you can create the same
| | 00:05 | composition using several different
focal lengths and camera positions.
| | 00:09 | Standing close and zooming out might let you
frame the same shot that you would get standing
| | 00:16 | farther away and zooming in.
| | 00:18 | If you have a collection of primes, instead of a
zoom lens, you might still have these same options.
| | 00:23 | Sometimes, it won't matter which option you
choose, but you should still understand the
| | 00:28 | trade-offs of using one option over another.
| | 00:31 | Possibly most important is the compositional
change that you will see if there is a background
| | 00:35 | visible in your image.
| | 00:37 | As you change camera position, the sense of
distance between the foreground and background will change.
| | 00:43 | If you're shooting an object with depth,
you might also see a change in the proportions
| | 00:47 | of your subject as you change
camera position and focal length.
| | 00:50 | If you are not familiar with this phenomenon,
then check out my Foundations of Photography
| | 00:54 | Lenses course for more information.
| | 00:56 | If your image doesn't include a separate
background, or you are shooting something very shallow,
| | 01:01 | then you won't have to worry about this, and
your focal length camera position choice may
| | 01:04 | not matter; either one will do fine.
| | 01:06 | On a zoom lens, different focal lengths
may not all allow the same maximum aperture.
| | 01:12 | For example, you might be able to open all
the way to 3.5 at the wide end of your zoom,
| | 01:16 | but only 5.6 at the telephoto end.
| | 01:20 | If you have very particular exposure ideas,
then you may have to adjust your camera position
| | 01:24 | and focal length to be able to
achieve the aperture that you want.
| | 01:28 | Again, my lenses course will walk
you through this issue in more detail.
| | 01:31 | Now, these questions won't always be an issue.
| | 01:33 | There will be times when only a single focal length
can allow you to frame the shot the way that you want.
| | 01:37 | Perhaps the object is so far away that
you have to a long focal length, or maybe you want
| | 01:42 | to include the object and a lot of
background, which will require a short focal length.
| | 01:47 | For times when you have options though, pay
attention to composition and aperture changes
| | 01:52 | as you choose where to stand and how to zoom.
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| Understanding depth of field and focus| 00:00 | If you get too close to your subject -- that
is closer than your lens's minimum focusing
| | 00:06 | distance, -- then your lens won't be able to focus.
| | 00:08 | So, if you get up close, and you can't get
focused -- your lens just searches back and forth, --
| | 00:13 | the first thing you need
to do is start to back away.
| | 00:16 | Now, you can continue to try to auto focus as
you pull the camera further from the subject,
| | 00:20 | but that kind of trial-and-error approach
can take a while, because the camera is going
| | 00:24 | to keep focusing every time you try.
| | 00:26 | You might find it easier to
employ a manual focus approach.
| | 00:29 | First thing I do is set my camera's
focus to its closest focusing distance.
| | 00:34 | Now, on this lens, I can actually turn the
manual focusing ring without having to switch it
| | 00:38 | to manual focus. For other lenses,
you have to make that change first.
| | 00:42 | So, what I do now is -- rather than trying to
auto focus the camera to get it in focus; I'm
| | 00:48 | at my minimum focusing distance, -- I'm just going to
move the camera back and forth until I get focus.
| | 00:54 | So, you can see that there I'm in focus, and
there I'm not, and here I'm in focus, and here
| | 01:01 | I'm not, so I can zero in on my focus that way.
| | 01:04 | Now, watch what happens if I'm shooting more
at an angle where there is more depth in the
| | 01:08 | scene. You can see that there the kind of
back part of the flower is in focus; here
| | 01:14 | the front part of the flower is in focus.
So, I can really work exactly the part that
| | 01:19 | I want without handling my lens at all. All I'm
doing is moving the camera forward and backward.
| | 01:26 | There's another reason to focus this way. As
you may have noticed from looking at close-up
| | 01:30 | in macro photos, or simply from your own experience,
when you get close to your subject, your depth of field
| | 01:37 | will drop off dramatically.
| | 01:38 | So, as depth of field gets more shallow, you
may find you need to make very, very slight
| | 01:43 | adjustments to focus to get a
specific detail of your subject sharp.
| | 01:48 | It's going to be easier to make this
change by moving the camera back and forth than
| | 01:52 | it would be to try to work
the focus ring on your lens.
| | 01:55 | We'll be talking about these issues in
greater detail when we cover true macro shooting.
| | 01:59 | For now, go ahead and start practicing focus
adjustments through camera moves. Being comfortable
| | 02:05 | with this practice will give you a leg-up
when we get to macro close-distance shooting.
| | 02:08 |
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| Working with extension tubes| 00:00 | If you find yourself frustrated by the minimum
focusing distance of your lens, if you constantly
| | 00:05 | find that you're unable to frame the shot
you want, because you can't get close enough
| | 00:09 | to focus, then you may want
to consider extension tubes.
| | 00:12 | An extension tube is an attachment that goes
between your camera body and your lens. It's
| | 00:17 | not an optical element. There is no glass
in here. All it does is get the lens further
| | 00:22 | from the focal plane.
| | 00:23 | Now, the practical upshot of this is that
your minimum focusing distance gets smaller. So,
| | 00:28 | with an extension tube, you can get closer
to your subject; you can fill the frame with
| | 00:32 | more of it, and still achieve focus.
| | 00:34 | For example, I've got my 24-105mm lens
here. And, this is as close as I can get to this
| | 00:44 | flower. I have zoomed in all the way. And,
notice the way I'm focusing, just like we talked
| | 00:48 | about before. I'm moving forward and back. This
is as close as I can get, which gets me this shot.
| | 00:57 | Nice enough, but I like to get in closer, so
I'm going to add one of these extension tubes.
| | 01:00 | So, I have three of them. We're going
talk about the difference in a minute.
| | 01:03 | Extension tubes simply go on your camera
body like a lens. So, I'm going to take my lens
| | 01:07 | off, and put an extension tube on. I'm
using the shortest one; it goes right there.
| | 01:13 | The reason I'm choosing the shortest one is
I don't want to go in real far. I just want
| | 01:16 | to a little of extra boost, so I'm not
going to attach the lens to the extension tube.
| | 01:22 | so, you can see I have got a little bit of
extension that's going to let me get a little
| | 01:25 | bit closer. So now, with that
extension tube I can get into here.
| | 01:30 | Now, there is a trade-off that I have to suffer
here, and that is that the extension tube takes
| | 01:37 | some light. So, I may have to go to a higher
ISO; I may have to go to a wider aperture.
| | 01:43 | If I go to a wider aperture, then I'm going
to have a less depth of field. So, there is
| | 01:46 | this trade-off of
magnification versus depth of field.
| | 01:50 | But what's nice is I got in tighter. I'm not
going to have crop my image in postproduction.
| | 01:54 | I get to use more of the pixels in my camera.
| | 01:57 | You can use extension tubes with any type of
lens, prime or zoom, a regular lens, or a macro.
| | 02:02 | They are an inexpensive way to get the kind
of short focusing distances that you get from
| | 02:07 | a dedicated and much more expensive macro lens.
| | 02:10 | Now, extension tubes come in different sizes.
I have a set of three here. I've got one that
| | 02:16 | is 13 mm; I have got one that's a little bit
longer, a 21; and another one that's longer
| | 02:22 | still at 31, I believe. Yeah.
And, I can stack these together.
| | 02:26 | And as I stack them, they get longer. And,
as they get longer, I get more extension,
| | 02:31 | which means more magnification power.
| | 02:33 | So, I can go all the way up to here. And, if I
put this on my camera, I'm going to be able
| | 02:37 | to get all the way into full macro range. And,
that's going to open up all of the macro concerns
| | 02:44 | and practices that I'm going to need to think
about as I'm shooting in that close. And, those
| | 02:48 | are the things we're going to
learn when we get to true macro lenses.
| | 02:51 | The effectiveness of extension tubes
decreases as focal length increases.
| | 02:56 | In other words, you're going to see more of a
change sticking this stack onto a 50mm lens
| | 03:01 | than you will when you put it onto 300mm lens.
| | 03:05 | You also need to be careful when
working with extreme wide-angle lenses.
| | 03:08 | If I put the 65mm stack of tubes on a 20mm
lens, I won't be able to focus at all, because
| | 03:14 | my minimum focusing distance will be
pulled back into the inside of the lens.
| | 03:19 | So, one other very important thing to understand
about extension tubes, some of them have electrical
| | 03:25 | contacts that allow your camera to
communicate with your lens, and some don't.
| | 03:30 | If you get tubes that don't, then you
won't have auto focus or aperture control.
| | 03:34 | Now, Canon and Nikon both make sets of
active extension tubes, that is the ones that
| | 03:38 | have these contacts.
| | 03:39 | And, while they work great,
they're very expensive.
| | 03:41 | This is a set of Kenko
extension tubes with a Canon mount.
| | 03:46 | I can get these with other mounts,
Nikon and other mounts. That's K-e-n-k-o.
| | 03:49 | I have all the correct contacts, and they
give me full auto controls, but they cost much
| | 03:54 | less than the Canon tubes.
| | 03:56 | Extension tubes are a very affordable way to
start getting into a lot more magnification power.
| | 04:02 | What's more, they're small, they're
very light, and they're easy to carry.
| | 04:06 | If you're worried about whether you should
invest in extension tubes, or go ahead and
| | 04:10 | invest in a true macro lens, bear in mind
that sometimes you'll need to get a macro
| | 04:14 | lens closer to your subject, so you'll continue to use
extension tubes, even if you eventually buy a macro lens.
| | 04:20 | In the meantime, they're a great way to
start experimenting with getting closer, and even
| | 04:25 | experimenting with true
macro ranges, as we'll see later.
| | 04:28 |
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| Working with close-up lenses| 00:00 | As you saw in the last movie, extension
tubes can get you closer to your subject, but you
| | 00:05 | will definitely pay an exposure price when
you use them, because they will darken your
| | 00:09 | image, and require you to use slower
shutter speeds and lighter apertures.
| | 00:14 | For close-up photography, extension tubes
can also sometimes be overkill, because they
| | 00:18 | will get you all the way into that macro range.
| | 00:21 | If you find that you're wanting to get just a
little bit closer, then instead of an extension
| | 00:24 | tube, you might want to consider a close-up
lens. This is a special attachment that screws
| | 00:30 | onto the end of your camera's lens. But unlike
an extension tube, a close-up lens is actually
| | 00:35 | an optical element. There is glass in here,
and that glass gives you extra magnifications.
| | 00:41 | Now, there are a lot of close-up lenses on the
market, and some of them are very inexpensive,
| | 00:45 | and for the most part, you want to stay away from
all of them, but two different close-up lenses.
| | 00:50 | The problem is that the glass in most close-up lenses,
especially the inexpensive ones, just isn't very good.
| | 00:56 | What's more, engineering an optical element to work
on a range of unspecified lenses is very complicated.
| | 01:03 | If you have a nice lens on your camera, it's
a shame to wreck its image quality by sticking
| | 01:08 | a bad close-up lens on the front.
| | 01:10 | So, here is how it works.
| | 01:11 | I have the 24-105 on my camera, and I'm
going to take a picture of this flower.
| | 01:15 | And, as you have already seen, with this lens, I
can get to about right here, and still achieve
| | 01:22 | focus. Any closer, I am inside the minimum
focus distance, and everything goes soft. So,
| | 01:26 | I'm going to take a
picture here. So, here's my shot.
| | 01:29 | Now, I'm going to stick my close-up lens on;
it just screws on to the front, just like a
| | 01:34 | filter. And, just like filter, I want to be
careful about . . . I don't want to screw it on
| | 01:39 | too tight, because I've got another filter on
here, and I don't want them to all come off together.
| | 01:43 | Now, with the close-up lens on, I can get into
here. So, without the close-up lens, I was out
| | 01:50 | at about here. With the close-up lens, I can
get a few inches closer. I'm still focusing
| | 01:55 | just by moving in and out.
| | 01:57 | I'm not seeing a light drop-off like I did
with the extension tubes. And, when I am in
| | 02:01 | focus, this is what I can get.
| | 02:03 | So, this does let me get a lit bit of
extra reach, and get in a little bit closer.
| | 02:07 | Now, as I said, I can really only recommend
two close-up rings. Both of them are made
| | 02:11 | by Canon. Don't worry. Even if you don't
use a Canon camera, these can still be made to
| | 02:15 | work with your lens.
| | 02:17 | Over the years, Canon has made a range of close-up
lenses. At the time of this shooting, you
| | 02:21 | can get the 250D or the 500D. This is the 500D.
| | 02:27 | Now, the number is simply a measure of
magnification. And, we'll talk about what that means in a minute.
| | 02:32 | The D means that it's a dual-element lens;
that is, there are actually two lenses inside,
| | 02:39 | just as there are multiple
elements inside your normal camera lens.
| | 02:42 | In the past, Canon has also sold single
element close-up lenses, which lack that D moniker.
| | 02:48 | Single-element lenses are cheaper, but the dual
element close-up lenses definitely yield higher-quality.
| | 02:54 | You can get a 500D for about $150 bucks, so
it's a little pricey, but it's less than a
| | 02:59 | new lens, and it does
yield very good image quality.
| | 03:01 | It's a reasonable way to do some experimenting with
close-up shooting without having to invest in a macro lens.
| | 03:07 | They come in a few different thread sizes,
so you need to be sure to get one that matches
| | 03:12 | the filter thread size of the
lens that you want to attach it to.
| | 03:15 | If your lens doesn't have a matching thread
size, you can get a step-up ring that will
| | 03:19 | adapt your lens threads to
the close-up lens's threads.
| | 03:23 | If you're a non-Canon shooter,
you'll likely have to do this.
| | 03:26 | Even if you have a macro lens, a close-up
lens can be a handy thing to have in your
| | 03:30 | kit. For one thing, it'll give some extra oomph
to your macro lens, but more importantly it's
| | 03:35 | light and easy to carry.
| | 03:37 | So, if you don't want to tow your macro lens around,
you can just take your regular lens, and one
| | 03:41 | of these, and still have a good close-up option,
not a full macro option, but it's going to
| | 03:44 | let you get a little bit closer.
| | 03:46 | Now, the 500D is intended for lenses with a
focal length of 70-300 mm. You can put it
| | 03:51 | on any lens that has the correct thread size,
but at shorter focal lengths, you're just
| | 03:56 | not going to see much of an advantage.
| | 03:58 | To figure out how much magnification you'll
get with a close-up lens, you divide the focal
| | 04:02 | length of your lens by the
number rating of the close-up lens.
| | 04:06 | For example, on my 24-105, if I set it to 100,
100 divided by 500 (this is the 500D) gives 0.2.
| | 04:16 | So, with my close-up lens, an object will
have a size of 0.2X. 1X is actual size, so 0.2
| | 04:23 | is going to be a little bit smaller than that.
| | 04:25 | A close-up lens scores over an extension tube,
because it doesn't cut the light that's passing
| | 04:29 | through the lens, and because once you
focus through it, you can zoom in or out, and your
| | 04:33 | image will still be in focus. With an extension
tube, you have to refocus if you've zoomed your lens.
| | 04:39 | However, a close-up lens is more expensive
than a set of inexpensive extension tubes,
| | 04:44 | but it's also smaller and easier to carry.
| | 04:46 | Again, these Canon close-up lenses are the
best ones out there. And, even as good as they
| | 04:50 | are, they still have some softness around
the edges. You'll just need to evaluate for
| | 04:54 | yourself whether it's a deal-breaking softness.
| | 04:57 | Note that if you have a polarizing filter, or
even a UV or skylight filter, that can cause
| | 05:03 | some bad vignetting when used with the close-
up lens. So, if you normally keep one of those
| | 05:07 | on your lens, you may want to take it off
when you use the filter. You'll just have
| | 05:11 | to do some tests of your own to
see if you really need to do that.
| | 05:15 | Extension tubes are going to let you get much
closer than a close-up lens. Extension tubes
| | 05:19 | will actually get you into full macro power,
something that this can't do. Also, adding
| | 05:22 | extension tubes to a macro lens gives you a lot
more power than adding a close-up lens to a macro lens.
| | 05:28 | So, if you can only afford either extension tubes
or a close-up lens, I'd go with the extension tubes.
| | 05:34 | If you'd like a light-weight, easy-to-carry
option for getting a little more close-up power,
| | 05:38 | then a close-up lens is a good way to go.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Basic Macro Shooting with Gear You OwnWhat is a macro photo?| 00:00 | We've been talking about close-up photos.
And, a lot of times, the word macro is used
| | 00:05 | as a generic term to describe any close-
up image, or any picture of something small.
| | 00:10 | But, there is an actual
technical definition of a macro image.
| | 00:14 | A true macro photo is one where the image
on the camera's sensor is the same size as
| | 00:20 | the actual object you're shooting.
| | 00:22 | In other words, there is a one-to-one ratio
in the size of the object to the size of the
| | 00:26 | image of the object on the sensor.
| | 00:29 | Now, this doesn't mean that the image is
always actual-size photography, because you can print
| | 00:33 | the image at bigger-than-actual size, but the
captured image on the sensor is actual size.
| | 00:39 | If you magnify the image beyond its
actual size, then it's still a macro photo.
| | 00:44 | We refer to capturing an image at actual
size as 1x, at double size as 2x, and so on.
| | 00:50 | But, everything from 1x on is considered macro.
| | 00:53 | So, you might group both of
these images together as macro shots.
| | 00:57 | But technically, this is a macro photo,
and this isn't, simply because this second one
| | 01:03 | is not actually at 1x on the sensor;
it's a little smaller than actual size.
| | 01:09 | Now, unless you're engaging in some kind
of documentation process that demands actual
| | 01:14 | size imagery, for the sake of scientific accuracy,
these technical distinctions really aren't going to matter.
| | 01:19 | In everyday shooting, you
are not going to say, "Uh-oh!
| | 01:22 | This isn't actual size.
| | 01:23 | I'd better make an adjustment."
| | 01:24 | Instead, you're just going to build the
composition you want. That composition may be impacted
| | 01:29 | by technical concerns, but whether you're
actually shooting at a one-to-one size ratio
| | 01:34 | probably won't be among those concerns.
| | 01:36 | I've defined these terms partly so that you
won't embarrass yourself at photographic cocktail
| | 01:41 | parties, but mostly because once we start talking
about macro lenses, these terms are going to come up.
| | 01:46 | So, you need to understand this nomenclature as we
go deeper into discussing how to choose a macro lens.
| | 01:52 | But, we're not going to go
all the way to macro lenses yet.
| | 01:55 | If you watched the last chapter, you saw how
you can use extension tubes or close-up lenses
| | 01:59 | to take your regular lens, and
give it some close-up power.
| | 02:03 | In this chapter, we're going to look at
another trick for getting closer in, but this time,
| | 02:07 | we're actually going to end
up in the true macro range.
| | 02:11 | The idea with this chapter, and the last, is
that they will give you the chance to explore
| | 02:15 | some close-up and macro shooting without
having to invest in an expensive new lens.
| | 02:20 | So, if you get to the end of this chapter,
and you're finding that you are really liking
| | 02:23 | this macro shooting stuff, then you'll be
ready to consider a macro lens. And, we'll talk
| | 02:26 | about that in the next chapter.
| | 02:28 | So, in a macro photo, your subject is
actual size on the image sensor. As you'll see in
| | 02:33 | the rest of this course, working at that
scale introduces a lot of concerns and issues that
| | 02:38 | you have to deal with very carefully.
| | 02:39 | Now, most of these are exaggerated versions
of issues you face in normal shooting, but
| | 02:44 | they can be tricky to deal with.
| | 02:46 | No matter what your subject matter, macro
shooting breaks down into two large categories:
| | 02:51 | studio shooting and field shooting.
| | 02:54 | We're going to begin with studio shooting.
| | 02:57 | Now, this doesn't mean that you have to have a
studio; it just means we're going to be working indoors.
| | 03:03 | It's great, though, because
you can say to your friends, "Oh!
| | 03:05 | I am working in the studio today," when
really, you'll just be at the kitchen table.
| | 03:09 | Even if what you're interested in is shooting
bugs, or flowers, or something, I really recommend
| | 03:14 | starting your macro education indoors.
| | 03:16 | If you're just starting out with macro, and
the first thing you do is run outside, and
| | 03:20 | try to shoot some bugs in the garden, you're
going to be making things very hard on yourself,
| | 03:23 | because, in addition to all of the macro
things that you need to learn, you're also going
| | 03:28 | to be facing the problems of the moving
subject, and wind, and laying in the mud, and trying
| | 03:32 | to get access to the right angle, and so on.
| | 03:35 | In the studio -- and you have to say it that
way, -- in the studio, you eliminate these issues,
| | 03:40 | and you have complete control over lighting.
| | 03:43 | That makes it much easier to learn the
basics down to a really deep level. Later, when you
| | 03:48 | have those basics learned to a point where
you don't have to think about them so much,
| | 03:51 | you can take them outside, not have to think
about them, and start practicing the techniques
| | 03:55 | that you need for field shooting.
| | 03:56 | So, for the time being, we are going to be working
in our studio. Though later, we will be going outside.
| | 04:02 | In this chapter, we are
going to take actual macro shots.
| | 04:05 | And to do that, we're going to
modify the lens that you already have.
| | 04:08 | Now, all you need to do this is a
hacksaw and some epoxy. No, I am just kidding.
| | 04:13 | It's a simple trick, and
you'll see it in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding how to shoot macro with a reversed lens| 00:00 | So, what we're going to do in this movie may look
an awful lot like a silly photographic hack.
| | 00:05 | But that's only because
it's a silly photographic hack.
| | 00:08 | It is also, however, a completely valid, useful
technique that you might already know about.
| | 00:13 | Let's start with the easy version.
| | 00:15 | If you have a prime lens -- that is, a lens
with a single, fixed, focal length, -- get it out now.
| | 00:19 | I'm going to use this 50 mm lens.
| | 00:22 | Normally, of course, I would
attach the lens to my camera like this.
| | 00:25 | So, I'm just going to go
ahead and grab my shot with it.
| | 00:28 | A 50 mm lens on this camera is considered
a normal lens. That means it's got roughly
| | 00:33 | the same field of view as the human eye.
It's a pretty wide-angle field of view. And, what
| | 00:39 | I get with it is something
like this. Hardly a macro shot.
| | 00:44 | But now I'm going to take the lens off the
camera. I'm going to turn it around, and hold
| | 00:50 | it up against my camera,
completely covering the mirror chamber.
| | 00:54 | Now, being very careful not to
drop the lens, I can frame up a shot.
| | 00:58 | Check this out, though.
| | 00:59 | Look at my minimum focusing distance. I
came in focus. Right now, I'm much, much closer.
| | 01:05 | By simply reversing my lens, I
can now get macro-scale images.
| | 01:09 | So, I'm going to grab a couple here.
| | 01:11 | Now, as soon as I start doing what I would
normally do, like half-pressing the shutter
| | 01:15 | button, I find that nothing is happening.
| | 01:17 | I have no auto-focus, because I've lost
all of the electrical contacts to my lens.
| | 01:23 | That means I also don't have aperture
control. So, I need to switch to Manual Mode.
| | 01:27 | I'm going to turn from Aperture Priority,
where I was before, over to Manual Mode.
| | 01:32 | Now, I still can't control aperture,
but I can control shutter speed.
| | 01:35 | In Manual Mode, I get a normal light meter
down on the bottom of my viewfinder. So, I'm
| | 01:40 | just going to use that to
zero in on a shutter speed.
| | 01:42 | I'm at ISO 200. And, at a shutter speed of 320th, it
says I've got a good shot, or at least a good exposure.
| | 01:51 | Focus, meanwhile, is what we've been doing
before. It's tiny, little movements in and out.
| | 01:55 | The reason I stopped talking there is that
the movements are so tiny that I really need
| | 02:00 | to be quiet and very precise in making just these
tiny, tiny, little motions to get things in focus.
| | 02:09 | So, here you can see I've got full-on,
macro-scale images just by reversing my lens.
| | 02:15 | Now, most of you probably have zoom lenses.
In fact, the zoom lens might be all you have,
| | 02:20 | especially if you are working
with the camera's original kit lens.
| | 02:23 | But you are going to
reverse your zoom lens, as well.
| | 02:25 | I have here the Canon 24-105 mm. I'm just
going to hold it up to my camera backwards,
| | 02:31 | just like I did with the 50.
| | 02:32 | At the moment, the lens is zoomed out all
the way; it's at its shortest focal length.
| | 02:38 | That's going to give me the most magnification.
It's exactly backwards from what you're used
| | 02:42 | to, but so is your lens, so what do you expect?
| | 02:45 | So, here I am at 24, and this lens is not as
fast as that 50 was in terms of minimum aperture.
| | 02:53 | So immediately, my viewfinder is a lot
darker, and I need to adjust my exposure. It looks
| | 03:00 | like I'm going to need an ISO
change to really get anywhere.
| | 03:03 | So, I'm going to go up to 800. And now, at ISO 800,
it's saying a shutter speed of the 30th of a second.
| | 03:12 | For hand-held shooting this
close, that's going to be too slow.
| | 03:15 | So, I'm going to go ahead and bump it to 1600,
which should get me to a 60th of the second,
| | 03:20 | which is still going to a little rough. I'm
going to need to hold very still, and get a shot.
| | 03:27 | Look how much closer I am.
| | 03:29 | So, it stands to reason a 50 mm got me one
focal length; the 24 being wider, but reversed,
| | 03:36 | gets me even closer.
| | 03:38 | Now, my focusing distance
changes with focal length.
| | 03:41 | So, when I'm zoomed out all the way, as I am
now, I can get all the way into here to focus.
| | 03:46 | When I'm zoomed in, which I can do by turning
my zoom ring out to 105, I can actually come back
| | 03:53 | here, and get a wider shot.
| | 03:58 | That also opens up a little more light.
| | 03:59 | I can speed up my shutter speed, and get that,
noticing I'm still focusing, just by moving in and out.
| | 04:06 | At this magnification, the actual focus ring
doesn't do me good, because even a tiny change
| | 04:10 | in camera position will throw my focus out
of whack. And honestly, there is no way I can
| | 04:14 | manage to get my hand on
the focusing ring anyway.
| | 04:19 | That brings up a problem here.
| | 04:21 | It's difficult to hold all this stuff.
| | 04:22 | It's also a little bit risky. I could drop my lens.
I can stick a finger in there and damage things.
| | 04:28 | Fortunately, there's a way
around that. And, that is one of these.
| | 04:32 | This is a reversal ring.
| | 04:35 | The way it works is, it's threaded on one
side; it's got a camera mount on the other.
| | 04:40 | So, I can thread the threaded
side onto the front of my lens.
| | 04:46 | He says, unable to thread the threaded
side on to the front of lens. There we go.
| | 04:51 | Now, I've got a camera mount on both ends.
| | 04:55 | So, I can very easily stick this to the front of
my camera. And now, my lens is mounted on backwards.
| | 05:03 | So, the good news is you've
already got a very good macro lens.
| | 05:07 | You just didn't know it.
| | 05:08 | All you have to do is turn your lens around,
and you get this fantastic macro capability.
| | 05:14 | The bad news is you're going to need a little
ring to make it work, and picking one of those
| | 05:18 | out is going to vary from filter size, and
you'd lose auto-focus, and aperture control.
| | 05:22 | I have an entire little mini-course
dedicated on how to just to reverse lens shooting that
| | 05:28 | will show you how to get around that aperture
limitation, and also give you some other important
| | 05:32 | tricks for making the most out of your
lens when you've got it on your camera backwards.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a point-and-shoot camera for macro| 00:00 | You might find that a reversed lens is
all you ever need for your macro work.
| | 00:04 | There are people who do high-quality,
professional macro work using only a reversed lens.
| | 00:10 | Before we move on to a dedicated, pricey
macro lens, I want to look at one other low-cost
| | 00:15 | option that you might already have, a point-and-
shoot camera. A lot of point-and-shoot cameras have
| | 00:20 | fantastic macro capabilities.
| | 00:23 | This is a Sony RX100, which
can focus as close as an inch.
| | 00:29 | It's also great in low light; it
packs a very high-quality lens.
| | 00:32 | The RX100 has the additional advantage of
an image sensor that's larger than what you
| | 00:37 | will find on most point-and-shoots. That
makes for better high ISO performance, which you
| | 00:41 | often need when working with macro, because
of light issues, and the option for shallower
| | 00:45 | depth of field, which is not
something usually needed with macro.
| | 00:49 | Some cameras have a dedicated macro mode, usually
designated with a small flower icon. You activate
| | 00:54 | it to open up that range
of the camera's auto-focus.
| | 00:57 | Other cameras, like the RX100, don't have a
special mode. You simply focus, and shoot at
| | 01:02 | the distance that you need.
| | 01:03 | As with the reversed lens, or a dedicated
macro lens on an SLR, trying to use the autofocus
| | 01:09 | for macro work on a point-and-shoot camera
is not advisable. Instead, simply ballpark
| | 01:14 | the focus, and then move the
camera in and out to refine it.
| | 01:17 | Because of their smaller sensors, a point-and-
shoot cannot achieve depth of field that's as shallow
| | 01:22 | as what you will get with an SLR, which
actually makes them ideal for macro; you get inherently
| | 01:27 | deeper depth of field.
| | 01:28 | But they're small, they're inexpensive;
this camera costs less than a macro lens for my
| | 01:33 | SLR. And, they are easy to get into odd
locations, which you often find when you're working with
| | 01:38 | flowers, or bugs, or things like that.
| | 01:40 | If you decide that you're interested in macro,
but not so interested that you want to invest
| | 01:44 | in an expensive lens, then you might
consider springing for a nice point-and-shoot.
| | 01:49 | It will actually take up less space in your
bag, and give you a lot of capabilities besides
| | 01:53 | just macro shooting.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with backdrops for macro| 00:00 | Whether you are working in the field or in
the studio, you need to give some thought
| | 00:04 | to the background in your image.
| | 00:06 | Now at macro distances, you often won't have
a background, because your subject will simply
| | 00:11 | fill the entire frame, and you
won't be able to see what's behind it.
| | 00:14 | If you're working at more close-up
distances, or sometimes, when you're working at macro,
| | 00:18 | you will be able to see what's behind your
subject. And so, you first of all need to learn
| | 00:22 | to pay attention to that. And second, you might
want to try changing that, or controlling it.
| | 00:26 | When you're in the field, you don't have a
lot of control of what's in the background,
| | 00:30 | but you can change how
it's represented in the frame.
| | 00:32 | Most of the time, at macro distances,
because of your shallow depth of field, backgrounds
| | 00:36 | are simply going to blur out to just
a flash of light or smear of color.
| | 00:40 | You can change your camera angle and
position to try to include more or less of that.
| | 00:45 | If you're working in the studio, you
can actually change what's back there.
| | 00:49 | I have just walked around our studio here,
and just found some things that I think might
| | 00:54 | make interesting texture.
| | 00:55 | Now, a lot of this texture
is just going to disappear.
| | 00:57 | So, what I am really after a lot of
times is the color or play of light.
| | 01:01 | Here's some black tin foil. The lighting guys
use this to suck light out of scenes. And, what
| | 01:06 | I like about it is it does have this cool
modeled surface that's going to reflect light
| | 01:11 | in interesting ways.
| | 01:12 | It's black, so if I want a black
background, this might be a good way to go.
| | 01:15 | It's also nice, because it's foil,
so it stays wherever I put it.
| | 01:18 | If all you want is a simple black or white
background, usually the best way to go are
| | 01:22 | pieces of fabric, ideally a fabric with a
very matte finish, like a velvety fabric. You
| | 01:27 | don't want something that's going
to reflect a lot of light or shine.
| | 01:30 | For white, you can also just use pieces of paper.
| | 01:32 | I've got some other things here. I
have this big air filter of some kind.
| | 01:36 | Air-conditioning system is probably going to
collapse now that I ripped this out of it,
| | 01:39 | but that's okay, because it's going to be
a really cool macro background. It's nice.
| | 01:43 | I like the color. But also, again, these
highlight shadow differences on it could turn out to
| | 01:48 | be kind of a cool, stripy
texture in the background.
| | 01:52 | It's going to change with depth of field,
because it's curved, so this has potential.
| | 01:57 | Similarly, here's some fishing line.
| | 02:00 | This might make a nice,
shiny background of some kind.
| | 02:03 | I've got some other things here, different
kinds of grids, and filters, and things. Again,
| | 02:11 | I am not sure how this is going to blur out,
but it's got a very varied surface that could
| | 02:15 | make for interesting plays of light.
| | 02:18 | These are interesting, I'm
afraid of how shiny they are.
| | 02:21 | So, you might want to be careful with really,
really shiny things because they are going
| | 02:24 | to kick a bunch of specular
highlights back into your lens.
| | 02:27 | Now, what's potentially cool about this is,
since you are going to be so defocused on
| | 02:31 | the background, those specular highlights
could come back in as interesting shapes and
| | 02:36 | little flary things. Here's another. Here
is another grid. This one is very silvery.
| | 02:41 | So, you can just poke around your house, and
see what you find: dinner placemats, bathroom
| | 02:47 | tiles. If you can, you just go the hardware
store, and buy granite tiles, or marble tiles.
| | 02:52 | Those can make very backgrounds.
| | 02:53 | Boxes of sand can be very good, or soil.
| | 02:56 | I have got a couple of things here that I
actually was thinking of shooting. But at
| | 03:00 | macro distances, these could all be very
good backgrounds. And, you may think, "Well, that's
| | 03:04 | awfully small for a background."
That's the beauty of macro photography.
| | 03:07 | You don't need a very big background.
| | 03:09 | If I am going to go in real, real close on
something, this might be big enough to serve
| | 03:13 | as a background. I can set it
on top, and have this in the back.
| | 03:17 | I was actually thinking that this dart
might make a cool macro subject, but now that I
| | 03:22 | look at the fins of it, this could be a cool
background with these nice stripes of the flag here.
| | 03:27 | I don't think they are necessarily going to
read as stripes on a flag; they are just going
| | 03:30 | to turn into color.
| | 03:31 | So, poke around your house; see what
you can find in the way of background.
| | 03:34 | The really important thing about
background when it comes to macro photography though,
| | 03:37 | is learning to pay attention to it in your
frame, while you are composing. And, we are going
| | 03:41 | to talk about that more
throughout the rest of this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Practicing macro by shooting in the kitchen| 00:00 | It's time to take all of these little parts
we've been talking about, and put them together
| | 00:04 | into some actual macro shooting.
| | 00:06 | So, I've got an exercise for you.
| | 00:08 | You need, obviously, some kind of macro-capable
camera, and that could be a point-and-shoot camera.
| | 00:13 | I'm going to reverse my 50
millimeter lens, and work with that.
| | 00:17 | I've got a reversal ring to
do that, to make it easier.
| | 00:19 | Now, what I want you to do is just go work
your kitchen from a macro perspective.
| | 00:23 | There's nothing more to it than that.
| | 00:25 | Just go into your kitchen. Find cool stuff in your
kitchen that you think would make good macro shots.
| | 00:30 | We are not after great masterpieces here;
this as an exercise to help you practice focus,
| | 00:35 | composition, help you understand depth of field.
| | 00:38 | There is one thing you need though, and
that's a very particular lighting situation.
| | 00:41 | Let me show you what I've got.
| | 00:44 | So, for this to work, you need to
find a situation like I'm in right here.
| | 00:49 | I have a window, open to the outside
world, with some soft light coming through it.
| | 00:53 | And by soft light, I mean it's not a direct
shaft of really bright light. The light is
| | 00:58 | bouncing off some things outside, it's
being further diffused by this curtain, and it's
| | 01:03 | creating a really soft pool of light right here.
| | 01:06 | You don't actually have to have the curtain.
Depending on the situation on your window,
| | 01:10 | you may get soft light coming through,
even without anything extra diffusing it.
| | 01:14 | And, what I'm seeing, as I just hold up my
hand here, is that there are no hard shadows on
| | 01:20 | it anywhere. Everything is just illuminated
by a very even, very uniform lighting that
| | 01:26 | kind of wraps around my whole hand.
| | 01:28 | The reason that we're starting with
this is it's a very easy light to work in.
| | 01:31 | We don't have to worry about harsh shadows
obscuring details, or bright highlights blowing
| | 01:36 | out to complete white.
| | 01:38 | Lighting at the macro level can be tricky,
so to start with, it's nice to give yourself
| | 01:42 | the advantage of a lighting situation
that just inherently makes things easier.
| | 01:46 | Now, this is not just a practice realm that
we are in. You will continue to very often
| | 01:51 | use this type of lighting in your
macro work, or even close-up work.
| | 01:54 | It's also a great light for portraits.
| | 01:56 | So, it's nice to identify the areas in your
house where you might have lighting like this,
| | 02:01 | and it may change throughout the year.
| | 02:03 | In fact, an area that you find now that works great
might be lousy in the winter, or somewhere, so on.
| | 02:08 | So, as I mentioned before,
I've got my lens reversed.
| | 02:10 | I am going to be doing this shooting hand-held.
| | 02:13 | Later, we are going to talk
about tripods and other stabilizers.
| | 02:17 | We've gathered up some kitchen things that
you might find in your kitchen, and a few
| | 02:21 | things you may not find in your kitchen.
| | 02:23 | We are not really sure where this came from, but
it's kind of cool-looking, as ominous as it may be.
| | 02:28 | So, we've got these, and I need to just start
thinking about getting them into a position
| | 02:32 | where I can shoot them.
| | 02:33 | I pulled out this white.
| | 02:34 | It's like a flowerpot or something.
| | 02:36 | I just need something to raise things up higher.
| | 02:39 | I can also shoot on my tabletop. I've
got a nice butcher block table here.
| | 02:42 | I've also got a piece of paper that I might use.
| | 02:44 | I am going to start with
this honey-dipping thing.
| | 02:49 | And, I think what I'll do first is actually set
it on the table, and see what that looks like.
| | 02:53 | I'm not really sure what my background looks like
through the camera, so I want to get a couple of shots.
| | 02:59 | Now, notice I don't need a lot of room here. I
am not having to clear off the rest of the table.
| | 03:03 | I am going to be focused on such a tiny
area that I don't need a big stage to work on.
| | 03:07 | I am getting some slightly hard shadows.
| | 03:11 | As I move the thing around, those shadows
change a little bit, because I am getting shadows,
| | 03:16 | brighter and darker areas coming through my
window. So, I am just going to find one that
| | 03:20 | looks fairly benign, and then I am
going to go in here, and take some shots.
| | 03:24 | Now, I've got my camera set to Manual Mode, because
with my lens reversed, I have no aperture control.
| | 03:32 | So, I need to use the meter inside the
camera to determine when I have exposure correct.
| | 03:36 | And, I have only shutter speed to work with, my
shutter speed and ISO to work with to control my exposure.
| | 03:42 | I am starting at ISO 400, because indoors
and light like this, that's typically what I am
| | 03:47 | going to want to work with.
| | 03:48 | And, I think I'll just frame up a
simple shot here. Check my meter.
| | 03:54 | And, it looks like, in here, I am going to be
at about a 500th of a second. That's good,
| | 03:58 | because since I'm hand-holding, I want a
fairly fast shutter speed to freeze motion.
| | 04:03 | So, let me just grab one of these. Depth of
field is going to be very shallow. And, here we go.
| | 04:10 | Now, one thing I want you to understand about
what we're doing here is we are not necessarily
| | 04:15 | after great pictures.
| | 04:16 | This is not going to be a prize-winning photo of a
honey-dipping smeary thing. Whatever they're called.
| | 04:24 | This is an exercise.
| | 04:25 | This is your first chance to really
understand what's going on at macro level. And, right
| | 04:29 | off the bat, you can see, "Wow,
| | 04:31 | depth of field is really shallow
in that image that I just took."
| | 04:35 | So, I have to think very
carefully about my compositions.
| | 04:39 | I need to figure out really what is the subject
that I want to have in focus, and likely that's
| | 04:44 | all that I am going to get.
| | 04:46 | That means that I might want to think about
framing for more drama. Since the viewer is
| | 04:51 | not going to be able to see a lot of details
on things, I want to pick one detail out, and
| | 04:54 | frame it in a way that's going
to really bring attention to it.
| | 04:58 | I think maybe the background -- it's nice that
it's smearing out to just that brown color, --
| | 05:02 | but I'm wondering if that's
competing a little bit with the thing here.
| | 05:06 | So, I am going to move it up on top of this
thing. And, the reason I am going up here is
| | 05:10 | just with it up higher, I won't have
to bend over as far to get my shot.
| | 05:14 | So, I am coming in here.
| | 05:16 | Notice there's a sticker right in the middle of this
flower pot, and it just doesn't matter. I could peel it off,
| | 05:23 | but I'm lazy.
| | 05:24 | It just doesn't matter, because it's entirely
getting lost in the shallow depth of field.
| | 05:33 | Now, later in this course, you are going to
see how you can actually manage depth of field
| | 05:37 | with your lens reversed.
| | 05:39 | But for right now, I am going
to just keep shooting this way.
| | 05:43 | Okay, I like this, but my
background has some black in it.
| | 05:47 | I am able to see what's behind me here.
| | 05:50 | So, I am going to quickly
create a little seamless background.
| | 05:52 | I've got just a piece of paper.
| | 05:54 | I have a piece of 11×17 inch paper.
| | 05:56 | You can do the same thing with a piece of
letter-sized paper, because you just don't
| | 06:01 | need a lot of space, as I said.
| | 06:03 | So, I am going to just prop
it up here, and weight it down.
| | 06:06 | And, I'm hoping that the weight of
my subject here is going to hold this.
| | 06:11 | So, I am going to set this up like this.
| | 06:13 | So, the curve of the paper is going to
hopefully create a completely seamless background, and
| | 06:19 | then I can get right down in here.
| | 06:22 | Now, I've got white all
the way in the back. Oh,
| | 06:24 | and I am getting a big reflection
of me in the front of this thing.
| | 06:30 | My exposure has actually gone up because of
the whites. And now, I am at 1250, which is good,
| | 06:35 | because that will give me an even
better chance of not having motion blur.
| | 06:40 | So, I am just going to work my way through here, and
shoot some of these things in different kinds of light.
| | 06:45 | I am working the shot just as I would
work a shot in a real-world situation.
| | 06:50 | I shouldn't say real-world. But I mean, in a
normal-scale-world situation. Just seeing what I
| | 06:55 | can find, because a lot of times, you
don't really know what your subject is going to
| | 07:00 | look like until you get in close and shoot it.
| | 07:03 | Sometimes, you don't really even know
what your subject is, as in this case.
| | 07:07 | I think I'll skip that thing, and move on
to the knife with holes in it, because I think
| | 07:11 | that's just an interesting shape.
| | 07:13 | I am going to go ahead and just keep
working with the white, because it's easy.
| | 07:17 | Knife edges can be very
interesting at macro distances.
| | 07:21 | They've got a lot more detail in
them than you might expect.
| | 07:26 | This one isn't serrated, so I'm
not getting lots of cool textures.
| | 07:32 | My depth of field being so shallow, I am
not getting a tremendous amount of detail, so
| | 07:37 | this one may not work.
| | 07:39 | And, that's the case with a lot of your
macro stuff. Something that looks that you think
| | 07:42 | is going to be really interesting out at normal scale,
when you get in tight, maybe there is not so much there.
| | 07:49 | And that's okay.
| | 07:50 | So, again, this is just an exercise.
| | 07:53 | It's your chance to practice focus.
| | 07:54 | And, of course, I'm focusing
just by moving in and out.
| | 07:57 | It's your chance to practice composition,
and the big thing with composition is to be
| | 08:01 | trying to find the angles that are nice,
trying to find the depth of field that works for
| | 08:05 | you, and paying attention to the background,
being aware of what's back there, and understanding
| | 08:10 | if you need to block it out somehow.
| | 08:12 | Take a look at some of
these shots that I took at home.
| | 08:14 | Now, first of all, don't forget that when
you are in your kitchen, and I am limiting
| | 08:18 | you to your kitchen, just because a lot of
times, particularly for an exercise, it's
| | 08:22 | nice to limit your choice.
| | 08:23 | And, there's no reason you couldn't spend the
rest of your life shooting macro in your kitchen.
| | 08:26 | But don't forget that you
can still work with close-ups.
| | 08:28 | Now, this one here is not a macro shot.
| | 08:30 | But, as I was doing the dishes one morning,
I was just struck by those shadows on the
| | 08:34 | wall, so I grabbed a camera.
| | 08:36 | This is around a 50 millimeter focal length.
| | 08:38 | So, don't just focus on macro. Think the
type of close-up stuff we were doing before.
| | 08:43 | This is the top of a tiny, little salt shaker,
and I thought the holes might be interesting.
| | 08:47 | But, I am not real sure if I like these
better close in or further out. But as you can see,
| | 08:53 | I worked the shot a bunch trying to find the
shot that I thought, and the composition that
| | 08:57 | I thought might be best.
| | 08:58 | The real lesson to be learned from this is
that when you're working with something shiny,
| | 09:01 | especially something round and shiny, you
need to pay attention to all of the highlights
| | 09:05 | and reflections on the surface.
| | 09:07 | And here, you can see me trying to block some
shadows by moving my hands around that dark
| | 09:12 | area. In the middle is actually me. And so,
I was doing this as I was shooting, trying
| | 09:17 | to control those highlights that
are showing up there on the surface.
| | 09:21 | Here's another shiny surface. This is an
extreme close-up of the edge of a knife.
| | 09:25 | And, note how just tiny movements of the knife --
that's all I was doing between these shots, --
| | 09:29 | make for changes in the brightness of the
various faces on the serrated edge there.
| | 09:34 | So, when you're working with the shiny objects,
move them around, because you will find very
| | 09:38 | dramatic changes in lighting, so you can
really explore what kind you might like.
| | 09:43 | Coming up next is a fork, obviously.
| | 09:46 | Now, I wasn't sure what might
be interesting when I started.
| | 09:49 | So, I just had to work the shot.
| | 09:51 | I thought it might be the
repetition of the tines.
| | 09:53 | But, as I got in closer, I found that I was most
interested in the reflection, in the curve of the fork.
| | 09:59 | Then, I added a fork to see what would
happen with the geometry of the tines if I started
| | 10:04 | knitting them together. As you can see, I
worked a few different angles, and then flipped the
| | 10:08 | forks over, and kept going, just
doing basic composition work here.
| | 10:13 | Here is a close-up of a placemat.
| | 10:15 | Now, there is not much to do here composition-wise.
It was just interesting to see the texture up close.
| | 10:20 | And, it's a good example, and a good way to
practice trying to recognize textures that
| | 10:25 | might be interesting at the macro level,
because when you're out in the real world, you're
| | 10:28 | walking by texture all the time.
| | 10:29 | You may not . . . it may take a while before
you start going, "That's a texture that I had
| | 10:33 | to go explore up close."
| | 10:35 | You might recognize this guy.
| | 10:36 | He was sitting on the table.
| | 10:37 | So, I thought I'd check it out up real close.
| | 10:40 | If you want to do macro shots of flat
objects like this, you might consider working with
| | 10:44 | a flatbed scanner, instead of your camera.
| | 10:46 | It's much easier to get even focus, a
sharp image, and a completely flat subject when
| | 10:51 | you're shoving it into a scanner, rather
than when you're working it with your camera.
| | 10:55 | Now, of course, there's food in your kitchen,
and food can be a really fun macro subject,
| | 11:00 | and one you can explore for a long time.
| | 11:02 | Here is a raspberry.
| | 11:03 | But, as with most shooting, the raspberry
gets much more interesting if you go closer.
| | 11:07 | I tried a few more shots
before I settled on this one.
| | 11:10 | Here is a strawberry. Same thing.
Just was more interesting going in close.
| | 11:15 | This is a slice of kiwi sitting on a light table,
so those big black things are actually the seeds.
| | 11:21 | We'll talk more about light tables in detail.
For translucent subjects, they create really
| | 11:26 | interesting back-lighting.
| | 11:28 | This is a caper covered with rock salt.
| | 11:30 | I like the texture on the caper itself.
| | 11:32 | It was a big surprise.
| | 11:34 | I couldn't actually see that
texture with the naked eye.
| | 11:36 | So, this is a fun discovery
when I got down to macro scale.
| | 11:40 | It's cool that you can see the cube shape
of the salt crystals. Here is closer in.
| | 11:45 | I thought orange peel might be
interesting, but it turns out not to be.
| | 11:49 | That's the case with a lot of macro subjects.
You really just don't know what some things
| | 11:52 | will look like until you get in close.
| | 11:53 | Now, you may have noticed that in all of
these pictures, depth of field is pretty deep.
| | 11:57 | I was using some more sophisticated depth of
field techniques that we'll look at later.
| | 12:03 | You can still do fascinating work just with your
reversed lens working with shallow depth of field.
| | 12:09 | It's going to take you awhile to learn where the
shallow depth of field helps you, and where it hinders you.
| | 12:14 | And, as with all kinds of shooting, the way
you figure those things out, and get better
| | 12:17 | at them is with practice.
| | 12:19 | So, find yourself a nice, soft window, either
in your kitchen or somewhere else, but please,
| | 12:25 | for this exercise, just limit
yourself to stuff you find in your kitchen.
| | 12:28 | I think that limitation will make things
easier, and it's also going to give a very different
| | 12:32 | take on what your kitchen looks like.
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|
|
3. Using Macro LensesChoosing a macro lens| 00:00 | If you've been watching the movies in this
course in order, then you've now done some
| | 00:04 | close-up and macro shooting
using very affordable gear.
| | 00:07 | I'm hoping you're finding you
enjoy a macro approach to the world.
| | 00:12 | You should also have seen that lens reversal,
point-and-shoot cameras, and extension tubes
| | 00:16 | are completely viable,
very effective macro tools.
| | 00:19 | But, as you've seen,
they have some shortcomings.
| | 00:22 | Extension tubes cut light. Lens
reversal takes away your aperture control.
| | 00:26 | If you've played with a close-up lens, you've
probably found it didn't give you a tremendous
| | 00:29 | amount of magnification.
| | 00:30 | And, all three tools have
issues with edge sharpness.
| | 00:34 | If these problems are frustrating you, and
you want to continue with macro shooting,
| | 00:37 | then it's time to start
considering a true macro lens.
| | 00:41 | Now, that said, we are not going to abandon
extension tubes, and close-up lenses, and lens
| | 00:45 | reversal. As you will see, these tools will
continue to be useful, because they can be
| | 00:49 | combined with macro lenses.
| | 00:51 | As you saw earlier, a macro label on a lens
doesn't always mean that a lens is truly a macro.
| | 00:57 | Unfortunately, the word "macro" is
often used as a marketing tool.
| | 01:01 | A true macro lens is one that has a minimum
focusing distance that is so short that you
| | 01:06 | can get a one-to-one size ratio. That is,
the actual size of the object that you're
| | 01:10 | shooting is the same as the image that
is projected onto the camera's sensor.
| | 01:15 | I am not talking about output size, because
you can display or print at any size. I am
| | 01:18 | talking about being able to
fill the frame with your subject.
| | 01:22 | Now, most macro lenses
are also flat field lenses.
| | 01:26 | This means that, rather than being sharper
in the middle than at the edges, like most
| | 01:31 | lenses, they are sharp all the way across.
| | 01:33 | The idea is that they're better
suited for shooting flat subjects.
| | 01:37 | Finally, in most cases, a macro lens
can also be used as a regular lens.
| | 01:42 | Yes, they can focus very close, but most macro
lenses can also focus all the way to infinity,
| | 01:48 | so you can use them just like any other lens.
| | 01:50 | When choosing a macro lens, you are going to
have to work through all of the same concerns
| | 01:53 | that you'd consider when
choosing a non-macro lens.
| | 01:56 | So, if you haven't already looked at my
Foundations of Photography Lenses course, you may want
| | 02:00 | to check that out before we move on to
look at specific macro lens features.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring macro lens features: Focal length| 00:00 | Once you start looking for a macro lens,
you'll probably find that your camera manufacturer
| | 00:05 | provides a few macro options, and that's
before you even get to third-party offerings.
| | 00:09 | So, how do you choose a macro lens?
| | 00:13 | As with any lens choice, your first concern
when selecting a macro lens will be focal length.
| | 00:18 | Yes, there are longer and shorter macro lenses.
And as with any other type of lens, a longer
| | 00:24 | macro lens has a narrower field
of view, and lets you magnify more.
| | 00:28 | For example, I have here a 50 millimeter, a
100 millimeter, and a 180 millimeter. These
| | 00:33 | are all macro lenses; 100 and 180 are both
far longer than this normal lens, this 50
| | 00:40 | millimeter, so these are both telephoto
lenses. They let me magnify distant objects.
| | 00:45 | But, all three of these are macro lenses.
| | 00:47 | So, they have very short
minimum focusing distances.
| | 00:50 | Now, in terms of macro and focal length,
the difference between the 100 and the 180, for
| | 00:58 | example, is that with the 180, I don't have to get
as close to my subject, because it's more telephoto.
| | 01:03 | So, for shooting a flower that's set back
in a garden, or for trying to get a macro
| | 01:08 | shot of some type of critter without scaring it away,
I might have an easier time with this longer lens.
| | 01:15 | For example, let's take this 100,
and take a shot of this flower.
| | 01:21 | I can get a shot with this
lens if I turn my camera on.
| | 01:25 | I am going to get right in here, and frame
a shot, and get it in focus, and you can see
| | 01:31 | that I can get about right there.
| | 01:35 | Now, I am going to take
the same shot with the 180.
| | 01:39 | And here, you can see that to frame the
exact same shot, I can be all the way back here.
| | 01:45 | So, I can get the same shot with both these lenses,
but with the 180, I can stand much farther back.
| | 01:52 | Now, it may not look like a huge difference,
but in close quarters, the extra reach of
| | 01:56 | the 180 can often mean the difference
between getting and missing the shot.
| | 02:00 | The 100 lets me focus on something that's
about 6 inches in front of the lens, while
| | 02:04 | the 180 lets me shoot something that's
roughly 10.5 inches from the front of the lens.
| | 02:09 | A longer macro lens has another advantage.
| | 02:12 | When you're getting in close to something,
you'll often block your light source, and
| | 02:16 | cast a shadow onto your subject.
| | 02:19 | With a longer macro, you can stay further
back to ensure that you don't cover your
| | 02:23 | subject with a shadow.
| | 02:24 | Now, the downside to the 180 is that it's
physically larger than the 100, and quite a bit heavier.
| | 02:31 | This lens will tire out your shoulder if
you're carrying it around all day, and it's much
| | 02:35 | harder to hold it steady
if you're shooting hand-held.
| | 02:39 | In fact, this lens pretty much requires a
tripod for most of the shooting you're going
| | 02:43 | to do, unless you have a
tremendous amount of light in your scene.
| | 02:46 | Now, one reason I wanted you to practice
with lens reversal and extension tubes is that
| | 02:51 | you need to have some idea of what your
macro tastes are before you go lens shopping.
| | 02:54 | It may be that you have no interest in
shooting live things, so concern about startling
| | 02:59 | something isn't an issue, and working with
a shorter lens will be okay. Or maybe you
| | 03:03 | found that you mostly do your macro shooting
around the house, so using heavy gear isn't a problem.
| | 03:09 | As with any lens choice, the best macro focal
length for you is going to be heavily impacted
| | 03:14 | by what you like to shoot.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding macro lens shutter speed| 00:00 | In addition to focal length, you will want to
consider some other features when selecting a macro lens.
| | 00:05 | You may find that some of these features are actually
more important to you than a particular focal length.
| | 00:10 | So, choosing a lens is going to be a process
of finding a balance of a number of different
| | 00:15 | features and characteristics.
| | 00:17 | First, as with any lens, you will want to
consider image quality, contrast, and color
| | 00:22 | quality, and of course, sharpness.
| | 00:24 | Sharpness is especially important in a macro lens,
because macro images have lots of very fine detail.
| | 00:30 | With macro, you want good sharpness
across the entire image from edge to edge.
| | 00:35 | It's not hard to find
sample images from lenses online.
| | 00:38 | You can download those,
and evaluate them at home.
| | 00:40 | If you have the chance to examine your
candidate lenses in a camera store, consider taking
| | 00:45 | your own memory card with you.
| | 00:46 | You can shoot some images, and then
take the shots home to check them out.
| | 00:50 | Alternately, consider renting lenses to test
them out, and evaluate quality and features.
| | 00:55 | You will want to consider lens speed when
selecting a lens, and of course, by speed,
| | 00:59 | I mean maximum aperture.
| | 01:00 | This 100 millimeter can open all the way
to f/2.8, while this 180 can only open to 3.5.
| | 01:06 | This 50 can go to 2.5.
| | 01:09 | Because of the close distances involved in
macro shooting, you are often working with
| | 01:13 | very low light, so that fast 2.5
or 2.8 can be a real shot-saver.
| | 01:18 | However, with the 180, you can stand further
back, let in a little more light, and maybe
| | 01:23 | not suffer too much from its 3.5 aperture.
| | 01:27 | Still, a faster lens is more flexible in more
situations, so you may find those extra fractions
| | 01:32 | of a stop worth it.
| | 01:33 | If you're thinking, "Well, I want a faster lens,
because I really like shallow depth of field,"
| | 01:38 | don't worry about that. In macro shooting, you are
always going to have very shallow depth of field.
| | 01:41 | In fact, you are going to be working hard most of
the time to not have such shallow depth of field.
| | 01:46 | The 100 millimeter has a very important
advantage over the 180, and that is that it has built-in
| | 01:52 | image stabilization.
| | 01:53 | An image stabilizer is a mechanical system
inside the lens that reshapes the lens optics
| | 02:00 | on the fly to try to
counteract hand-held shake and vibration.
| | 02:04 | Image stabilization can be a
huge advantage when shooting macro.
| | 02:07 | First of all, it can help prevent image
softening that can result from hand-held shake, which
| | 02:12 | means you can work with slower shutter speeds.
| | 02:14 | Because macro shooting is so often low-
light shooting, having that extra shutter speed
| | 02:18 | latitude can be a real boon.
| | 02:20 | But, image stabilization can
also help tremendously with framing.
| | 02:23 | When you're in real type, even a teeny,
tiny camera move will change your composition.
| | 02:28 | Having a stabilized lens makes it much easier to
get your shot framed precisely the way you wanted.
| | 02:34 | Now, the image stabilization on this macro
lens is maybe a little bit different than
| | 02:37 | what you'll find on a regular lens,
because it tries to stabilize across more axes.
| | 02:42 | So, for hand-held macro
shooting, makes a huge difference.
| | 02:46 | There are a couple of other
macro lens features to take note of.
| | 02:49 | Though your macro lens can focus very
close, it can also focus at infinity.
| | 02:54 | For example, this 100 millimeter can
focus from a third of a meter to infinity.
| | 02:59 | Now, when your lens's autofocus system is
searching for focus, if it has to search across that
| | 03:04 | entire distance, that can
slow the focusing process down.
| | 03:09 | If your subject is a distant object, it's a
waste of time for the lens to be searching
| | 03:14 | for focus in that one-foot range.
| | 03:16 | Similarly, if I'm in here like this, it's
silly for the lens to go and check all the
| | 03:20 | way at infinity for focus,
because plainly I don't need that.
| | 03:24 | So, most macro lenses have
switches for defining the autofocus range.
| | 03:29 | Here on the 100, you can see
it's this switch right here.
| | 03:33 | It has three positions; full, which means
the full focal range of the lens; half-a-meter
| | 03:40 | to infinity; or a third-of
-a-meter to half-a-meter.
| | 03:43 | So, if I am going to shoot a distant
landscape with this lens, which I can do easily because
| | 03:47 | it's a 100 millimeter lens, I
would switch it over to here.
| | 03:51 | Now, autofocus is open to
the entire range of the lens.
| | 03:54 | If I was working up close with these flowers
though, I'd switch it back here to a third-of-a-meter
| | 03:58 | to half-a-meter. That's going to eliminate a
whole bunch of focus choices that I don't
| | 04:03 | need, and speed up my focusing operation.
| | 04:06 | This middle one, half-a-meter to infinity, is
just going to give me a little bit of flexibility
| | 04:11 | as I am moving around the world. If I am not
really sure -- maybe I want to do some close-up
| | 04:14 | shooting and some landscape shooting, -- it's
going to give me a good range of options.
| | 04:18 | You may think well, really you're only
chopping out a third-of-a-meter there, but there are
| | 04:22 | a whole lot of focus steps within that third-
of-a-meter, so this will speed things up.
| | 04:26 | These other two switches, by the way,
you might already be familiar with.
| | 04:29 | This is just switching from
autofocus to manual focus.
| | 04:32 | Most lenses have something like that.
| | 04:33 | And, this turns off my stabilizer.
| | 04:35 | Any lens with stabilization is going to
have a control for it on the lens somewhere.
| | 04:40 | Autofocus speed is a very important consideration if
you intend to focus on moving subjects like insects.
| | 04:48 | While you'll usually be focusing by simply
moving the camera in and out, for moving subjects
| | 04:53 | like flying bees, you might want to
use your camera's focus-tracking feature.
| | 04:58 | And, for it to be effective, you
want a lens with a fast autofocus.
| | 05:01 | The autofocus on this 100 millimeter is
dramatically faster than the autofocus on the 180.
| | 05:07 | Now, actually, while the 180 provides a
longer reach that makes it easier to get access to
| | 05:13 | a flying bug, I actually find 100 better
suited to that kind of shooting, simply because the
| | 05:17 | autofocus is faster.
| | 05:19 | As you get better with your insect shooting,
you may find that you're eschewing autofocus
| | 05:23 | altogether, because you've gotten very good at
framing your shot quickly, and finding focus.
| | 05:27 | It's a hard skill to master.
| | 05:29 | It's nice having the autofocus option, and a fast
autofocus is going to facilitate easier shooting.
| | 05:36 | Finally, macro photography is often tripod-
based photography, and a lens collar is often a
| | 05:41 | better way to mount your camera to a tripod.
| | 05:44 | With a lens collar, it's simple to rotate
your camera into a different orientation without
| | 05:49 | having to take it off the tripod, or move the
tripod plate from your camera to another lens.
| | 05:55 | So here, I can loosen the lens
collar, and then I can rotate my camera.
| | 06:00 | But also, we're not giving up on
the macro tools we looked at earlier.
| | 06:03 | You will likely be attaching extension
tubes to your macro lens at some point, or even
| | 06:07 | reversing another lens onto the front of that.
| | 06:09 | All of that's going to make for a really long,
heavy lens array, and having that whole mess
| | 06:14 | mount to the tripod closer to its center
of gravity, rather than mounting it back here
| | 06:18 | on the camera, will make for
more stable, sharp shooting.
| | 06:22 | The 180 comes with a collar, but if your lens
of choice doesn't, there are third-party options,
| | 06:26 | which you can add to your lens. Or you may
find that your camera maker actually makes
| | 06:30 | a collar for your lens; it just wasn't included
in your package. The 100 Canon actually makes
| | 06:35 | collar for the 100.
| | 06:37 | Buying any lens is a process of balancing
image quality and features with size and weight,
| | 06:42 | and of course, price.
| | 06:44 | If you're really confused about what you need,
then maybe you should spend some more time
| | 06:48 | shooting with extension tubes and reverse
lenses until you get a clear idea of what
| | 06:52 | type of lens suits you.
| | 06:53 | Alternately, again, consider renting some
macro lenses is a very affordable way to do
| | 06:58 | some experimentation.
| | 06:59 | As we move forward in this course, the advantages
of one lens over another for certain circumstances
| | 07:04 | should become more apparent.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting basics with a macro lens| 00:00 | At last, we are ready to start
shooting with an actual macro lens.
| | 00:04 | In this movie, we are going
to build up a macro shot.
| | 00:08 | And then, through the rest of this chapter, we are
just going to continue to put together macro shots.
| | 00:12 | Along the way, you are going to see the
varied problems and issues that you will typically
| | 00:15 | encounter when shooting macro. Some of these
will be technical, and some will be aesthetic.
| | 00:19 | Now, we are going to start
by shooting this flower.
| | 00:21 | Now, you saw me shooting flowers earlier, when
we were looking at some other things. And, we
| | 00:26 | are going to stick with flowers for awhile.
| | 00:28 | When you are learning to shoot macro,
flowers are kind of a perfect subject.
| | 00:32 | They don't move typically. They are plentiful.
They are easy to come by. But they also have
| | 00:38 | everything that you need when you're wanting
to build a picture. They have line. They have
| | 00:41 | form. They have color. They can
have depth, more or less of it.
| | 00:45 | And most importantly of all, they really
interact with light in a lot of different ways. Even
| | 00:50 | the same flower will really change the way
that it reflects light, and diffuses light,
| | 00:54 | and does other things as you
move it around within a light.
| | 00:57 | So, even if you're not that interested in
flower photography, I still recommend when you're
| | 01:02 | just building your macro chops, start with
flowers. They are a really great, kind of perfect
| | 01:07 | little macro studio to work in.
| | 01:09 | So, I have got a flower here. I can't begin
to tell you what it is, because I don't really
| | 01:13 | know anything about flowers. It looks like
a daisy to me, but I only know like three
| | 01:17 | different kinds of flowers, so I will
just be rotating those names around.
| | 01:19 | I'm back here by my window; I have got
this nice soft diffuse window lighting that we
| | 01:24 | talked about before.
| | 01:25 | And so, I'm going to work within this light,
just to take some simple shots of this flower.
| | 01:30 | I have my camera; the Canon 100 mm Macro. Now,
I have a few different macro lenses to choose from.
| | 01:35 | I chose this one, because I like the focal
length. It's stabilized. And, I am shooting
| | 01:40 | this hand-held, because I just don't happen to have
a tripod with me. That will happen to you sometimes.
| | 01:44 | It's a fast lens; it can open all the way
to two-eight, so I like that. It's going to
| | 01:48 | be good here, indoors, where light
conditions might get a little low.
| | 01:52 | But also, a 100 mm is pretty much the most
popular. Well, it's in the range of the most
| | 01:57 | popular focal length ranges, so its odds are
this is probably what you're working with
| | 02:01 | if you have chosen a mid-range,
mid-focal length range micro lens.
| | 02:05 | So, I am hoping that it's similar
to something that you might have.
| | 02:08 | So, I am ready to just get started here. Even
before I start shooting, there are a few different
| | 02:13 | assumptions that I make when
thinking about what I am going to do.
| | 02:15 | First of all, I know that almost all the time in
macro photography it's about depth of field control.
| | 02:21 | So, I have set my camera to Aperture Priority.
| | 02:24 | I want to be sure that I can choose the
aperture that I want to manage my depth of field.
| | 02:29 | Next, I am indoors, so I'm going to need at
least ISO 400. So, I am going to go ahead and
| | 02:34 | set my camera there; it was at 100.
| | 02:37 | So now, I have got something that's
probably going to give me a better exposure.
| | 02:40 | I could have figured these things out later,
but I might as well get set ahead of time.
| | 02:45 | I didn't look at this flower and
immediately say, "Ooh, I know how I want to shoot that."
| | 02:48 | I am going to explore it. I am going to work
the shot. I am going to see what I can find.
| | 02:52 | And when I am doing that, what I tend to do
is start by figuring out what's the closest
| | 02:57 | I can get, because then I've got a boundary.
I know that, well, I can't get any closer than
| | 03:01 | that, so what kind of composition can I build
working that close, or a little bit further back?
| | 03:07 | So, I am just going to see how close I
can get. And, I'm here, and I'm autofocusing.
| | 03:12 | Now, you might hear a whirring sound right
now. You might hear that coming and going
| | 03:15 | throughout this movie;
that's the stabilizer turning on.
| | 03:18 | So, if you hear this grinding sound . . . actually, if
you hear a grinding sound that means something
| | 03:23 | is wrong with my stabilizer,
because it shouldn't be grinding.
| | 03:25 | Okay, my lens is not focusing, so I am
going to move back, and it's still not focusing.
| | 03:31 | Now, I know that the minimum focusing
distance on this lens is about this long.
| | 03:36 | So, why isn't my lens focusing?
| | 03:38 | This is where I would immediately
stop, and look at my focus switch here.
| | 03:44 | It's set to the middle setting, which is half
a meter to infinity. Well, I am in closer than
| | 03:48 | half a meter, so I am going to switch it to
a third of a meter to half a meter. That's
| | 03:53 | going to allow me to get in as
close as possible with this lens.
| | 03:58 | So I am coming in here. Aha!
| | 03:59 | Now we are getting somewhere.
| | 04:00 | So, I am using the autofocus,
but . . . and I can still get closer.
| | 04:05 | Okay, there I have lost it, so I am
going to pull back out until I hear that beep.
| | 04:10 | Now, I am going to kind of just give up on
autofocus, because the focus changes that I
| | 04:14 | want to make are going to be so
subtle that I can just move in and out.
| | 04:18 | Now, one of the reasons I chose this flower
to start with, and I recommend you choose a
| | 04:22 | similar flower, is that it's flat.
| | 04:24 | You can see the profile here. It's a pretty
flat, level flower, which means there's not
| | 04:29 | a lot of depth of field. I am trying to minimize
my depth of field headache, just for starters here.
| | 04:35 | I think what I am going to
do is just shoot it head-on.
| | 04:37 | So, I am going to get up here. And now, as soon as
I get up here . . . Whoa! I become much less stable.
| | 04:43 | And I need to get kind of far back
here to get the shot that I want.
| | 04:47 | I can't quite get it.
| | 04:49 | Now you might think, "Well, I need to go get a
stool. I need a tripod or something." That's
| | 04:53 | true. There's another thing you can
do here, which is to modify the flower.
| | 04:56 | And, we're not used to always thinking about
modifying the world when we are out shooting.
| | 05:02 | In macro photography, you'll do that a lot.
| | 05:04 | So, you might as well start to get in the habit right
now. I happen to have this tiny little pair of scissors.
| | 05:08 | I am going to just cut a little bit off the
flower, so that it doesn't go as far into the
| | 05:14 | vase. And, that looks pretty good.
Ahh! This is much more comfortable.
| | 05:18 | Now, I can shoot it head-on, right from here.
| | 05:21 | So, don't forget that you can always
change the position of your subject here.
| | 05:25 | And again, I'm finding the
point at which I'm closest in.
| | 05:28 | And now, I am just going to take that shot.
| | 05:30 | I have metered. My aperture is set to 5.6,
which is giving me a shutter speed of a
| | 05:36 | 30th of a second at ISO 400.
| | 05:39 | I would like it to be a little bit faster
than that, because I am worried about hand-
| | 05:42 | held shake, so I am going to bump my ISO up
to 800. That's going to buy me another stop.
| | 05:47 | And now, I am at the hundredth of a second.
That seems pretty safe. And, here's my shot.
| | 05:53 | Okay, it's in focus. I like that.
That's always a good thing for a photo.
| | 05:58 | I'm going to go for a little bit more depth
of field now. I am going to stop down another
| | 06:02 | stop, and go to F8, which is going to
drop my shutter speed back down to a 50th.
| | 06:07 | I am going to go ahead and take that shot,
making tiny little motions with the camera
| | 06:13 | to keep things in focus.
| | 06:14 | And, that looks pretty good.
| | 06:15 | Just for the sake of safety, focus-wise, I
am going to bump my ISO up to 1600 -- that buys
| | 06:20 | me that stop that I lost when I went down to F8, --
and my shutter speed's back up to an 80th of a second.
| | 06:26 | So, what I'm hoping you are seeing here is
that I'm just doing the normal exposure thing.
| | 06:30 | I'm trying to balance the issues of hand-held
shutter speed, with ISO, with the aperture that I want.
| | 06:36 | So, that looks pretty good.
| | 06:38 | What I would really like, at this point, is
to see more detail. I would like to see more
| | 06:41 | of that yellow stuff that's in there. Looks
very interesting. I would like to go closer.
| | 06:44 | I can't go closer with this lens. And,
maybe this is all I am carrying with me.
| | 06:48 | So, rather . . . since I can't go closer, I am
going to continue to work the shot by going
| | 06:52 | the other direction. I am going
to step back, and see what I get.
| | 06:54 | I am going to just frame up the whole thing.
| | 06:57 | If I do that, I get a
shot like this. I like that.
| | 07:02 | Notice that one of the great advantages of
a macro lens is I just have this tremendous
| | 07:06 | focus range. I can get in here and shoot. I
can come back here. That means there are lots
| | 07:10 | of different ways that I can frame the shot.
| | 07:13 | Now, if we look again at that
shot . . . . Look at the background.
| | 07:16 | I am shooting on this nice butcher block table.
It creates a nice beige color in the background,
| | 07:21 | but I got part of the floor there.
| | 07:24 | It's a little . . . surprisingly easy how simple
it is to ignore the background. When you are
| | 07:27 | shooting macro, you get so focused on these fine
details, you stop looking at the entire frame.
| | 07:31 | That's not ever something you want to do when
you are shooting any kind of subject matter.
| | 07:35 | You always want to pay attention
to everything that's in the frame.
| | 07:37 | I am going to move this, still trying to get
it in the light that I like, but now hoping
| | 07:43 | that I will have more of the table in
the background, and less of the floor.
| | 07:49 | Nothing I can do about the vase, since I
trimmed the flower shorter. That was something
| | 07:53 | I should have thought about before I cut it,
because I can't really put it back now.
| | 07:58 | But that's good. That's isolated the flower
a little more. I will probably crop the
| | 08:01 | square. And, that's the basics
of getting a simple macro shot.
| | 08:05 | I am doing the same exposure balance that I
always would, but I've got these extra concerns,
| | 08:10 | because my depth of field is so shallow, and
because I have got such particular compositional
| | 08:16 | needs. I am trying to take a camera
position very careful, and so on, and so forth.
| | 08:19 | What I want to do next is get closer. And to do
that, we are going to need to add some extra gear.
| | 08:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting closer with macro lenses and extension tubes| 00:00 | So, in my previous exploration of the flower, I
decided that what I really need to do is get in closer.
| | 00:06 | The problem is this lens has a minimum
focusing distance. That means I can't get much closer
| | 00:11 | than this. So, I can only fill
the frame with so much flower.
| | 00:14 | I'd like to get in here, and really
get in tight on some of the detail.
| | 00:17 | Now, we've already seen something that will
let me shrink the minimum focusing distance
| | 00:21 | on my lens, and that is an extension tube.
| | 00:24 | We used extension tubes before with a
regular lens, but there is no reason that you can't
| | 00:28 | use them with a macro lens.
| | 00:30 | Before we get to that though, I want to talk
about a potential problem that we're going to have.
| | 00:34 | As we get in closer, we're going to lose a
lot of light, simply because we're going to
| | 00:38 | be in tight. We're going to be casting our
own shadow. And also, it's just darker in there.
| | 00:42 | We're also going to be losing
light, because of the extension tube.
| | 00:44 | That means that we're going to
start running into exposure issues.
| | 00:47 | As light levels drop, I could open the aperture.
| | 00:50 | But if I do that, I am going to lose a lot
of depth of field, and I don't really have
| | 00:54 | any depth of field to spare, so
I probably don't want to do that.
| | 00:56 | That means I am going to have
to slow my shutter speed down.
| | 00:59 | And, if I slow my shutter speed down,
we're going to risk hand-held shake.
| | 01:03 | Of course, I can raise my ISO,
but I can only take that so far.
| | 01:06 | Really, it's time to set up a tripod.
| | 01:10 | A tripod, or some type of stabilization, is
an essential macro photography accessory.
| | 01:16 | I have here a tripod that I really like for macro
shooting; this is a Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod.
| | 01:22 | I like carbon fiber because it's
very lightweight. It's also very sturdy.
| | 01:26 | What I like about this tripod is though it
doesn't come up real high, it packs down very small.
| | 01:32 | So, for field macro work,
it's very easy to carry around.
| | 01:36 | Now, of course, this tripod can be used for
more than just macro work. If you can only
| | 01:40 | afford one stabilization technology, a
tripod's probably the way to go, because you can use
| | 01:45 | it for all of your other work as well.
| | 01:47 | I chose this tripod for macro stuff, though,
because it's got one particular feature that
| | 01:51 | I really like that I'll show you,
as soon as I get it set up here.
| | 01:54 | When you're looking for a tripod, you are, of
course, concerned about stability. It needs
| | 01:58 | to be able to bear the weight of the
camera that you're going to be using.
| | 02:01 | I am using a full-frame SLR, and
macro lenses are often kind of heavy.
| | 02:06 | So, you need to figure out the total weight
of your biggest macro setup. That means your
| | 02:10 | biggest macro lens with all of the extension
tubes on it, and everything else. Figure out
| | 02:14 | how much that weighs before you go tripod
shopping, so you know how much weight-bearing
| | 02:19 | capacity you need in your tripod.
| | 02:22 | What I like about this is that, yeah, the
tripod doesn't come up real high, but still I can
| | 02:27 | usually get it in the position I want it. It
means I got to work my quads a lot more, so
| | 02:31 | I kind of get a workout while I am using it.
| | 02:33 | It does have a center column.
| | 02:35 | Typically, I don't recommend using a center
column, because if you raise it up, and put
| | 02:38 | something real heavy,
it's going to wobble a lot.
| | 02:41 | What's cool about this center column, though,
is that it has a little button on the bottom.
| | 02:45 | If I find it, when I press it, it allows me
to take the center column, and do this with it.
| | 02:51 | And now, if I wanted, I have the
ability to point my camera straight down.
| | 02:56 | This is very often something you
need to do when you're working macro.
| | 02:59 | I was out at the beach the other day, and I
saw some cool footprints in the sand, and the
| | 03:03 | light was dropping very quickly. I needed
to use a slow shutter speed, so it was
| | 03:07 | really great to be able to point straight down.
| | 03:09 | Another nice thing about this tripod, like a
lot of tripods, the legs can extend beyond
| | 03:16 | their normal angle to a full 90°.
| | 03:18 | This lets me really lower the tripod, and get
really close to the ground. Between that, and
| | 03:23 | this ability to put the center column in
horizontally, I've got a very flexible macro tripod.
| | 03:29 | So, that's what I am going
to be using for this shot.
| | 03:31 | Now, the other thing about this tripod, of
course, is it doesn't have a head on it. You
| | 03:34 | have to add the head yourself.
| | 03:36 | This is great, because it gives you the
choice of exactly what kind of head you want.
| | 03:41 | Now, you're seeing how easy it
is to use this mechanism here.
| | 03:44 | This actually is normally a
very easy mechanism. There we go.
| | 03:47 | So, I normally use a ballhead
for my everyday shooting.
| | 03:53 | I like this Acratech Ultimate Ballhead here,
because it's extremely light weight, it locks
| | 03:58 | down very stably, and it's all open, so I do a
lot of desert shooting. It stays very clean.
| | 04:04 | The problem with a ballhead for macro shooting
is that you cannot move it on an individual axis.
| | 04:11 | So, if I frame up a shot, and decide I need
to pan to the left a little bit, as soon as
| | 04:14 | I release the ball, the whole thing lets go.
| | 04:17 | So, it's very difficult to
make a controlled motion.
| | 04:19 | More importantly, as good as this ballhead
is, when I set my camera, and lock it down,
| | 04:25 | and take my hands off, the camera sometimes drifts by
a millimeter or two, or even a fraction of a millimeter.
| | 04:30 | Now, you may think that I am just sounding
like I've got some control issues, but it's
| | 04:34 | really significant when you're at macro
distances. A change of a millimeter, or a fraction of
| | 04:39 | a millimeter, can
actually alter your composition.
| | 04:42 | So, for serious macro work,
I don't use a ballhead.
| | 04:44 | If you can only afford one tripod head, then
get a ballhead, because it's going to be the
| | 04:49 | most flexible head you can get.
| | 04:51 | It will work for macro; it's just
going to be a little frustrating.
| | 04:54 | Instead, I use a geared head. This is a Manfrotto
Geared Head that I really like. And, it's geared,
| | 05:02 | meaning that each access is controllable by a
separate little geared knob here that lets
| | 05:09 | me make very precise adjustments.
| | 05:10 | So, I've got a knob that
lets me tilt up and down.
| | 05:14 | What's cool about this knob is I can also crank
this release here, and actually just move the thing.
| | 05:19 | So, for making big movements, I can very quickly
grab the axis I want, and move the tripod around.
| | 05:27 | As I zero in on my shot, I've got these
knobs for making very refined movements.
| | 05:32 | So, this is a really nice way to have a
very precise way of framing up a macro shot.
| | 05:38 | So, that's what we're going to do right now;
we're going to get started framing up a macro shot.
| | 05:42 | I don't know exactly where my tripod needs
to be. I am just going to ballpark it here.
| | 05:46 | I've already got the tripod plate on my camera, so
my camera snaps in like that, and here is my flower.
| | 05:52 | Now, I already know that with the 100 mm alone,
I can't get as close as I want, so it's time
| | 05:58 | to add an extension tube.
| | 05:59 | I actually have three extension tubes here.
| | 06:03 | I'm not really sure where to start with them.
| | 06:05 | This one is as long as these two put together,
meaning this is half my extension tube power.
| | 06:11 | I think I'll just start with that
one, and see what it does for me.
| | 06:14 | So, I take my lens off, put the extension tube on
the lens, and the whole mess back on the camera.
| | 06:22 | Now, I am going to get tilted down here. It
always takes me a minute to remember exactly
| | 06:27 | which knob is which. And, of course, I am
going to through all three before I find the one
| | 06:30 | that I want. There we go.
| | 06:32 | I am just sure there is something I could learn
that would help me know exactly which one to move.
| | 06:38 | Now, very often, once your camera is locked
down, you might look at it and go, "Oh what
| | 06:44 | I've gotten out is a flower that's all out
of focus, and I am not in the right point.
| | 06:47 | oh, I've got to start
adjusting my legs and things."
| | 06:50 | You can do that, but that's a lot of work.
It's a lot easier to just move the flower.
| | 06:53 | So, I'm going to put the flower in the shot,
in a point where it's in focus, because I
| | 06:58 | want to figure out what my focus distance is.
And, it looks like it's going be about right
| | 07:04 | here. Nope, it's a little
further back. There we go.
| | 07:07 | That's focused. I'll show you what I'm
seeing here in just a minute. Let me frame it up.
| | 07:12 | And, just a rough exposure gets me this.
| | 07:18 | I am not worried about getting exposure right.
This might be a little blurry. It might be
| | 07:21 | a little soft. It doesn't necessarily have
the depth of field that I want. I am just
| | 07:24 | trying to figure out what I can
see with this level of magnification.
| | 07:27 | That's good, but I want in closer.
| | 07:29 | So, I am going to add the
rest of my extension tubes.
| | 07:32 | So, those are going to go on here. This is
going to give me my full magnification power
| | 07:38 | with this lens. If this isn't enough, then I don't
know what I am going to do. I am going to panic.
| | 07:43 | So . . . oh, this is looking good.
| | 07:45 | So, let me get positioned here.
| | 07:48 | You can see how easily I am recomposing here.
I am just turning these little knobs. I don't
| | 07:51 | have to adjust anything. I'm working back and
forth between moving the flower, and focusing
| | 07:57 | the lens to get things focused.
| | 07:58 | I am going to set that up
right about here, and take a shot.
| | 08:04 | Okay, what you are seeing right now is
wildly out of focus. That's because I jiggled the
| | 08:09 | camera a bunch when I pressed the shutter button.
| | 08:11 | I am not going to worry about that right now. I'm
just looking for composition. I like this one.
| | 08:15 | This is the shot I am going to go for.
| | 08:17 | So now, it's time to start
thinking about exposure.
| | 08:20 | If I look at my Exposure settings, I am at ISO 1600;
f/8 gives me a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second.
| | 08:27 | I can go smaller on my aperture, and I . . .
Since I am on a tripod, I am not that worried about
| | 08:31 | slowing the shutter down.
| | 08:32 | So, I am going to go all the way to 16,
because I want some deep depth of field.
| | 08:36 | Normally, you would start worrying about
diffraction artifacts on this camera at f/16.
| | 08:41 | Diffraction is an optical thing that happens that
softens your image when the aperture gets too small.
| | 08:47 | I am not going to worry about that here.
| | 08:48 | It's really bad on this lens as the aperture
goes smaller. I am going to just stick with
| | 08:54 | 16, because as much as there might be some
softening, we're in so close, I think I can
| | 09:00 | still sharpen up, get a lot of details. It's
still an image that I'm not used to seeing,
| | 09:04 | I don't care if it's not
absolutely, perfectly sharp.
| | 09:07 | Some people are more maniacal
about that sort of thing than I am.
| | 09:10 | I am going to add a cable release. Just that
little bit of hand-held shake that I had was
| | 09:15 | enough to screw up my image. So there we go.
| | 09:19 | Let me double-check my focus.
| | 09:21 | Now, we are going to talk a lot more about
depth of field in the next movie. I have a
| | 09:25 | number of different depth of field
options, so I am going to set that there.
| | 09:29 | Now, I am in very, very tight. A tiny
amount of motion will blur my image.
| | 09:35 | I'm actually going to step back a little bit.
| | 09:38 | Even my breath could be moving the flower.
it's not just about the camera shaking; it's
| | 09:42 | about the flower moving.
| | 09:43 | I want to make sure that air coming off
my body isn't moving the flower around.
| | 09:48 | I live in an apartment with wood floors.
| | 09:50 | I've found that I need to take a giant step
away from the camera, and try and trigger it,
| | 09:55 | because my foot on the floor will lower the
tripod a little bit, and when I take a step
| | 10:00 | off, the tripod pops up, and the camera jitters.
| | 10:02 | So, I am going to step back a little ways.
I am going to rest for a moment to give the
| | 10:06 | camera a chance to settle down. And,
actually, I am not going to put my camera in live view
| | 10:10 | mode first, because that will raise the mirror.
It's going to reduce a little more vibration.
| | 10:14 | I'll let it settle down. Now, I am going
to trip the shutter, and here is my shot.
| | 10:20 | I am jumping through all of these hoops to
ensure as much sharpness as I can get. I want
| | 10:25 | to reduce any potential for blur.
| | 10:26 | So, here we go. I like this.
| | 10:27 | This is a nice-looking shot.
| | 10:29 | Think for a moment about composition.
| | 10:31 | Normally, when we're composing, we think a lot
about, amongst other things, subject and background.
| | 10:35 | Well, I don't have a background here. I'm really
driven in right into the middle of this flower.
| | 10:40 | That doesn't mean that I still don't need
to think about how the viewer's eye is being
| | 10:44 | guided through the scene. That's
the essential purpose of composition.
| | 10:48 | I think this is working. I like that the
flower petals are just leading my eye right into
| | 10:52 | that center, that big yellow stuff. And, it's
cool starting to see a lot of detail of what's
| | 10:56 | going on there in the yellow stuff, that look like a
bunch of little cabbages or something. I don't know.
| | 11:01 | What's frustrating me at this point, though,
is depth of field. Not everything is in focus.
| | 11:05 | I've got my compositions set right. My camera is
stable. I think I've got a good level of illumination.
| | 11:09 | Now, we need to think about
what I can do with depth of field.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with depth of field and macro| 00:00 | Depth of field is a concern
for all types of photographers.
| | 00:03 | Landscape shooters worry about getting really
deep depth of field, while portrait shooters
| | 00:08 | often aim for shallow,
background-smearing depth of field.
| | 00:12 | If you've done even a little macro shooting,
then you should already have discovered that,
| | 00:15 | for macro shooters, depth of field
issues are significantly more profound.
| | 00:21 | Throughout this course, I've been talking
about how you needed to worry about depth of the
| | 00:24 | field, but I don't think most people
really take that seriously until they get behind
| | 00:27 | the camera, and see just how shallow it is.
| | 00:31 | So, take a look at this. I still have the same
flower setup from our last movie. I am going
| | 00:36 | to focus right now on where the
white petals join the back of the yellow.
| | 00:45 | And, here is that shot.
| | 00:47 | And, if you look at it closely, you can see
that that area that I described is in focus.
| | 00:51 | But now look at the front
of the flower; it's soft.
| | 00:54 | This is how shallow our
depth of field is, and I'm at f/16.
| | 01:00 | As I look at the flower right now, that's
maybe a distance of two or three millimeters.
| | 01:06 | This is how significant depth of field
issues are when we're working in macro.
| | 01:11 | Let me now do the opposite. I am going to
focus in closer, and take a shot, waiting for
| | 01:19 | my camera to stabilize again.
| | 01:22 | And, now the back where the white
petals join the flower is soft.
| | 01:27 | There are few things to remember while you're
working with depth of field, before we get
| | 01:30 | into some of the aesthetic
things that I need to think about now.
| | 01:33 | First, your viewfinder. Remember, on an SLR,
when you're looking through the viewfinder,
| | 01:38 | the aperture on your lens is always wide open.
You are always looking at the least depth
| | 01:43 | of field that you can capture.
| | 01:45 | I'm not actually seeing through my viewfinder,
or on live view, the true depth of field that
| | 01:49 | I am going to have at f/16.
| | 01:52 | Now, I can get a preview of that by
using my depth of field preview button.
| | 01:55 | The difficulty with depth of field preview
is that it works by actually just closing
| | 02:00 | the aperture down. When I do that, my image goes
so dark that it's very difficult to see focus.
| | 02:07 | If you really keep your . . . cup your hand over
your eye piece, give your eye time to adjust,
| | 02:12 | maybe you'll start to see some detail.
| | 02:13 | But again, we're already working with light
loss, because we're at macro distances, and
| | 02:18 | because we have extension tubes. So, depth of
field preview gets very difficult to work with.
| | 02:23 | A lot of times, what you have to do is just take
a shot, and review it on the back of the screen.
| | 02:27 | However, the back of the screen isn't
necessarily the best way to judge focus either.
| | 02:33 | If you are going to look at the back of
the screen, you really have to zoom in.
| | 02:36 | Don't just look at the image that pops up
there, and go, "Oh yeah that looks sharp." It's
| | 02:40 | always going to look sharper than your
actual final images. You need to zoom in, and pan
| | 02:45 | around, and really try to assess focus.
| | 02:49 | You might actually just need to do a lot of
focus bracketing, meaning take a shot, change
| | 02:54 | your focus a little bit, take another.
| | 02:56 | It's a very difficult to be sure of focus when
you're working with such shallow depth of field.
| | 03:02 | This is the kind of thing where practice is
going to help you a lot. You're going to learn
| | 03:05 | to be able to better understand the
relationship between what you're seeing on your screen
| | 03:09 | and what you are getting back at home.
| | 03:11 | So, that means I have a decision to make here.
| | 03:13 | Where do I want to focus?
| | 03:15 | Do I want the yellow part in focus? Do I
want the flowers . . . the white petals in focus?
| | 03:20 | If I focus on the yellow part -- what you saw
on that last shot, -- there are parts of the
| | 03:25 | white petals that are in focus; they recede
into the distance into a nice, soft background.
| | 03:30 | The other way around, I'm really focusing on
those nice lines of the petals, but the yellow
| | 03:35 | stuff is a little bit softer.
| | 03:37 | I don't think I like this as much.
| | 03:39 | The yellow stuff is right up there in the
front. It looks like it's where I'm trying
| | 03:43 | to guide the viewer's eye.
| | 03:45 | It looks like the focal point of my
composition, and I've left that focal point soft.
| | 03:49 | So, in this case, I think I am better off going
for this shot where the yellow stuff up front
| | 03:56 | is nicely in focus; the white
stuff is fading into the background.
| | 04:00 | Now, another way to go is, if I am having a
problem with shallow depth of field, I could
| | 04:04 | just embrace shallow depth of field.
| | 04:06 | Let's see what happens if I go really shallow.
| | 04:09 | I am going to go all the way down here to
2.8, and focus on the front of the flower.
| | 04:14 | Now, at this point, the image that I'm going
to capture is actually what I am seeing in
| | 04:18 | the viewfinder, because 2.8 is this lens
open all the way, and so here is what I get.
| | 04:24 | Now, this is actually kind of interesting. It
becomes a little more dreamy, because it's so soft.
| | 04:29 | What I need to be sure of is that kind of my
viewer's eye is still going in the right direction.
| | 04:34 | Think I might like to go just a tiny bit
deeper than that, but keep that same focal point.
| | 04:37 | I am going to bump out here
to 5-6, and take another shot.
| | 04:44 | Depth of field as a compositional tool becomes
much more important when you're working in macro.
| | 04:49 | You really need to think about how the viewer's eye
is being guided around by your depth of field choices.
| | 04:55 | This becomes more profound as your subject gets
deeper, and we'll see about that in the next movie.
| | 05:00 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding depth and composition in macro| 00:00 | One of the things that I like about macro flower
shooting is that it can feel like landscape photography.
| | 00:06 | When you get in real close, you'll find
yourself gazing across vistas of petals, and fields
| | 00:12 | of weird textures, and
strange formations, and things.
| | 00:15 | The problem is, because of this super shallow
depth of field that's inherent in macro, you
| | 00:19 | won't necessarily be able to see all of
those things at the same time in your viewfinder.
| | 00:24 | This can make composition tricky, because
you can't actually see all of the elements
| | 00:28 | that you have available to compose with.
| | 00:30 | Now, you can try studying the flower with the
naked eye to determine what might look interesting,
| | 00:35 | but the fact is a lot of this stuff is just
so small that you really can't see what might
| | 00:40 | be interesting or not,
until you get it magnified.
| | 00:42 | Now, this is true of all macro subjects, not
just flowers. Anything can end up being far
| | 00:47 | more interesting and
landscapey, once you get in close.
| | 00:49 | So, when trying to build a macro composition,
you often have to do some exploring through
| | 00:55 | focus, and camera or subject position changes,
as you try to find the things on the subject
| | 00:59 | that are interesting.
| | 01:01 | Here is what I mean.
| | 01:02 | I've got this new flower up from what we
were working with before. As you can see, it's
| | 01:06 | got a lot more depth in it. It's going to
inherently be a huge depth of field problem.
| | 01:12 | But I've framed up a shot here. I am still
at ISO 1600, because it's pretty dark in here.
| | 01:16 | And, I am in so close with my extension tubes,
and my extension tubes are cutting a little
| | 01:21 | bit of light out. Fortunately, my meter is
compensating for it, so I don't have to do
| | 01:24 | any thinking, or anything like that.
| | 01:25 | I am at f/4 here. Just because it's kind of a
mid-range aperture here, I'll go on up to 5-6.
| | 01:31 | I am just seeing what I can see.
| | 01:34 | Okay, now that's a lot cooler than it looks
like in real life. I can see all of that pollen
| | 01:39 | that's on there. I like the shapes,
and the way that they're interacting.
| | 01:43 | I didn't really notice that so
much just by looking at the naked eye.
| | 01:48 | But watch what happens as I refocus.
| | 01:50 | I am going to now focus way out here onto
the background -- at least I am going to try
| | 01:55 | to, -- and take this shot. Aha!
| | 02:01 | Looking back there, there are all of those
dots on the petals. I like those purple lines,
| | 02:05 | but the stamens up front have blurred out
completely. I can't see both at the same time.
| | 02:10 | This is what I was talking about earlier;
you've got to remember that what you see in
| | 02:13 | the viewfinder is the
shallowest depth of field possible.
| | 02:17 | So, what I need to do is start trying to look
around the flower, and just assess what I have
| | 02:22 | to work with compositionally.
| | 02:24 | I want you take a look at one
other thing before we start doing that.
| | 02:27 | Here is the first image that I shot,
and here is the second image that I shot.
| | 02:32 | Back in that first image, in the upper right-
hand corner, you can see a tiny bit of green. That's
| | 02:36 | a space between two of the petals.
| | 02:38 | As I show you the second shot, now look at
that tiny bit of green; it's much larger.
| | 02:43 | When we are at macro distances, even a slight
change in focus is actually an effective change
| | 02:50 | in focal length, and that
changes our field of view.
| | 02:53 | This is actually a much wider
angle shot than our first shot.
| | 02:58 | So, this is something else that I am trying
to balance. Sometimes, getting the focus that
| | 03:01 | I want won't actually give me the field of
view that I want, because focus changes so
| | 03:05 | dramatically. Change my field of
view when I am at macro distances.
| | 03:09 | So, I want to see what else is in this flower.
| | 03:11 | And, what I am going to do now is just turn
on video recording on the camera, so that
| | 03:16 | you can see what I am seeing in my viewfinder.
| | 03:20 | And, that's going to let you see
just what it is I am doing here.
| | 03:24 | I am just going to pan around, and see
what else might be cool in this shot.
| | 03:30 | Maybe I'll do a little refocusing here. Look
down there, down all of that stuff. That could
| | 03:35 | be really cool-looking, maybe.
| | 03:37 | I really like those black
dots; that's kind of cool.
| | 03:42 | Oh! Oh, this is interesting.
| | 03:44 | The interaction of how the petals overlap . . .
that could be interesting if it was played
| | 03:47 | up some more. Really playing the graphical
elements of those lines. And, as I change focus
| | 03:53 | again . . . yeah . . . see, some of that
stuff could be interesting.
| | 03:58 | What I don't really know yet is can I get . . .
how much can I have in focus from all of these
| | 04:04 | different things? And, the only reason, the
only way I can do that is to do what we already
| | 04:07 | did is, is just start dialing down my
aperture, or taking different kinds of shots.
| | 04:12 | Well, I like this too. The petals there
in the background; that's kind of cool.
| | 04:17 | So, here I am just exploring the flower.
| | 04:19 | If you don't have the cool, geared head, there
is another thing you can do, which is actually
| | 04:22 | just move the flower around.
| | 04:24 | One thing that's nice about moving the
flower is you can easily focus on different areas
| | 04:29 | by moving it forward and backward.
| | 04:31 | Oh look at that! Now that's interesting. All
those shapes together look like a claw of some kind.
| | 04:38 | But when I get to that distance that I can
see that whole kind of claw thing, I lose
| | 04:43 | the background. It goes completely out of focus.
| | 04:46 | Now, it's completely out of focus in my
viewfinder. I don't really know if it's in focus or not,
| | 04:52 | if I was to use a deeper depth of field.
| | 04:56 | So, I am gong to dial up to the f/16 real quick,
and just do kind of a quick ballpark composition
| | 05:03 | here. Maybe something like that. Oh,
| | 05:06 | okay, look. At f/16, I actually can get those
things in front, and the things in back. And,
| | 05:12 | you might be saying right now, "Well,
no. The whole thing is out of focus."
| | 05:14 | The whole thing is out of focus,
because I was jiggling the plant.
| | 05:17 | Again, I am just kind of . . . it's like I am
sketching. I am just roughing in a composition here.
| | 05:21 | So, this is interesting.
| | 05:22 | I had been thinking that I couldn't play
that front element against the back element, but
| | 05:25 | I can, if I dial my depth
of field so it is deeper.
| | 05:29 | This is the type of exploring that you
often just have to do, in this really manual,
| | 05:32 | kind of brute force way, as
you look for a composition.
| | 05:36 | Macro photographers often speak of magic
angles. This is the angle that maximizes the depth
| | 05:41 | of field that you have.
| | 05:42 | Maybe you turn the camera or the subject
in a way so that a particular plane comes
| | 05:47 | into really deep focus.
| | 05:49 | These are the kinds of things you can only
experiment with by looking in the viewfinder,
| | 05:53 | and moving your camera, or your subject,
doing test shots at different apertures to try to
| | 05:58 | see how much depth of field you get.
| | 06:00 | And, from all of these different exercises, you
can start to try to piece together a composition.
| | 06:05 | You may not be able to see your finished
composition in the viewfinder. You may just have to go,
| | 06:08 | "I think this is going to play against that.
I can balance this against that. And, I can
| | 06:12 | have enough deep depth of field to bring in the
background." And then, you take the shot and see.
| | 06:16 | What I am thinking about right now, as we move in, is
I do like this claw sort of thing that's going on.
| | 06:22 | And, the only way that I am getting this composition is,
if you look right now, I'm holding the thing right here.
| | 06:27 | I'm not going to be able to get as sharp a
shot holding it, because I am jostling it around.
| | 06:32 | I need to be able to change the position
of my subject here, and to do that, I am going
| | 06:36 | to need to employ some more gear.
And, you know how I love more gear.
| | 06:41 | So, we're going to look
at that in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with subject holders and support| 00:00 | So, you have seen that I have this nice
geared head; this very stable tripod.
| | 00:04 | I can really have fine control over the
position of my camera. Whether you have this nice set
| | 00:11 | up or not, you're still going to find that
no matter how finely you can position your
| | 00:14 | camera, very often you
need to move your subject.
| | 00:17 | I don't mean move it around for exploration
the way that we were. I mean get it positioned
| | 00:20 | a very particular way.
| | 00:23 | Sometimes, the only way to get the angle
that you want, or to get the focus that you need,
| | 00:27 | is to be able to move your subject,
and have it stay where you put it.
| | 00:31 | Most of the time that I spend on macro
shooting is actually trying to figure out how to get
| | 00:35 | my subject to stay where I want it to.
| | 00:38 | So, while with this head, I can maybe get the
shot that I want through camera movements,
| | 00:41 | I'm going to set up this
shot by moving the subject.
| | 00:44 | And . . . because that's something you are going
to see me doing a lot throughout the rest
| | 00:47 | of this course. And, I've got a few different
tools that will help stabilize and position
| | 00:52 | the subject where I want.
| | 00:53 | First thing I can do is just move
the flower around within the vase.
| | 00:56 | Very often, though, that doesn't get me anywhere.
| | 00:58 | If I start moving it, when I let go, sometimes
it has its own mind about what it's going to do.
| | 01:06 | So, usually what I'll do is get the flower
into a stable position in the vase, and tape
| | 01:11 | the stems with a little scotch tape.
| | 01:13 | Tape the stem to be inside or outside of the vase, so
that I now have a single object that I can move around.
| | 01:18 | One problem that I have right now is I would
like to shoot straight down into the flower,
| | 01:23 | and my tripod is too low.
| | 01:25 | I could raise the center column a little
more, but then things become less stable.
| | 01:29 | Sometimes, the problem is you're up too high, and
you need to go down. If you aren't using a
| | 01:33 | center column, it's a drag to move the legs
up and down, because you got to move all three.
| | 01:37 | And, if you've got a heavy rig,
| | 01:38 | it gets to be a pain.
| | 01:39 | So, being able to raise and
lower the subject is a good idea,
| | 01:43 | or being able to tilt the subject, so that
you can get the angle that you want. This
| | 01:47 | is kind of what I would really like to have.
| | 01:50 | So, I've got just this tiny, tiny little gap
down here. If I could just prop this up somehow.
| | 01:55 | Now, there are a lot of different
options you have for holding things.
| | 01:59 | Here's one that I just want to show you
right now. We're not going to use it for this. It
| | 02:03 | looks very dramatic, doesn't it?
| | 02:04 | This is a McClamp. M-C clamp.
| | 02:07 | If you Google that, you will find it.
| | 02:09 | It serves a lot of different purposes.
| | 02:10 | I can clamp one end to a tripod leg, or a table leg,
or something, and use the other end to hold something.
| | 02:17 | If I was okay with damaging the flower,
then this is what I would use right now.
| | 02:22 | I would clamp this to my tripod somewhere.
And then, I would have this arm that came out
| | 02:29 | here, and I could just clamp the flower right
in here. But this flower has still got buds
| | 02:34 | on it that are going to open;
| | 02:36 | I don't want to destroy the flower.
| | 02:37 | So, this is not a great option for right now.
You are going to see me using this maybe when
| | 02:41 | we go out in the field, because it's also,
great for holding little reflectors and diffusers,
| | 02:45 | or for getting other plants out
of the way. That kind of thing.
| | 02:49 | My next option would be to simply just
try to find things to prop this up with.
| | 02:54 | I've got a bunch of lens caps here, and some kind of
something or other, an adapter ring of some kind.
| | 02:59 | So, I can just try sliding these under here,
and seeing if I can figure out a way to prop
| | 03:07 | this up, so that it sits at the angle that I want.
That's pretty good. And, a lot of times that will work.
| | 03:12 | It's very often finding things that are exactly
the right height. Coins are great, because
| | 03:17 | you can go from dimes, to nickels, to quarters;
you can have different thicknesses; you can
| | 03:20 | stack them in different
mounts to get different heights.
| | 03:23 | One problem with doing the stacking thing is now,
for the rest of the shoot, I have to be very careful.
| | 03:28 | I don't want to bump the table. I don't
want to bump my tripod, and have it bump the table,
| | 03:31 | because if this goes over,
the flower could be damaged.
| | 03:33 | I'll spill water everywhere. So,
that's the downside to propping things up.
| | 03:39 | I'm going to not do that, and instead, I'm
going to turn to what I think is the solution that
| | 03:44 | is going to work, and that's museum wax.
| | 03:47 | Now, you can get this at, I think,
just about any hardware store.
| | 03:52 | Living in California, it's something that's
pretty prevalent in hardware stores, because
| | 03:55 | it's something you can use to secure
delicate objects in the event of an earthquake.
| | 04:00 | In fact, it's got this
quakehold little trademarked logo on it.
| | 04:05 | It's called museum wax, because it says right
here, "Used by museum professionals for anchoring
| | 04:09 | artifacts, collectibles, glass and more."
| | 04:12 | So, it's just a nice, thick wax. You pull out
a blob of it, and you can squish it around.
| | 04:20 | It sometimes needs to warm up before it becomes
real pliable, and just your body heat will do that.
| | 04:24 | What's nice about it is, it's really sticky.
| | 04:26 | So, it's not just that it's going to prop
this thing up. Instead, it's also going to hold
| | 04:29 | it once I have it propped
at the level that I want.
| | 04:32 | Most importantly, what I found is, even when it's
underweight, it doesn't compress that much over time.
| | 04:38 | I was trying to use silly putty for this.
And, the problem with silly putty is it very
| | 04:41 | quickly starts to just,
from gravity, starts to deform.
| | 04:46 | But museum wax has proven to be a really
good way of securing things. It actually comes
| | 04:50 | with a little wooden trowel.
| | 04:52 | So, I'm just making a blob of it here. And,
I'm going to get this where I think I want it,
| | 04:59 | and stick this underneath there. And,
okay, that's propped up very nicely.
| | 05:06 | I've also used museum wax before to actually
just take a flower, a lighter flower, a more
| | 05:11 | light-weight flower, and take its stem, and
just stick it to the table, and the museum
| | 05:15 | wax will hold it very well.
| | 05:16 | This gets me an angle that I think is
going to work a little bit better. My tripod is
| | 05:21 | now out of whack, because I've moved my subject,
but now I can get this lined up, get my focus set.
| | 05:30 | I'm going for a deep aperture, because as
you saw before, I discovered that I can get
| | 05:36 | a nice foreground and background.
| | 05:39 | Take my shot. That looks a little soft.
| | 05:42 | I'm going to switch over to live view, because
I think I've got some movement, and that movement
| | 05:46 | could be because perhaps my
flower is less stable than it was.
| | 05:50 | So, I'm going to go into full sharpness mode
here, and go into live view. Step back from
| | 05:57 | my camera. I'm going to let it sit for a
minute, because I just handled the camera. And, using
| | 06:02 | my remote, I'm going to take the shot.
| | 06:05 | That looks better. That looks sharper.
| | 06:08 | So, I like that. I'm going to
explore that a little more, maybe.
| | 06:11 | But over these last few movies, you've seen how
I can build up a deep shot through exploration;
| | 06:18 | movement of my camera; movement of my subject;
making sure that my understanding of the scene
| | 06:24 | is complete; understanding what all the objects
are that I have to work with (all the elements,
| | 06:28 | rather); and understanding what
I can do with depth-of-field.
| | 06:31 | Putting all that together in my head,
trying a shot, and then working it from there.
| | 06:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting with the Canon 65 mm| 00:00 | So far, in this chapter, you've seen
me working with the Canon 100mm Macro.
| | 00:05 | You've also seen me attach some extension tubes to
it, and we've been able to get really, really close.
| | 00:09 | I want to show you now a unique lens,
the Canon 65mm MP-E 1-5X Macro lens.
| | 00:19 | This is a really unusual lens. Nobody else
right now is making something like this. And,
| | 00:24 | it gets me a lot of the power that I get with a
complex configuration of lens and extension tubes.
| | 00:31 | But it actually gets me more magnification
power than I can get with all of these. And,
| | 00:35 | it means that I don't have to hassle with the
multiple gear, and the bigger lens configuration.
| | 00:40 | That said, you work with this lens in a very
different way than you work with a normal macro lens.
| | 00:47 | So, I have it attached right now,
and it's got a built-in lens collar.
| | 00:51 | You haven't actually seen a lens collar in
action. The lens collar is attached to the
| | 00:55 | tripod plate. So, what I typically do is put
the lens on the tripod first, and then I attach
| | 01:00 | the camera to the lens.
| | 01:02 | So, it feels kind of strange fixing your
camera to a lens, rather than the lens to your camera,
| | 01:08 | but you'll see that as you work with it, and
you are adding extension tubes, it's actually
| | 01:12 | a pretty easy process of getting the camera on and off.
| | 01:15 | By default, when I have the
lens like this, I am at 1X.
| | 01:19 | So, this lens starts at
full 1X macro magnification.
| | 01:23 | This lens starts where
most other macro lenses end.
| | 01:26 | The tricky think about this lens is with a
normal macro lens, I can get into the shot, and
| | 01:33 | if I decide I would like to go wider,
I can just pull back and re-focus.
| | 01:36 | This lens has a fixed focal distance
for each magnification that it has.
| | 01:41 | When I'm at 1X, my focal distance is
about 100mm from the end of the lens.
| | 01:48 | I'm going to turn on live view here. I find that
working with this lens is easiest in live view.
| | 01:52 | And again, I'm at 1X here. So, what
I'm going to do is just move my subject.
| | 01:56 | I want to get in here and look at this plant.
So, to focus this shot, I would need to have
| | 02:00 | the plant about right here. So, I
would have to prop it up or something.
| | 02:04 | You've already seen a 1X photo though.
| | 02:05 | What I want to do is really show off
the power of this lens, and get in closer.
| | 02:09 | To do that -- just based on experience I've
had of shooting flowers with this lens before, --
| | 02:15 | I kind of know an area that might be interesting.
I want to get in right in here, this interface
| | 02:21 | between this stuff in the middle
and this stuff that surrounds it.
| | 02:25 | Take a good look at that. You can really
hardly see any detail there. I can't see much other
| | 02:30 | than just some little dots
and things with the naked eye.
| | 02:32 | So, I'm going to go ahead and just . . . rather
than show you all the intermediate stuff, let's
| | 02:37 | just go right for the really
strong magnification power.
| | 02:41 | I've zoomed this out to 5X.
| | 02:43 | Now, obviously the lens gets
much longer when this happens.
| | 02:46 | Also, the focusing distance shrinks dramatically.
| | 02:49 | At 5X, my focus distance is 41 mm.
| | 02:52 | At 2X, it's 63. The camera actually has a
chart that tells you the differences, whether you
| | 02:58 | need to know those or not.
| | 02:59 | It doest really matter. You can just move
the thing around until you get it in focus.
| | 03:02 | So, now I'm going to do what I did before.
| | 03:04 | It's too hard to move the camera around, so
I'm going to move the plant around, just until
| | 03:09 | I get some focus. And, as with any other macro
lens, when I'm zoomed in, my depth-of-field
| | 03:16 | is really shallow, but I mean really shallow.
| | 03:19 | Take a look at this depth of field chart
that Canon provides in the 65 mm manual.
| | 03:27 | At 5X magnification at f/16,
our depth-of-field is 0.269 mm.
| | 03:34 | So, we're talking about a fraction of
a millimeter of depth of field here.
| | 03:38 | Now, the good news is we are now at a scale
where that fraction of a millimeter actually covers
| | 03:43 | a fair amount of our subject.
| | 03:44 | So, I've lined something up here. And, I'm
just going to take a shot real quick to show you
| | 03:49 | what I've got, as soon as I get it in focus.
| | 03:51 | So, focusing right now is the process of moving the
subject back and forth. And, my live view just shut off.
| | 03:59 | Now, the other big issue when zoomed in this
far, or a big issue, is of course, our light.
| | 04:04 | I'm still working with just my window light,
and right now, I'm right on the edge of it
| | 04:08 | being enough light.
| | 04:10 | When I'm in this close, my
lens is shadowing the subject.
| | 04:12 | It's hard to really get a lot of light deep
into the nooks and crannies of the flowers.
| | 04:16 | I am at f16. And right now, my
exposure is a little over 3 seconds.
| | 04:21 | I'm going to go ahead and stay with this for now,
but I have to go deep into stable shooting mode.
| | 04:25 | So, I've got my remote control, I'm in live
view, I'm stepping back for the camera, I'm
| | 04:30 | waiting for all jitter to stop, and
3 seconds later, I have this shot.
| | 04:39 | So, as I said, there is no part of this
that I could see with the naked eye.
| | 04:43 | Suddenly there is this whole little world
opening up. And, this is what I was talking
| | 04:48 | about in a previous movie that it is just
really fun getting in here, and finding that
| | 04:51 | this is kind of like landscape shooting.
| | 04:53 | What I would probably like to do next is
get the camera a little lower, and shoot across
| | 04:56 | the top of some of this stuff, and see what I
can build up composition-wise between those
| | 05:00 | little pod things in the foreground,
and those curly leaves in the background.
| | 05:05 | But I'm going to show you some more stuff
that we can do here. That's 5X, that's full
| | 05:08 | magnification, but we can go closer,
because of course, we have extension tubes.
| | 05:12 | Extension tubes are going to let us get
our focus distance even shorter, shorter than
| | 05:17 | the 40 mm or whatever we're at right now.
| | 05:20 | So, I need to put these on. I'm going to
take the camera off, and I'm just going to just
| | 05:25 | go ahead, and use my full set of extension tubes.
| | 05:28 | And by the way, this is a set of three
extension tubes that we've been using.
[00:05:3.13]
There's no reason I can't buy more, and just
keep stacking them on here. I mean, there are
| | 05:36 | some practical reasons. Eventually, it will be
impossible to get the camera close enough to the subject.
| | 05:40 | And, we are maybe going to
even run into that problem here.
| | 05:43 | My lens is already touching the flower.
| | 05:46 | So, I'm going to have to really
mash against it here to get in tight.
| | 05:52 | Okay, now, as I'm closer, I have lost some
of the elements that I had in my composition
| | 05:59 | before, so I'm going to tilt
down just a little bit, and pan over,
| | 06:04 | again. I'm using my geared head here,
which makes it very easy to pan around.
| | 06:10 | One thing that's a little tricky is that
any handling of the camera causes huge jitter.
| | 06:16 | Now, it would take such tiny moves of the
flower pot to get this in focus that I'm going to
| | 06:21 | switch to focusing with the lens.
| | 06:23 | It's a strange thing to focus with this lens,
because as you focus, you get a very significant
| | 06:28 | change in focal length, and that
means you get a change in field of view.
| | 06:31 | We saw this on 100mm earlier. It's just really,
really pronounced on this lens, because of
| | 06:36 | the distances we're dealing with.
| | 06:38 | This changes now my shutter speed to 6 seconds.
| | 06:42 | This is because of the light cut
that I get from the extension tubes.
| | 06:46 | So, I'm going to go ahead and raise my ISO stop.
| | 06:48 | I'm at 1600 right now, but I'm very
comfortable with going to 3200 on this 5D Mark III.
| | 06:54 | I'm not worried about noise at
that ISO. "Camera, stop shaking."
| | 06:59 | So here we go. And, I'm sorry to not be
talking to you through that, but actually speaking
| | 07:08 | might have caused some
vibration that would be significant.
| | 07:11 | So, here is my image.
[00:07:1.03]
So, I'm in even little bit closer.
| | 07:15 | Here is before; and here is after.
| | 07:17 | You can see some of those elements zooming in.
| | 07:19 | Needless to say, I can get
very, very, very close with this lens.
| | 07:23 | So, what can I actually use it for?
| | 07:25 | Is this a practical macro lens for the
types of things you like to shoot?
| | 07:29 | Absolutely, if you're shooting still
subjects in the studio, this lens is great, because
| | 07:32 | you've got the power to shoot stably,
to get light wherever you need it to go.
| | 07:37 | But this is a
surprisingly effective hand-held lens.
| | 07:39 | If you are really careful, if you have a monopod,
it is actually possible to do hand-held shooting
| | 07:43 | with this lens in the field.
| | 07:45 | You are probably not going to be at full 5X.
You are going to probably be more out here
| | 07:49 | at the 2X or 3X level, just because, well,
two reasons. One: shutter speed. You lose light
| | 07:56 | as you zoom this out further, and your
shutter speed lengthens, but also you've just got
| | 07:59 | to get so close to stuff. You are probably not going
to get super close, at that 5X distance, to a live bug.
| | 08:05 | So again, a unique lens. No one else
really makes anything like this right now, but a
| | 08:10 | really fun, very effective macro
lens that you might want to consider.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Macro Shooting AccessoriesWorking with macro stabilizing options| 00:00 | A tripod is probably the most versatile way of
stabilizing your camera. You can use it in
| | 00:05 | a studio for macro work. You can carry it out into
the field for any kind of other type of shooting.
| | 00:10 | A lot of times, for macro stuff though, you
are going to have a better time working with
| | 00:14 | some smaller stabilization hardware that's
going to make it easier to get your camera
| | 00:18 | into the up-close position that you need.
| | 00:20 | With the tripod, sometimes the legs are in
the way of your table, and you can't quite
| | 00:24 | get your camera where you want it to be.
| | 00:25 | So, we are going to look at a
couple of other alternatives,
| | 00:27 | starting with a variation on the tripod. I
mean, specifically, the adorable variation on
| | 00:33 | the tripod. This is the cute tripod that you
may not have that I do, and I'm very proud of.
| | 00:39 | This is a Vanguard Tripod. I'd never heard
of this company. I was goggling around for
| | 00:43 | cute tripods, and came up with this.
| | 00:45 | Slik, which is a pretty well-known tripod
company, also makes a line of adorable tripods.
| | 00:50 | They don't call them that, and I wish they would.
| | 00:52 | As you can see, it's got cute, adorable, little
legs and an adorable, little ballhead up here.
| | 00:57 | The legs actually extend kind of, but they
extend in a really cute way, so that makes
| | 01:04 | up for their lack of extension.
| | 01:06 | What's cool about this is
it's meant for tabletop use.
| | 01:08 | It can sit right here on my table, I can put
my camera on it, have my subject right here,
| | 01:13 | and actually get in pretty close.
| | 01:15 | What's nice about this is it's inexpensive;
it's very lightweight, really easy to carry.
| | 01:19 | If you do do field shooting, this is a
great alternative to a full-on tripod, especially,
| | 01:24 | if you are shooting flowers in the field,
where you're very often on the ground, where it's
| | 01:28 | very likely you can't get
your tripod into position.
| | 01:31 | The only downside to this tripod
is that it has a built-in head.
| | 01:35 | I can't use my own head on it.
| | 01:37 | My own head would be taller.
| | 01:38 | So on the upside, I'm lower.
| | 01:40 | The downside to this built-in
head is it's not super stable.
| | 01:44 | It's a little wobbly, but most important,
when I lock it down, it doesn't stay there. And,
| | 01:49 | I don't mean that it drifts over time.
| | 01:50 | I mean I put it into position, I lock it down,
I let go, and it floats a millimeter or two, which,
| | 01:55 | for really up-close work, can be significant.
| | 01:57 | Still, again, an inexpensive, lightweight
option whether you travel or work in the studio.
| | 02:03 | This is a great way to get your
camera closer to certain things.
| | 02:08 | A variation on this that
offers one advantage is this gizmo.
| | 02:14 | This is made by Kirk Enterprises. You can
get this at kirkphoto.com. Solid metal, really
| | 02:20 | not very heavy, though. Its
handy carrying handle right there.
| | 02:24 | I put that down. And, what's nice about this
is I have a normal tripod screw right here,
| | 02:29 | so I can put on any head that I want.
| | 02:30 | I'm just going to just grab my geared head
here, and put this on, and now I have a tabletop
| | 02:36 | configuration that's outfitted with
the geared head that I like so much.
| | 02:40 | Again, this lets me get my camera positioned
exactly where I want it. And because I'm right
| | 02:46 | here on the table, I don't have legs in the
way. I can put my subject right here, and really
| | 02:50 | get to work up close.
| | 02:52 | So, I really like this is as an option.
| | 02:53 | It's incredibly sturdy.
| | 02:55 | I've used this with very long combinations
of lenses and extension tubes, and it has such
| | 03:00 | a low center of gravity that I've
never had a problem with it falling over.
| | 03:03 | So, I really like this as a tabletop option.
| | 03:06 | An extremely affordable, extremely easy-
to-carry tabletop option is a bean bag.
| | 03:13 | Now, this is not just your
old run-of-the-mill bean bag.
| | 03:15 | This is a special photography bean bag,
meaning it has special beans in it.
| | 03:20 | It doesn't actually. What makes it more of
a photography-oriented bean bag is that it's
| | 03:24 | stitched into these quilted patterns. And, that makes
it very easy to fold into particular configurations.
| | 03:31 | And, that sounds much more fancy
and technical than it really is.
| | 03:34 | What I'm talking about is I can set it here
on the table, and fold it up in such a way
| | 03:38 | that I can prop up my
lens exactly where I want it.
| | 03:40 | Now, this is not an extreme precision
photographic instrument that I'm dealing with here. I set
| | 03:45 | my camera on it, and maybe
it syncs a little bit more.
| | 03:48 | It's hard sometimes to get
it adjusted exactly right.
| | 03:51 | This is not an option when I'm
working at extreme magnifications.
| | 03:54 | If I'm at 1X, or just shooting close-up
rather than macro, though, this can be a great way
| | 04:00 | to go. Easy-to-pack, doesn't cost
very much, and it's pretty lightweight.
| | 04:04 | Finally, there's one last thing, another
variation on the tripod, which is, of course, the monopod,
| | 04:10 | a tripod that is missing two of its legs.
| | 04:12 | What I like about this monopod is its carbon
fiber, so it's extremely lightweight. And, carbon
| | 04:18 | fiber is extremely durable.
| | 04:20 | You can run over it with your car.
| | 04:22 | I did that once, and nothing happened to it.
| | 04:24 | I didn't run over this, I ran over my tripod with my
car, and it was fine. The tripod. The car was totaled.
| | 04:32 | So, what's nice about this is I have these
extensible legs here, and of course, I get
| | 04:37 | it out, and then I've got a normal tripod screw up on
top here, so I can just put whatever head that I want.
| | 04:44 | I'm going to put my ballhead on here. What
I like about a monopod, it's for times when
| | 04:49 | I don't want to carry a tripod, because the
tripod is too heavy. This is very lightweight;
| | 04:53 | it packs very small.
| | 04:55 | But more importantly, if I'm shooting
something moving, if I'm trying to shoot a macro shot
| | 04:59 | of a bee or something, I can put my ballhead on it,
loosen the ball, and now I've got stabilization on one axis.
| | 05:06 | I don't have to worry about
the camera going up and down.
| | 05:08 | It can still be shaky on other axes, but
this is still more stable than shooting hand-held,
| | 05:12 | But as I tilt around, because of my ballhead,
I can keep my camera oriented however I want.
| | 05:18 | So, this is a nice way of getting some
stabilization when I'm trying to shoot a flying insect, or
| | 05:23 | maybe a flower that's blowing in the wind or
something. And, obviously there are exposure
| | 05:27 | issues when we're doing that sort of thing,
but as far as getting some extra stabilization,
| | 05:31 | a monopod is a great,
lightweight, very affordable way to go.
| | 05:35 | So, if you are serious about macro photography,
you're probably going to want to look into
| | 05:39 | some of these options, whether
you're a field or a studio shooter.
| | 05:43 | All of these are great choices.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with sliders for macro| 00:00 | If you've been following along doing any macro
shooting of your own, then you should already
| | 00:04 | have discovered that camera and subject
placement is critical when you're building a composition.
| | 00:09 | Now, this is true with any
kind of photographic composition.
| | 00:12 | But at the macro scale, it gets down to millimeters
of placement of both your camera and your subject.
| | 00:18 | You've seen how I have my geared head here
for rotating, and panning, and tilting the camera.
| | 00:24 | But as I've been trying to get things
positioned, I've been sliding my subject back and forth.
| | 00:29 | If I'm needing to get something in focus,
| | 00:31 | I could, of course, move the tripod back and
forth, but making a fine motion of this whole
| | 00:35 | tripod is really tricky.
| | 00:37 | Fortunately, there's another piece of gear you can
employ to help you with that, and that's a slider.
| | 00:43 | This is a geared rail that I can mount my
camera on. And, by turning these knobs, I can
| | 00:50 | slide it in different directions.
| | 00:52 | So, this knob slides it back and forth this way.
This knob slides it back and forth this way.
| | 00:56 | Now, as I turn this, you may not be
seeing much motion, and that's actually good.
| | 01:02 | This is geared so that it takes me a lot
of turns of the knob to get much movement on
| | 01:07 | either axis. That means that I
can make really fine adjustments.
| | 01:11 | Here is what I'm talking about.
| | 01:12 | I've gone ahead and put my camera, or my
tripod plate, on the slider. I'm going to just mount
| | 01:17 | it here on my tripod.
| | 01:19 | And now, my camera attaches to this normal
tripod screw right there. Let's get rid
| | 01:24 | of this cable release here. So, I am just
going to mount this, just like I would mount the
| | 01:30 | camera to any other tripod attachment.
| | 01:33 | So, I screw this down here.
| | 01:35 | Now, I've got full control over the camera.
| | 01:38 | I can pan and tilt with my geared head. And,
if I decide, "Well, I need to be a little bit
| | 01:44 | closer," then all I do is
slide the camera forward.
| | 01:48 | So now, I've got a way of making really refined
focus adjustments, simply by turning this knob.
| | 01:54 | If I need to truck to the left or right, I just
turn this knob, and I can get some little adjustments.
| | 02:00 | So, when I'm in really tight trying to refine a
composition, the slider is really the missing
| | 02:05 | element that I haven't had
access to so far through this course.
| | 02:10 | I've got all my motions of the camera.
| | 02:12 | Now, I can also go forward and backward.
Really aids focusing. Really aids composition. And,
| | 02:16 | they're not that expensive.
| | 02:18 | This is a Velbon Slider that I really like.
It's very sturdy, very well-made. I really
| | 02:22 | like the motion of the rail.
| | 02:23 | This is around $100 from Amazon;
it might have been, like, $125.
| | 02:27 | If you poke around on eBay, you'll find some
extremely inexpensive sliders, some like around $20 or $25.
| | 02:33 | I have not looked at these; I don't know what
kind of quality they are. If you're just wanting
| | 02:37 | to maybe dabble in this a little bit,
maybe that's a better way to go.
| | 02:40 | But if you're doing a lot of close-
up studio work, check out the slider.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with a bellows| 00:00 | The key to getting a macro photo is being
able to get your lens in really, really close.
| | 00:05 | To do that, you need a very
short minimum focusing distance.
| | 00:08 | You've seen how extension tubes let
you get your lens closer to a subject.
| | 00:13 | I've got here something that's basically a
variation on an extension tube, and that is a bellows.
| | 00:19 | Now a bellows is a bit . . . sometimes a bit
heavier, a bit clunkier, and a lot more fragile than
| | 00:25 | a set of extension tubes.
| | 00:26 | The advantage of it is that
it's got tremendous variability.
| | 00:31 | I can actually find the exact level of
extension that I want with very fine control.
| | 00:38 | So, what I've done here is I've mounted a 50
mm lens on the front of this very small, very
| | 00:44 | lightweight bellows. And with that, I can extend just
exactly to where I need to get the cropping that I want.
| | 00:52 | So, I am going to just set this
here, and grab a shot real quick.
| | 00:56 | I'm employing all of the things that you've
seen me do, working with a normal macro lens.
| | 01:00 | I'm using live view to
keep my hands off the camera.
| | 01:02 | I have got ISO 800 here.
| | 01:05 | Now, when I do this, I lose aperture control over my
lens, because I've broken the electrical contacts.
| | 01:12 | You might be able to find a bellows that
actually delivers those electrical contacts.
| | 01:16 | I went for cheap, and it didn't come with any.
| | 01:19 | So, I am just working manually here; this means
that the lens is basically wide open at f1.8.
| | 01:25 | There are tricks that you can
use to close the aperture down.
| | 01:29 | If you want to learn more about those, check out
my Reverse Lens Mini Course to see how that works.
| | 01:35 | So, I am just going to grab a
shot here. And, there we go.
| | 01:38 | I'm in real tight with what is
nothing more than a 50 mm lens.
| | 01:42 | So, a bellows is another
version of an extension tube.
| | 01:45 | Personally, I prefer extension tubes, just
because they're more durable. They're a little bit
| | 01:48 | easier to work with. But if you are doing
a lot of studio work, investing in a nice
| | 01:52 | bellows gives you a lot more flexibility.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with viewfinders in macro| 00:00 | Very often, when shooting macro, whether in
the studio or in the field, you are going
| | 00:05 | to have your camera in an inconvenient
location. I mean, inconvenient to you.
| | 00:09 | My viewfinder is way down
here; my eyes are way up here.
| | 00:11 | So, if I want to look through the viewfinder
to frame my shot, I've got to get down here.
| | 00:16 | And, I would really like to offer that if
you do find yourself having to work this way,
| | 00:21 | don't do what I just did.
| | 00:23 | When I go like this, my eye is now sideways;
it's actually more difficult for me to figure
| | 00:28 | out if my shot is leveled.
| | 00:29 | And, you may think, "Well, no, I'll just pay
attention." And, as many times as I think I
| | 00:33 | can get away with that, I
still come home with crooked shots.
| | 00:36 | Instead, you really do need to keep your
eye level, and come down here, and that's really
| | 00:40 | going to tire out your knees very quickly.
| | 00:42 | Fortunately, there are a couple of options.
| | 00:44 | You can, of course, turn on live view.
| | 00:46 | With live view, even from up here, I'm still
having a hard time seeing the screen. And, if
| | 00:50 | I was working in bright daylight,
the screen might get washed out.
| | 00:54 | There is another option, and
that is the right-angle viewfinder.
| | 00:58 | This attaches to the viewfinder of my camera,
and gives me an easier way of seeing my shot.
| | 01:05 | There are a number of different brands of these.
This is a third party. This is a Seagull angle finder.
| | 01:11 | Canon actually makes one, as does Nikon, so
you can buy brand-specific viewfinders. And,
| | 01:15 | they attach in different ways.
| | 01:17 | The Canon ones, your viewfinder always has
this little cover that has to come off. And,
| | 01:21 | it's very easy. You just squeeze
the edges, and slide it off.
| | 01:24 | In the case of this viewfinder, you need a
special adapter for different models of cameras,
| | 01:29 | and this one ships with
a whole mess of adapters.
| | 01:31 | When you order it, be sure to check the
list of compatible cameras, and make sure yours
| | 01:35 | is on it. And, you may find that some
support your cameras, and others don't.
| | 01:40 | So, I slide that on there, and then I
slide this on here, and now it fits real snug. Okay.
| | 01:47 | So now, I've got a nice right-angle
viewfinder that I can use, and I don't have to bend over.
| | 01:51 | I can even tilt it, so I can get down like this.
| | 01:54 | Again, I still want to be careful about ensuring
that I'm able to see an accurately-leveled view.
| | 02:00 | If I'm looking at this, I'm seeing a
sideways image, so I would want to come over here.
| | 02:05 | A nice feature of this
viewfinder is it also has magnification.
| | 02:09 | I've got a little switch right here; it's
set on 1X. If I move it over to here, I get
| | 02:13 | a cropped 2X view of my image. Not
magnifying the final image, just giving me a magnified
| | 02:19 | view of the viewfinder that
can make it much easier to focus.
| | 02:24 | These are very handy. Honestly,
I find that I rarely use them.
| | 02:27 | Live view really gets me through most of
my difficult focusing situations. And the having
| | 02:33 | to mess with setting it up . . . . I just find that I tend
to just suffer through looking through the viewfinder.
| | 02:39 | If, though, you're finding yourself craning
your neck a lot, hurting your knees, or that
| | 02:43 | you just can't see the live view screen, you
are going to want to check into a right-angle
| | 02:47 | viewfinder for your camera.
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|
|
5. Macro LightingWorking with direct light| 00:00 | We've been talking about a lot of different
kinds of gear in this course, because having
| | 00:05 | the right tool can be
critical for getting a good shot.
| | 00:07 | But ultimately, nothing is more
important to your final image than light.
| | 00:12 | All photos begin with light. And, you'll very
often choose to shoot a particular thing, not
| | 00:17 | because you are necessarily interested in
that thing so much, but because you like a
| | 00:20 | light that is hitting it.
| | 00:22 | Now, if you've been watching the movies in
this course in order, then you've probably
| | 00:25 | noticed right now, that the lighting here
has changed. And, I want to use this opportunity
| | 00:29 | to talk about the difference between the
light we have now and the light we had earlier.
| | 00:33 | A lot of people find lighting
to be a very daunting topic.
| | 00:36 | But really, the most important part of learning
about light is learning to notice the difference
| | 00:41 | between one kind of light and another, and
understanding why that difference has occurred.
| | 00:46 | Now earlier, I asked you to find a
window with soft light to shoot in.
| | 00:49 | I did this because soft light is a very easy
light to work with. But what is soft light?
| | 00:55 | Soft light happens when the light on a
subject has bounced around a whole bunch, so that
| | 01:00 | we get a lot of reflected light
coming from lots of different directions.
| | 01:04 | Take a look at the same shot of
this flower that we shot earlier.
| | 01:08 | The soft light is light that wraps around
the subject. You'll often hear people talk
| | 01:13 | about how, "Oh, this nice, diffused
light is wrapping around everything."
| | 01:16 | What that means is that there's so much light
bouncing in so many different directions that
| | 01:20 | there's no single, direct source of light. And,
that means that there's no one angle that's
| | 01:26 | dominating in any other angles, and so,
creating brighter highlights in one place, or darker
| | 01:30 | shadows in another.
| | 01:31 | It's a very even light; it wraps
around everything on the flower.
| | 01:36 | What's great about that is it means
that you don't have really harsh contrast.
| | 01:40 | It's easier to control the viewer's eye.
There's no one part of the image that stands out over
| | 01:44 | another part of image.
| | 01:46 | Now, we're getting what may
look more like afternoon light.
| | 01:49 | The sun has set. We're getting more direct light
coming in, and it's creating a lot of different shadows.
| | 01:55 | I want to very quickly just take a picture
for you here. I've got my camera pulled back
| | 02:00 | a little bit. I've switched back to my 24-105, and
I am going to just take a quick shot in this light.
| | 02:08 | Now, take a look at this. This is
a very different kind of image.
| | 02:11 | Here, I've got light and shadow
playing across the surface of the flower.
| | 02:16 | Everything is not evenly
lit from every direction.
| | 02:18 | It means that some things are going to be
harder to see. It means that other things
| | 02:21 | are going to be easier.
| | 02:22 | But what that means is a lot of
times an image with more drama.
| | 02:25 | I can see more of the texture that's on the
flower. I can see more of the contours of the petals.
| | 02:30 | I can use that lighting to try to guide
the viewer's eye to pay more attention to one
| | 02:35 | part of the image than another.
| | 02:37 | So, what I would like you to do now, for these
first exercises in this movie, is to go somewhere
| | 02:42 | in your house, and find a
shaft of strong, direct lighting.
| | 02:46 | This can be light streaming
directly through a window.
| | 02:49 | Sometimes, it will still have a reflective
angle to it. Maybe it's bounced off of a
| | 02:53 | wall. Whatever. It's creating a strong shaft
of light. And, find a flower, or another subject.
| | 02:58 | But again, for the time being, it's still
good to stick with flowers, because they're so
| | 03:01 | easy to work with. Find a flower, and get it
in that light, because we're going to start
| | 03:04 | playing with some of this direct lighting.
| | 03:07 | So, what do I have to work with here?
| | 03:09 | I've got all of these lights and shadows.
| | 03:11 | I'm still thinking compositionally the way
that I always would. I'm looking at different
| | 03:15 | elements -- the stamens there in the middle,
the petals against the background. I can put
| | 03:19 | one against the other. I can try
to weight the frame in different ways.
| | 03:22 | But I want to really focus
on the lighting right now.
| | 03:24 | In that shot that I just showed you, I like
that there's that bright spot on the petal,
| | 03:28 | right beside that middle part,
that middle stamen there.
| | 03:32 | But, as we were doing before with
exploring the image by panning and moving around, I
| | 03:39 | want to explore the image with an eye towards light.
And, a lot of this you can do with the naked eye.
| | 03:45 | I'm just going to get down here real quick,
before I move the camera. And, as I do that,
| | 03:49 | I see some highlights and some
bright spots that are really interesting.
| | 03:52 | So, I'm going to come down here, and grab a
shot, so that you can see what I'm talking about.
| | 03:57 | Now, this is very often how you will begin
to work up a shot, especially when you're
| | 04:02 | working macro; when you're trying to figure out
where a composition is that doesn't necessarily
| | 04:08 | have a really obvious subject and background;
where you are trying to build an area of focus.
| | 04:14 | So, I've got my tripod lowered. That looks
like it's probably about right, but I need to
| | 04:19 | do some tilting here.
| | 04:22 | I'm doing just the same things that you've
seen me doing throughout this course, just
| | 04:26 | using the controls on my tripod to frame up
a shot, which I'm going to be able to show
| | 04:32 | you in just a moment.
| | 04:35 | Now, this is not a finished, great composition.
| | 04:37 | I just want to show you what
I'm thinking about lighting-wise.
| | 04:41 | I'm going for deeper depth of field here. So
I'm staying at f/16, using my remote, because
| | 04:47 | my shutter speed is going a
little slow. So, check this out.
| | 04:51 | Now, I'm getting these nice, bright highlights
on that petal in the background. And, I'm seeing
| | 04:57 | rim lighting around those
pollen-covered bits of the stamens.
| | 05:00 | So, those orange bits are
getting lit up real well.
| | 05:04 | So, I've had a dramatic change in
lighting just by lowering the camera.
| | 05:07 | So, as you start working with direct light,
you are really going to want to be on the
| | 05:10 | move a lot. You really want to look at different
angles, and see what interesting bits of light you can find.
| | 05:15 | Now, by interesting bits of light, I'm talking
about areas where I can see more contoured detail.
| | 05:20 | I'm talking about areas where I see a nice
highlight, or a nice bit of backlighting, like
| | 05:24 | I am on those pollen-covered bits.
| | 05:26 | Compositionally, the shot needs a lot of work.
| | 05:28 | I need to move the camera more this way. I
would like to have that pink petal right behind
| | 05:32 | the stamens to give them a background.
| | 05:34 | So, all that basic compositional work will
continue, but I'm building it right now around
| | 05:39 | these different lighting ideas.
| | 05:41 | So, find an area of some nice, direct light, and
start playing with learning to recognize the
| | 05:47 | interesting bits of light and shadow.
| | 05:50 | With macro photography, this can become very
important, because as you get in closer, very
| | 05:54 | often you are dealing with areas that are
flooded with light, and so look kind of flat.
| | 05:58 | So, you are going to want to learn to start
to recognize those interesting bits of light.
| | 06:02 | And, try to figure out how camera position --
and, in this case, strong backlighting (having
| | 06:06 | a light coming from behind) -- is bringing out
extra little bits of highlight and shadow
| | 06:11 | that are creating more contour.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Macro and the angle of light| 00:00 | So, in the last movie, we switched from the
diffuse, soft, even, wrap-around lighting
| | 00:05 | that we've used for the whole course, to a
shaft of direct light like you might find
| | 00:09 | streaming through an open window in your house.
| | 00:12 | As you saw, it created a lot more
drama on the surface of the flower.
| | 00:15 | We had real shadows and
a lot of nice highlights.
| | 00:18 | And as I moved down here, I got some nice
backlighting effects, and some cool rim lights
| | 00:23 | on the stamens, and things like that. And, I hope
you've had a chance to play with that sort of thing.
| | 00:27 | I hope also that while you were doing that,
you played with some other alternatives.
| | 00:30 | Look what's happened here.
I've moved basically 90 degrees.
| | 00:33 | I've come around to the side, and
I'm finding something very different.
| | 00:36 | I've got all this nice side lighting on the
flower. You can probably see in here there
| | 00:40 | is highlighting up in here. There is shadow
down in here. I've got a lot of texture on
| | 00:44 | the surface of the flower.
| | 00:45 | Let me grab a quick shot for you. I
framed up a shot here that I like.
| | 00:50 | I'm at f/16, so we've got some depth of field.
| | 00:54 | Here you can see, again, a lot more drama on the
stamens than we were getting with our even light.
| | 01:00 | So, over here on the right side, they're all
lit up. On the left side, they are shadowy.
| | 01:04 | We are starting to get into something that I
think is interesting, but we're far from finished.
| | 01:07 | We are going to do more to it.
| | 01:09 | But before we do, I want to encourage you
that when you are working with a macro subject
| | 01:14 | in a shaft of direct light, don't forget
to work it. That means move around, try lots
| | 01:19 | of things, get in closer, get further away, but
also, work the lighting angles that you can find.
| | 01:25 | See how the flower changes as you let
one part get backlit and another not?
| | 01:29 | See how texture changes as side lighting brings out
more relief on the detail of the textures on the flower?
| | 01:35 | It's very important, even if
you are struck right away by, "Wow!
| | 01:39 | This shot looks great." Definitely take
that shot, but don't ever stop exploring it.
| | 01:44 | Work all 360 degrees, if you can do it.
| | 01:46 | So, I'm liking this, but I'm actually thinking
now, we're having a pretty traditional direct
| | 01:51 | light problem, which is
we have too much contrast.
| | 01:54 | Now, in most photography, you always want more
contrast, particularly landscape photography.
| | 01:58 | You are always aiming for
all that nice, crunchy detail.
| | 02:00 | Here it's a little harsh. These shadow areas
are too dark. I like the light on the highlight
| | 02:06 | areas, but I'd like to lighten up some of the
shadows somehow, and maybe downplay a little
| | 02:10 | bit of the texture.
| | 02:11 | To do that, we're going to
begin to augment this light.
| | 02:14 | For the first time in this course, we're
going to get away from purely natural light. And
| | 02:17 | now, we're going to take some natural
light, and bend it to our photographic will.
| | 02:22 | We'll start that in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Augmenting direct light with reflectors| 00:00 | When we had indirect light, we had light
wrapping around all of the details in our image. Every
| | 00:06 | side was evenly illuminated.
| | 00:08 | Now, we have a problem. We've got this nice,
direct light that's creating a lot of cool
| | 00:12 | shadows and things, but it's, in
some places, creating too many shadows.
| | 00:15 | As I mentioned before, I don't
like how dark these things have gone.
| | 00:19 | I've got a couple of other shadow problems
that I'm not crazy about. I don't like this
| | 00:22 | line across here that's
being cast by this pod over here.
| | 00:27 | So, what do I need? I need more light. I need
light wrapping around like it was when I had
| | 00:31 | diffuse light. So, you may think, "Oh!
| | 00:33 | That means you get to use your strobe,"
which I could. Strobes are hard to control. They
| | 00:37 | produce a lot light, as do continuous lights.
| | 00:39 | Before we move on to that kind of solution,
it's a little bit easier to try something
| | 00:43 | much simpler, and that is a reflector.
| | 00:46 | A reflector can be simply a white
piece of cardboard, a white piece of paper.
| | 00:50 | I've actually got a dedicated photo
reflector here. What I like about these is it's a very
| | 00:55 | small circular thing. This was about $12, and
it pops open into this reflector that's got
| | 01:01 | white on one side and kind of
a gold-silver mix on the other.
| | 01:06 | So, my idea here is to use this to bounce some
of my light source on to this side of the flower.
| | 01:13 | So, I think about this kind of like a pool
shot. I'm thinking the light is coming this
| | 01:17 | way, so I'm going to get my reflector right in
about here to bounce the light back up onto this side.
| | 01:22 | I'm starting with a light side, because no
need to add more light than I need. So, if
| | 01:27 | I come in here, a lot of times it's hard
to tell what the reflector is doing. And, the
| | 01:32 | way you manage that is take it away, put it
back, take it away, put it back. I'm seeing
| | 01:37 | a big change. Let me grab a
couple of shots here for you.
| | 01:40 | This is without the reflector. And, I'm here at
f16, so I've got lots of nice, deep depth of field.
| | 01:47 | Here is with the reflector. So, that has kicked
in a lot of extra light there. I'm liking that.
| | 01:54 | I'm going to go ahead and try the gold side.
| | 01:56 | Now, the gold side is going to throw more light,
because it's a more reflective surface. However,
| | 02:00 | it is also going to change the color of a light.
| | 02:02 | It's going to mix in some yellowish gold.
| | 02:04 | A lot of times you may not want that.
| | 02:06 | It can make skin tones look a little too
copper tony or something. I don't know.
| | 02:10 | In this case, I'm actually dealing with a
subject that's kind of yellowy gold already, so I'm
| | 02:13 | assuming that it's not going
to make horrible difference.
| | 02:17 | And, what I'm doing right now when I'm looking
at it is that I'm watching the problem areas
| | 02:22 | that I had identified. I'm looking at the thing
that I wasn't liking. And, let me grab that
| | 02:27 | shot. And, that looks good.
| | 02:30 | I think I like that. I
want the reflector right here.
| | 02:33 | The problem is I have to stand here, and hold
the reflector right here. It makes it a little
| | 02:37 | bit difficult to do other things.
| | 02:38 | What I really need is another arm.
| | 02:40 | Well, you saw that earlier, actually, if
you watched the accessories chapter. I have my
| | 02:45 | McClamp, which we were talking about earlier,
as a way of holding subject matter. I'm going
| | 02:50 | to use it this time to
hold my reflector in place.
| | 02:53 | So, I'm just going to clamp it here on to my
tripod, and see if I can get it positioned
| | 02:59 | in a way that it will hold my reflector.
And, it makes these kind of complaining sounds
| | 03:03 | while I'm doing that, but I'm
not going to take that personally.
| | 03:07 | So, what's nice about these things is they
pretty much stay where you put them.
| | 03:15 | Famous last words. Okay, there
we go. That looks pretty good.
| | 03:18 | Let me take a shot again to be sure that
I am getting the effect that I want. And yes, I
| | 03:23 | am. So, that's what I just
got. This is looking good.
| | 03:26 | I still got this shadow across here. Now, I
could try to get my reflector in there to
| | 03:32 | wash that out, except my reflector is
already kind of hitting this whole area with a lot
| | 03:37 | of lightness. It's not really doing any good.
| | 03:39 | Rather than try to change the lighting,
I'm just going to try and eliminate the thing
| | 03:43 | that's casting the shadow.
| | 03:44 | And, if you're not sure what it is, you can
just start poking the flower. That said, I
| | 03:48 | should point out that -- before you start poking
the flower around, -- when I got the flower set
| | 03:53 | the way that I wanted it, I put some museum
wax down where the stem is touching the base,
| | 03:58 | just to hold it in place.
| | 03:59 | So, I've hopefully got the
flower locked down here.
| | 04:02 | So, what I want to do is, while keeping an
eye on this shadow, I'm just going to start
| | 04:07 | moving things around, and go ahead and hold
my flower. Sure enough, that's the culprit.
| | 04:13 | I need that out of the way.
| | 04:15 | So, I could go grab another big McClamp, and
try and deal with that, but I'm afraid
| | 04:19 | I'll crush this whole thing.
| | 04:21 | It's kind of overkill.
| | 04:22 | I could use some museum wax again to try
to stick this pod to another stem. I have
| | 04:28 | just a little twist tie here,
which I think is going to be fine.
| | 04:32 | You could probably also use a rubber band,
but that's going to be harder to work with.
| | 04:36 | I'm going to go ahead and fashion this twist
tie into the shape that I need. If I say that
| | 04:41 | I'm fashioning it into the shape that I need
that sounds much more skilled than if I say
| | 04:45 | I'm just going to bend this twist tie.
| | 04:46 | So, having fashioned it into the shape that
I need, I'm going to pull this over here.
| | 04:52 | I'm trying not to break it, because, well,
that just sounds kind of cruel. Also, I want
| | 04:59 | to maybe use this flower for other things.
| | 05:03 | So, my real issue is I just don't want to
mess up my composition here; I have this thing
| | 05:08 | positioned very carefully.
| | 05:10 | I don't want to get it all bent out of shape.
| | 05:15 | And, I think that's going to do it.
| | 05:18 | Okay, my shadow is gone. Let me see
if I've still got the shot that I want.
| | 05:22 | Again, I'm using live view here, just
because it's easy. Now, I moved the flower a little
| | 05:27 | bit, so I'm going to move the whole thing back.
| | 05:33 | This is a big part of macro photography,
just these tiny little positioning changes that
| | 05:40 | really alter your composition.
| | 05:41 | Okay, that's looking pretty good.
| | 05:44 | So, I think, I think that's good.
| | 05:47 | So, I'm liking this. I've opened up some of
these shadows. I've eliminated the shadow
| | 05:52 | that I don't want. I've got a
composition that's working for me.
| | 05:55 | If you notice, I have framed . . . oh, there we go.
I had a composition that was working for me.
| | 06:00 | All right, you got to be
very careful with this stuff.
| | 06:04 | I have a composition that's working for me.
I've framed it so that all of these stamens
| | 06:09 | have a nice backdrop of that pink flower
back there. The sides of the frames are balanced
| | 06:14 | by the petals off to the side.
| | 06:16 | I'm not crazy about that green leaf that's
back there. I'm going to let that go for now,
| | 06:20 | because I want to do a couple of
other little experimental things.
| | 06:23 | I want to try going to a shallower depth of
field, and I want to try another lighting thing.
| | 06:28 | Reflectors are great for times when you want
to fill in shadows, when you want to lighten
| | 06:32 | some of the harsh areas, but after a while
there are times when you just need to add
| | 06:35 | a lot of light into an area, and to do that,
you need to go to more active lighting. We're
| | 06:40 | going to look at that next.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Continuous lighting to add fill to a macro shot| 00:00 | Macro lighting is a little bit different from
lighting at normal scale, because when you're
| | 00:06 | dealing with such small subjects, it's
really easy to flood the area with light.
| | 00:10 | That said, macro subjects often need a
little lighting boost to bring out details around
| | 00:15 | edges, to show more
texture, to reveal more contour.
| | 00:19 | And, that's true with lighting in the real world.
| | 00:21 | It's just you got to be careful about how
much light you throw into a scene. That's
| | 00:25 | why, very often, just natural light and a
reflector is a really good way to go, because it's a
| | 00:29 | a light easy to control (amount of light).
| | 00:33 | That said, I'm ready to try something else
with this image. I've done a couple of things
| | 00:38 | here. I pulled that leaf out of the way that
was bothering me. Did the same thing you saw
| | 00:42 | in last movie. I just pulled it back, and
twist tied it around. I've bolted my flower down
| | 00:47 | a little bit more sturdy, because I
kept bumping it, and it was moving around.
| | 00:50 | As I look at the image -- let me
just shoot one real quick here, --
| | 00:55 | I'm struck by something else, though. First
of all, it's a busy image. I still . . . what's
| | 01:01 | great about this natural light is it creates
all of the shadows and highlights. The problem
| | 01:04 | with my image is it has all
the shadows and highlights in it.
| | 01:06 | There is just too many lines going in different
places. There's these things in the background,
| | 01:11 | but I don't want to disassemble the flower
yet, so I'm just going to have to leave those.
| | 01:15 | Maybe I'll try later to
frame the mount or something.
| | 01:18 | I think right now the best way to calm this
image down is to go to a shallower depth of
| | 01:22 | field. I'm still at f/16, so I'm going to dial
that back, maybe not all the way to full open,
| | 01:29 | but I'm going to go down to maybe 56.
| | 01:32 | On this lens, full open would be 28, so I've
still got a little latitude if I don't like this.
| | 01:37 | Then I take my shot here, and I end up
with softer depth of field, which I like.
| | 01:46 | I'm going to go ahead and go all the way open.
And, just so you can see what my boundaries
| | 01:49 | are, so I'm going to dial that down to 28.
| | 01:52 | That's good. Unfortunately, now I've lost too
much detail on the stamen cluster there in
| | 01:56 | the center, so I'm going to back to 56.
| | 01:58 | I think this is where I'm
going to sit, aperture-wise.
| | 02:01 | I like this. It feels like my eye is wandering
a little bit. Yes, I've got nice light in the
| | 02:07 | center. I would like to play that up some
more. I can't reflect more light in the center,
| | 02:12 | so I'm going to move to some active lighting.
| | 02:14 | Now, my subject is very small, so I'm going
to start with trying something with a small
| | 02:19 | light. And, I happen to
have here a gorilla pod light,
| | 02:24 | which is one of these little things. You may
have seen a gorilla pod as a camera support.
| | 02:28 | It's got these nice articulated arms, so you can
wrap around things, and attach it to different
| | 02:34 | supports, but instead of having
a camera mount on the top, it's got a light.
| | 02:38 | So, I'm going to stand it up,
just like a little tripod.
| | 02:40 | One thing that's cool about these lights is
they have magnets in the feet, so if you got
| | 02:44 | something metal, you can just stick it to them.
| | 02:47 | What I'm thinking is I
want more light in the center.
| | 02:49 | Now, I could start by trying this, and just
shining some light down on there, but whoa!
| | 02:56 | That's awfully kind of garish,
and overwrought, and looks very lit.
| | 03:00 | One thing that's nice about these
gorilla lights is they are dimmable.
| | 03:03 | It's got a little knob here that I can
turn to lighten up the image. So, let me grab a
| | 03:08 | shot here, and you can see what this looks like.
| | 03:12 | So, that's pretty nice. It just looks a little
too artificially lit to me, has too much brightness
| | 03:21 | coming in right there in the center.
| | 03:23 | So, I could try coming up further back.
| | 03:26 | The easiest way to dim a light is to move
farther away, but I've got another idea.
| | 03:29 | Couple of movies ago, we saw how cool
backlighting can be, shining light through a flower. And,
| | 03:34 | we saw that when we were looking at our
flower from this direction, directly into our light.
| | 03:38 | So, I'm just going to try some backlighting
of my own from down below. I'm going to try
| | 03:44 | to get this positioned. Oh my!
| | 03:45 | I just broke my gorilla pod.
| | 03:48 | These just snap apart, and snap back together, so if
you pull it apart, it's no problem to put it back together.
| | 03:54 | So, I'm just going to shine that right up there.
| | 03:58 | And now, what I get is this.
| | 04:03 | Okay, that still looks artificially lit
doesn't it? It's actually looking kind of radioactive.
| | 04:08 | I'm going to turn that down. This is not a
bioluminescent flower. I'm going to turn that
| | 04:13 | down a little bit, take another shot.
| | 04:15 | That I'm liking a lot more. That's
actually starting to look pretty natural.
| | 04:20 | It looks like that part of the flower has
just caught some light. It's definitely
| | 04:24 | helping to lead my eye into the center of the
image, which again, is the point of everything
| | 04:29 | that we do in our photographic choices, is
trying to control the viewer's eye, whether
| | 04:33 | that's composition or lighting.
| | 04:35 | It's to try and make sure that they
know where the subject of our image is.
| | 04:39 | So, what you've seen here is me building
up a shot through natural light observations,
| | 04:45 | figuring out what I like about the light, what
I don't, figuring out what camera position
| | 04:49 | gives me the highlights and shadows that I like.
| | 04:51 | I ended up with too many
shadows, so I brought in a reflector.
| | 04:54 | Reflectors are most often how you're going
to fill in areas that are too dark, fill in
| | 04:58 | areas that have too much shadow. And then,
I've added an active light to actually just
| | 05:02 | put a strong blast of
light into a particular area.
| | 05:06 | I often use this to deal with the fact that,
when I'm shooting AT shallow depths of field,
| | 05:11 | backgrounds go very dark and diffuse. Take
a look at this picture of a stack of dimes.
| | 05:16 | This is actually several stacks of dimes.
| | 05:18 | So, I've got those two in the front, side by
side, and then there is another stack in the
| | 05:21 | back. I took one of my little gorilla lights,
and hung it from a microphone stand, and shined
| | 05:27 | it, shined it down into the middle of the
image. that lit up my background a little bit. It's
| | 05:31 | what gave me the nice highlights in the middle.
| | 05:33 | So, being able to direct a very fine amount of
light into an area can be critical at times.
| | 05:38 | You can pick up these gorilla lights
anywhere that you find gorilla pods sold, so camping
| | 05:42 | stores, maybe even Radio
Shack, something like that.
| | 05:44 | You can certainly get them offline.
| | 05:46 | So, we're going to continue to work with
reflectors and active lighting throughout the rest of
| | 05:49 | this course, as we explore more lighting
options when working with small objects.
| | 05:53 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting your macro scene with continuous light| 00:00 | In the last couple of movies, you saw me
making a lot of finessey little lighting adjustments
| | 00:05 | through reflectors and other light to try to get
more light on the particular areas of the flower.
| | 00:11 | That's some of the macro
lighting you're going to do.
| | 00:13 | When you're in real close, as we are right
now, you're going to have to turn to some
| | 00:19 | stronger solutions.
| | 00:19 | Now, I'm still here by my window, and I've still
got daylight coming in through the window,
| | 00:24 | but it's not enough to really get
a lot of light inside the flower.
| | 00:28 | Before we set all this us up, we grab the
little clip of what this flower looks like. Here it
| | 00:32 | is. You can see that it's pretty deep. And, I
want to zoom into that area way down inside there.
| | 00:37 | I've got my 65 mm lens here. I've got it extended
all the way to 5X, and I want to shoot at f/16.
| | 00:43 | Because of 5X, my depth of field is so shallow.
| | 00:46 | Now, with this lens at 5X at f/16,
you're actually shooting at an equivalent f-stop
| | 00:54 | on a normal lens of f/95. And, this is all listed
in the manual for this lens. There is a little chart
| | 00:58 | showing equivalent f-stop.
| | 01:00 | So, I'm really, really taking a
light cut working with this lens.
| | 01:04 | So, if I take a shot just with my ambient
lighting here in the room . . . Let me see if my shot
| | 01:12 | is still lined up properly. It is. Okay.
| | 01:14 | At 5X, any motion anywhere in the county will
vibrate my camera, so I'm going to stop, and
| | 01:25 | grab my shot, and this is what I get.
| | 01:27 | It doesn't look bad, but it's awfully dark
in there, so I need to get more light in. And,
| | 01:31 | this is not a case where I'm going to be
able to direct light with just one of those tiny
| | 01:35 | little pods or something. It's a teeny, tiny
little area. I just need to flood it with light.
| | 01:40 | So, I have some lights here. I actually got
these at a camera store, but you could also
| | 01:46 | just get . . . these are basically just work
lights like you get at a hardware store.
| | 01:49 | What's nice is they work with . . . they've got
actually four sockets in them, so you can
| | 01:53 | put four bulbs in and you've got two controls.
You can light up two of the bulbs, or all four.
| | 01:58 | I have got compact fluorescents in here,
which are nice, because they're actually daylight-
| | 02:02 | balanced, meaning they're the same color quality
as the light that's coming in through my window,
| | 02:06 | or close to it, anyway.
| | 02:08 | So, I am going to turn on. I usually
actually go ahead and start. And, something like this
| | 02:11 | with just turning on both, because
usually just two of them isn't going to help.
| | 02:16 | So, let me grab a shot here. Again,
I'm going to let everything calm down.
| | 02:25 | Now, first of all, my shutter speed is a little
bit faster, because I've got some extra light,
| | 02:29 | which is good, because even on a stable
tripod, a longer shutter speed just makes me more
| | 02:34 | prone to softening in my image. And, here's
what I got. It immediately looks better. It's
| | 02:39 | not just that it's brighter. It's that I'm
getting these really cool highlights and things
| | 02:43 | on different parts of the image. It's just a
much more dynamic, interesting-looking image.
| | 02:47 | Gives me a better sense of depth, even
though my depth of field is so shallow.
| | 02:50 | Now, if I had found that there was too much
light there, which is unlikely to happen, but
| | 02:55 | if I had, you know, I don't have a lot of
finesse on my controls here, but I can always move the
| | 02:59 | light backward. So, don't forget about
light positioning forward and backward as a way
| | 03:03 | of attenuating a light source.
| | 03:05 | I can also move the flower
closer if I needed to get more light.
| | 03:08 | So, you can see there's nothing that
complicated about the way I set it up.
| | 03:11 | I just got it flooding the area with light,
and I'm actually lighting through the flower
| | 03:16 | petals. That's going to be something I
probably want to explore later is how do these flower
| | 03:20 | petals look, with all this light
on them? Tthey might look very cool.
| | 03:23 | I want to see what happens if I light from
the other side also. I went ahead and set up
| | 03:26 | both lights. So, I'm going to turn
these on, and grab yet another shot.
| | 03:34 | Interesting. There was a lot . . . I've now got a
lot more light. My shutter speed is way down.
| | 03:37 | Here's what I get. It doesn't look
dramatically brighter, but notice the difference between
| | 03:43 | that first lit shot and
this one. There is a change.
| | 03:47 | So, even with this kind of brute force, just
flood lighting that I'm doing, I still have
| | 03:52 | some creative decisions to make. I can still
have, as you can see, some shadows in different
| | 03:57 | places between these two images,
so it's worth experimenting.
| | 04:00 | Next thing I might do is just turn off one
of these, and see if that makes any difference.
| | 04:06 | And, I can even turn off one over here, and
just start playing with the balance of the
| | 04:10 | two. And, as I said, I could move them
back and forth, and see what I get.
| | 04:13 | So, when you're working very, very close,
you're probably going to want just some kind of big
| | 04:18 | flood lighting to get a lot of light into
your subject. Very likely, you're not going
| | 04:23 | to able to do that, even with just a strong
shaft of light through a window. You're going
| | 04:26 | to need to get some
continuous lighting in real close.
| | 04:30 | The reason we're using continuous lighting right now,
instead of strobe . . . . And we're going to look at strobe.
| | 04:34 | The advantage of continuous lighting is it's all
the time. There's more that I can see through
| | 04:39 | the viewfinder. It's just a little
bit easier to start to set up my shot.
| | 04:43 | Not a very expensive solution. You'll want some
light stands. An easy way to get a lot of light
| | 04:48 | into your macro scenes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting the macro scene with strobes| 00:00 | If you watched the last movie, you saw me solve
this particular exposure problem we're having
| | 00:05 | right now. It's a big light.
| | 00:06 | The problem I'm having is, zoomed out all the
way to 5X on the 65 mm macro, I am just cutting
| | 00:13 | out all the light in my scene. I'm at f16 and,
on this lens, 5X zoom at f/16 is the equivalent
| | 00:20 | to f/95 on a normal lens. There is a whole chart
about f-stop equivalency in the 65 mm manual.
| | 00:27 | So, I've just got a very, very dark image.
Let me give you a shot of what I've got here.
| | 00:33 | Again, I'm at f/16, and I have got a different
composition than what I had before. But you
| | 00:40 | can see that I have still got the same
problem. And, there's just no light way down in there.
| | 00:44 | So, if you already own an external strobe,
and you're not interested in buying more gear,
| | 00:50 | there's no reason you can't just flood
your scene with this thing, and not have to buy
| | 00:54 | a bunch of big external lighting.
| | 00:57 | However, if you're thinking that you're just
going to put your flash on your camera's hot
| | 01:00 | shoe, that's really not going to do any good.
We need light way down here. This thing's pointed
| | 01:04 | that way. You're going to cast a shadow into
your scene. It's just not going to work.
| | 01:08 | You've got to get your flash off the camera. And,
actually, you almost always want your flash off the camera,
| | 01:13 | anyway. So, hopefully you already have an off-
camera flash cord. I happen to have mine right here.
| | 01:18 | So, I'm going to hook all this up, with the
idea that I can get the flash off the camera.
| | 01:24 | Now, whether you already have a flash or not,
it might be worth knowing about this thing.
| | 01:30 | This is a brand you may never have heard of, A
Young new external flash. It's a very sturdily
| | 01:36 | built, well-made flash with almost the
same guide number as the Canon 580EX.
| | 01:40 | The differenc is they only cost 75 bucks. The
other difference is it has no through-the-
| | 01:45 | lens metering. It's an all-manual flash.
| | 01:48 | Thing is, for most macro work, you need to
be in all-manual mode anyway, because the TTL
| | 01:52 | metering's are very often screwed up by the
weird situations we are in here now. And, in
| | 01:57 | fact, the manual has some caveats about
using external flash with the MP 65 here.
| | 02:03 | Even if you're just using a normal macro
lens with extension tubes -- however it is you're
| | 02:06 | getting the massive magnification here -- you're probably
going to want to work in manual mode with your flash.
| | 02:11 | I also have here a softbox for
this flash. This is a Fotodiox softbox.
| | 02:15 | There are a lot of softbox and diffusion options
for your flash. This thing was only 15 or 20
| | 02:21 | bucks, so it's an inexpensive
way to get into some softer light.
| | 02:25 | I'm not going to put it on yet. I want to
see what happens if I just go ahead and hit
| | 02:28 | my scene here with the light that I want.
| | 02:31 | All flashes have a sync speed and
maximum shutter speed that they can work at.
| | 02:36 | I'm going to put this at 160. I think it will
probably go as fast as 200. I just haven't checked the
| | 02:40 | manual for this flash in a while.
| | 02:42 | And, I know I want my depth of field to be
as deep as possible, so I'm going to leave
| | 02:45 | my aperture at f/16.
| | 02:48 | So, what I do now is just start experimenting.
| | 02:51 | Manual flashes, or your automatic flash in
manual mode, allow you to change the flash
| | 02:57 | power by fractional amount. So, for example,
I can go from full power to half power to
| | 03:03 | a quarter power, eight, and so on.
| | 03:05 | I am going to just go ahead and start here
at about 1/16th, because I know that I don't
| | 03:09 | want a tremendous amount of flash.
| | 03:11 | I can control the intensity of the flash
by dialing in a fractional power value, or by
| | 03:16 | moving the flash forward and backward.
Just going to set it right about here, and take
| | 03:20 | a shot, and look at my results.
| | 03:23 | So, right away, that's brighter. It's not
quite bright enough. The flash isn't getting all the
| | 03:27 | way there into the back of the flower. And, part
of that is probably the lens getting in the way.
| | 03:32 | I'm going to try more over
here. See what that does.
| | 03:36 | Yeah, that is still not quite working. I'm
going to turn up the flash power. So, I'm going to
| | 03:39 | go from a 16th to an 8th. And, that will double
the power. I'm going to try and hold the flash
| | 03:44 | in the same spot, and I'm getting this.
| | 03:46 | This is starting to look better, but I'm
worried now about overexposure there on the front.
| | 03:50 | It's a good idea to keep an eye on your camera's
histogram while you're working. I have not actually
| | 03:55 | over-exposed anything yet.
| | 03:57 | So, maybe I'll just try
dialing up to a quarter power.
| | 04:01 | And that gets me . . . that gets me this, which is
looking pretty good, and still doesn't have any overexposure.
| | 04:09 | I really like the way those
little tubey things are lighting up.
| | 04:13 | So, I've managed to again flood this scene
with just my flash, without having to use big,
| | 04:21 | external, continuous lighting.
| | 04:23 | If I was finding that I needed to get in
closer, and I was over-driving things, that's
| | 04:27 | when I would bring in the softbox. This is
going to diffuse the light, cut it down, and
| | 04:31 | allow me to get more
power into more of the scene.
| | 04:34 | Something else I could try is putting a reflector
over here, bouncing some flash back into the other side.
| | 04:39 | This is very often how, when you working in
the studio, you're going to use your flash.
| | 04:44 | There are more complex multi-strobe flash
setups that you're going to work with. We're
| | 04:48 | not going get into those in this course, but
if you do have a flash and an off-camera cord,
| | 04:52 | this is as an easy way to
get more light into your scene.
| | 04:54 | There are other uses for your external Flash.
| | 04:56 | Now, we're going to look at
those when we get into the field.
| | 04:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up a macro-specific flash unit| 00:00 | In the last movie, you saw a simple example
of using a regular external strobe, both with
| | 00:06 | and without a softbox or diffuser, to
help get some light into your macro scenes.
| | 00:11 | There are dedicated macro flash units that
you might want to consider if you get serious
| | 00:16 | about macro photography, especially if you
get serious about macro flash photography.
| | 00:21 | You may have heard of a ring light. That is
a type of flash that goes right around the
| | 00:25 | edge of your lens, and has a ring of lights.
| | 00:28 | I don't have one here, because I just don't
really recommend using a ring light. It leads
| | 00:32 | to a very flat kind of lighting. And, it also
creates a very specific kind of reflection
| | 00:37 | inside anything that's shiny in your scene, like
water droplets, or people's eyes, or things like that.
| | 00:42 | I prefer something like this. It's maybe a
little unwieldy, but this is a twin light.
| | 00:49 | This is one made by Canon. There are
lots of variations of this on the market.
| | 00:52 | And, what I like about this is it gives me
a lot of flexibility with the positioning
| | 00:58 | of the flash units themselves. And,
as you can see, it is so simple to get on.
| | 01:02 | It actually is. It just goes on the hot
shoe there. This is the main control unit. This
| | 01:06 | is where the batteries are. It's where
all of the controls for the flash are.
| | 01:10 | It comes with this thing, which just snaps
to the front of the lens, very easily, and it's
| | 01:15 | got these two little brackets. These are two just
tiny, little strobes, and they slide right in here.
| | 01:22 | Now, what I like about this is they are
positioned to shine right down onto my subject. And, as
| | 01:27 | you can see, I can tilt them here, so if my
subject is a little bit further out, I can
| | 01:33 | aim them out there. If it's right in front
of the lens, I have got the 65 mm macro on,
| | 01:37 | so the focus distance is so short that
things are usually are right in front of the lens. I can
| | 01:41 | tilt them down like that.
| | 01:42 | What's also cool is they slide around the
ring. So, if I want really strong side lighting,
| | 01:49 | I can get that. If I want to create some
more unusual lighting options, I can do that.
| | 01:54 | But wait, there's more! Because you can also
take the flashes off of the little ring thing
| | 01:58 | here, and you can move them around. If you got
little stands, you can set them up in different places.
| | 02:02 | So, really a lot of flexibility here.
| | 02:04 | From the back of the unit, I can control
ratioing from the camera. Or the back of the unit, I
| | 02:08 | can control overall flash power.
| | 02:11 | This will also work with Canon's 100 mm macro.
| | 02:14 | However, to do that, you have to buy this
special macro light adapter ring, which screws onto
| | 02:21 | the filter threads on the end of the lens,
and allows that clip thing to fit to the front.
| | 02:26 | I find, in general, this system works a
little bit better with a 65, than it does with the
| | 02:30 | 100. I have trouble getting things pointed
in the right way with the 100, because the
| | 02:35 | focusing distance is longer. I
probably just need to practice more.
| | 02:38 | One thing I should say here is this thing
puts out a lot of light. I have yet to get
| | 02:43 | it to work real well like this. And, in my
experience, the flashes always needs to be diffused. And
| | 02:51 | so, I have these little flash diffusers. These
are made specifically for this Canon twin
| | 02:57 | light system. They're not made by Canon. They
are third-party. You Google around on flash diffusers
| | 03:03 | for the Canon macro twin light,
you'll find a number of different options.
| | 03:07 | So, I really like these. These cut down the light a
lot. They diffuse it, so that it is a little
| | 03:10 | bit softer, and generally calm the flash
down, and make it a lot easier to work with.
| | 03:15 | You're going to see this thing in action in
the next movie, and I think it'll give you
| | 03:17 | a better idea of what you can do with it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting with the Canon Macro Twin Lite| 00:00 | I've set up for a macro shot with the twin light.
| | 00:04 | So, I have got a massive gear here that
should look familiar to you by this point. I've got
| | 00:08 | my Kirk Enterprises tabletop tripod setup
here. I put my geared head on it, and I've
| | 00:12 | got my slider on it, and I've got all the
stuff, because really, it's a luxurious way
| | 00:17 | to work. I have got it all here. There's no
reason not to. I have got a lot of fine camera
| | 00:20 | motion and sturdy control.
| | 00:23 | I have put the 65 mm macro, the 1-5X Macro,
on my 5D Mark III, and I've got the twin light
| | 00:30 | mounted on the end.
| | 00:31 | My subject for this shot is right here in
front of me. We found a dead bee, and it was
| | 00:37 | sad, but then we realized we
could immortalize the bee.
| | 00:40 | So, we have set him up here on top of this
weird, little, some kind of seed pod, or something;
| | 00:46 | it's all covered with thorns.
| | 00:47 | And, it is just sitting in this vase. The vase
is not here for any aesthetic reason. It's
| | 00:51 | here only because it's the right height.
| | 00:53 | So, we've already gone through the thing you
are going to go through on every macro shot,
| | 00:57 | of struggling to figure out how to get your
subject into position, so that it's the right
| | 01:03 | height with whatever the rest of your rig is.
| | 01:04 | I've already framed up the shot. I didn't
do anything that you haven't already seen
| | 01:08 | me do. Most of the . . . all of the focus is
through camera position, which is much easier
| | 01:12 | because of my slider.
| | 01:13 | And now, I'm ready to go.
| | 01:14 | I want to show you a shot without the flash.
I've set up here in front of my window.
| | 01:19 | And, I set up in front of the window this way,
because I like the idea backlighting. Looking
| | 01:23 | at the bee, I thought, "Oh, the wings are transparent,
so it might be cool to have light coming through
| | 01:28 | it, so we can see the structure of
the wings, and that kind of thing."
| | 01:31 | I am in Aperture Priority Mode. I am at ISO . . .
I'm going to go up to 1600 right now, because
| | 01:36 | I know that I'll get a
clean image that way, noise-wise.
| | 01:39 | I am at f/16, because I need a lot of depth
of field. Got my remote control, because at
| | 01:44 | 3x on my zoom, I need to be
careful about camera shake.
| | 01:48 | And, here's what I get.
| | 01:50 | So, you could see here that the image is a
little too backlit. It's also too dark.
| | 01:54 | I really could use some extra light in here. I
don't have any exposure compensation dialed in.
| | 02:00 | So, I've got some nice highlights around the
edge of them, because of the backlighting, but
| | 02:03 | really, this image is not
usable. It's way too dark.
| | 02:05 | So, it's time to employ the flash.
| | 02:07 | I'm going to turn it on.
| | 02:09 | And, one of the first things I'm going to do,
| | 02:11 | now that I know that this is going to be a
flash shot, is I'm going to turn my ISO down.
| | 02:16 | There's not as much need for it. I don't
think we will see how this all meters out after
| | 02:20 | I turn it down, and I figure,
"why not go for the cleaner image?"
| | 02:24 | So, I'm going to dial that down to 400.
| | 02:26 | That drops my shutter speed to . . .
looks like about a sixth of a second.
| | 02:30 | So, I may want to speed that up if it looks like I'm
getting some camera shake from that longer exposure.
| | 02:35 | As you saw earlier, the flash units on the
twin light can rotate around the ring. They can also tilt.
| | 02:42 | I have put them at the very
top, in their uppermost position.
| | 02:46 | I've been finding that -- when what I need to
do is flood an area right in front of the
| | 02:50 | lens with light . . . that's giving me the best
results, -- is to just put them right up at the top.
| | 02:54 | I tilted them directly at the bee.
| | 02:57 | And, I've got my diffusers on, because these
things almost always put out too much light.
| | 03:01 | So, I'm staying at f/16, I'm in
ETTL on my flash. I am taking my shot.
| | 03:07 | And, here's what I get. Right
away, it looks a lot better.
| | 03:10 | I am liking this a lot more. I can see
tremendous detail on the bee. It looks good.
| | 03:15 | It also looks like a flash shot.
| | 03:18 | The flash is very evenly lit. There are maybe
too many highlights. It doesn't really look
| | 03:23 | like daylight shining down on this
bee, which is kind of what my goal should be.
| | 03:27 | So, I want to dial the flash back a little
bit. That's very easy to do either from the
| | 03:32 | flash unit, or from the camera.
| | 03:34 | I'm going to do it from the camera, just because these
buttons are all recessed, and they're harder to press.
| | 03:39 | So, I'm going to dial. I'm going to go to my exposure
comp, my Flash Exposure Compensation Control,
| | 03:44 | and dial that down maybe two-thirds of the stop.
| | 03:47 | I'm just guessing, taking a shot.
| | 03:50 | Okay, I like that better. The
highlights aren't quite so harsh.
| | 03:53 | I'm going to just go back up
to a third of a stop and see --
| | 03:57 | a third of a stop of flash under
exposure, -- and see what that looks like.
| | 04:02 | Yeah, that is still maybe a little too bright, so I'm
going to stick with the two-thirds of the stop under.
| | 04:08 | So, this is actually already a really good image. I
could stop here, and this may end up being the final image.
| | 04:13 | But there are some experiments that I
can do that might be worth fiddling with.
| | 04:17 | I have two different lights
here; hence the name, twin light.
| | 04:21 | I can ratio those lights using controls on
the flash. And what ratio means is I control
| | 04:26 | the ratio of brightness of
one flash compared to the other.
| | 04:29 | So, let's just go from left to right here. And,
I'm going to do some extreme examples, so that
| | 04:33 | you can really see what's happening here.
| | 04:35 | I'm going to dial in. And, you should be
able to see that. I turn on this light here.
| | 04:40 | This is my ratio control. I'm
going to dial in a ratio of 8:1.
| | 04:45 | So, what that means is that this flash is
going to be eight times brighter than this flash.
| | 04:50 | And, if I take that shot, sure enough, it looks like
the light source has been pulled around to the left.
| | 04:57 | So, let's go to the other extreme,
and turn my ratio over here to 1:8.
| | 05:05 | So, I'm just reversing it, making
the right-most flash brighter.
| | 05:11 | And now, it looks like the light has
been pulled around to the other side.
| | 05:13 | I think that's a little too much.
I'm going to back off on the ratio.
| | 05:16 | I also think that . . . and I may
not need any ratio at all.
| | 05:20 | Actually, before I decide if I need,
if I like either of these, I'm going to go
| | 05:26 | back to 1:1, and lock that in.
| | 05:29 | And now, I'm going to try
changing the flash position.
| | 05:32 | I would like maybe -- I'm getting some nice
backlighting coming from this direction, -- I want to see
| | 05:36 | about changing the light that's
happening over here, on the right-hand side.
| | 05:39 | So, I'm just going to take my
light here, and swivel it down,
| | 05:45 | so that it's hitting the bee kind of more
right in the face from directly in front.
| | 05:51 | And, I'm back to 1:1 on my ratio here. I still have
two thirds of under-exposure on my flash compensation.
| | 05:59 | That's definitely different. Look at the
difference here between this and this. It's subtle, but
| | 06:03 | there are some differences in highlighting.
| | 06:06 | I'm now going to just dial in a little bit
of ratio adjustment. I want to see what it
| | 06:10 | looks like if I just do a tiny, little
adjustment to put a little more light on the left side.
| | 06:16 | And I'm liking this. I think this is the shot.
| | 06:19 | So, if you don't have this unit, or you don't
want to invest in this unit, and you already
| | 06:24 | have a couple of strobes, you can do
the same thing that I'm doing here.
| | 06:27 | Obviously, all I've got is just two
strobes being fired in a particular place.
| | 06:31 | You have already seen me working with one off-camera
flash. There's no reason not to just try and hold two.
| | 06:36 | The problem with that is it takes a lot of hands
to do that, and run the remote control, and everything.
| | 06:41 | There are rigs you can get for that,
special arms that come out, and hold the flashes.
| | 06:46 | Those rigs are even useful, even if you already
have the twin light system, because these flashes
| | 06:51 | detach from the twin light. I said,
unable to detach them. There we go.
| | 06:56 | So, if I didn't have this window here, and
decided I wanted some backlight, and I had the right
| | 07:00 | kind of rig, I could pull this off, and
put it down here, and have it held there.
| | 07:03 | That's also really useful when you're
doing this kind of stuff in the field to have a
| | 07:07 | permanently-mounted flash rig. Makes it much
easier to work with, with bees that are still alive.
| | 07:14 | So, I hope what you've seen here -- obviously
this is not a flash course, -- but I hope that
| | 07:18 | what you've seen here is that a big part
of this kind of work is simple experimentation.
| | 07:22 | And that's really easy to do now that ratioing
is something you can just dial in, flash
| | 07:27 | position is something that's so easy to
change, and you can easily change the brightness of
| | 07:30 | the flash from the camera.
| | 07:31 | So, as you're working with this, bear in mind
that you're going to need to experiment with
| | 07:35 | where you're putting your flashes, how you're
ratioing them, and how much output you're generating.
| | 07:40 | What you're looking for, along the way, are
the things that we've talked about even when
| | 07:44 | working with natural light: nice highlighting,
better contour, better overall illumination.
| | 07:49 | With just a few simple flash units you can
get much better stuff when you're working
| | 07:53 | up really close on a very small subject.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting macro in a light tent| 00:00 | Product photography used to be a very
specialized, niche form of photography.
| | 00:05 | But now-a-days, with eBay, and Craigslist,
and other ways to sell things online, most of
| | 00:09 | us occasionally run into a need to shoot
some nice product shots for posting online.
| | 00:15 | Very often, this is a macro situation, if you're
selling something small. And, there are now-a-days
| | 00:20 | some very easy ways to get very nice-
looking product shots using pre-built light tents
| | 00:26 | and light boxes that give
you very, very good lighting.
| | 00:29 | I know it looks strange with
this big thing in front of me.
| | 00:31 | So, we've got this camera behind me, so you
can see more of what I've got going on here.
| | 00:35 | This is a box made of diffusion material.
| | 00:38 | This is one that I got at Calumet Photo. I
think you can order these from their website also.
| | 00:42 | What's nice about this is it all folds up
into just a kind of flat portfolio kind of thing.
| | 00:47 | What makes this such a nice product shooting
arrangement is that, when I set it like this,
| | 00:53 | up against a window, so that I've got light
coming in through this diffusion panel, that
| | 00:57 | light comes in, and very softly lights this
side. But a lot of it bounces off this side,
| | 01:02 | and fills in over here.
| | 01:03 | So, I get just this very
nice, even, very flat lighting.
| | 01:08 | The way this box is configured is I have a
black side over here, and a white side over here.
| | 01:12 | I can rotate this around, depending on whether I want
a black or white background, or a black or white floor.
| | 01:17 | It also comes with these additional pieces
of fabric, which already have velcro on them,
| | 01:24 | so that they can be attached, and draped over
the back to create a seamless, flat backdrop
| | 01:28 | in either white or blue.
| | 01:31 | And, of course, you can
get other pieces of fabric.
| | 01:33 | It's got a nice, velvety surface, so it's
not going to be real reflective, or shiny.
| | 01:37 | So, I have this thing here, this letter
opener, that I might want to post online.
| | 01:43 | I've arranged a simple way to stand it up.
| | 01:45 | The real detail on this letter opener that
I'm wanting to show in this shot is just this
| | 01:49 | top part with this pretty pattern on it.
| | 01:52 | I've got my 100 millimeter macro.
| | 01:54 | I am set at ISO 400.
| | 01:56 | Again, I am indoors; it's a little dark.
| | 01:58 | I need an extra bit of ISO
boost to keep my shutter speed down.
| | 02:02 | Because my background is just a solid black,
that's how I framed up the shot. I don't really
| | 02:06 | need to worry too much about depth of field.
| | 02:07 | But, I do want to be sure I've got enough
depth of field to cover the entire object.
| | 02:11 | So, I'm shooting at about f/5-6.
| | 02:14 | So, I've just framed up a shot. And
then, I take it here, and see what we get.
| | 02:19 | My shutter speed is still up.
| | 02:21 | And, that looks very nice.
| | 02:22 | There's not really anything
else that I need to do to that.
| | 02:25 | Looks like maybe my depth of
field is a tiny bit shallow.
| | 02:27 | So, I think I'll pull back out to f/8, and
take another shot that's going to slow my
| | 02:33 | shutter speed down just a tiny
bit, so I'm using remote control.
| | 02:37 | Look, I've got really, really even lighting.
| | 02:39 | I don't have any
highlights that are overexposed.
| | 02:41 | So, it's a very nice, easy-to-use setup.
| | 02:44 | If I did not have this bright window, or if
it's taking longer than I think to get all
| | 02:49 | the shots I need, and the sun goes down, I
could easily take some work lights like you
| | 02:53 | saw me using earlier, and just set one up on
one side, and shine it through this material.
| | 02:58 | If I felt like I was getting too much
illumination on one side, I could set up the other one over
| | 03:02 | here, and do that same 180 opposite pattern
that I had before, a bit shiny through all
| | 03:07 | this diffusion material.
| | 03:08 | All this white inside is going to create a
lot of reflective fill underneath, and I should
| | 03:11 | get a nice, even lighting.
| | 03:13 | There are lots and lots of
variations on this sort of thing.
| | 03:17 | If you Google around at all for light tents,
or light boxes, or macro shooting light tents,
| | 03:23 | that kind of thing, you'll find a lot of these.
| | 03:25 | So, if you need to do just some simple macro
product photography, this is a great way to go.
| | 03:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting macro on a light table| 00:00 | For subjects that can have some translucency,
like flowers, maybe some insects, feathers,
| | 00:06 | some glass, or plastic things, there is
another interesting way to light your macro shots,
| | 00:12 | and that's with a light table.
| | 00:13 | Now, a light table is what we used to have
in a dark room for looking at negatives. You
| | 00:18 | might have also used one for tracing things
in art class. It's basically just a box with
| | 00:21 | a semi-translucent covering,
and a bunch of lights inside.
| | 00:26 | Now, in the old days, light tables were a lot of
different light bulbs, or maybe some fluorescent
| | 00:30 | lights inside. You can still by those kinds
of light tables, and they are very inexpensive.
| | 00:34 | But now we have a new option, which are
these LED light pads. This is something called a
| | 00:39 | light pad. It's the
model A940 made by Artograph.
| | 00:43 | It's one of their smaller ones. And, the beauty
of macro shootings, we don't need a lot of space.
| | 00:47 | What's great about it is its LED lighting.
| | 00:49 | So, when I turn it on, it has a few
advantages over a traditional light table.
| | 00:53 | First of all, it's perfectly even lighting,
which is really nice. I don't have to worry
| | 00:58 | about a change in illumination
that's going to register in my image.
| | 01:01 | It also doesn't get hot, and it is daylight
balanced, so it fits in with a lot of my other
| | 01:07 | lighting that I might choose to use.
| | 01:09 | I've taken a couple of flowers here, and stuck
them on the light pad, and I want to shoot them.
| | 01:13 | Now, I'm working with my hundred millimeter
macro lens. This is not actually something
| | 01:17 | that you have to do with a macro lens.
| | 01:19 | In fact, it's fun to take the light table,
and completely cover it with things, and cover
| | 01:22 | it with flowers, and get further back
maybe with your regular walk-around lens.
| | 01:27 | To get the camera into this position, I have
had to arrange my tripod, so that its center
| | 01:32 | column is going parallel to the ground, so
that I can get the camera pointing straight down.
| | 01:36 | As you saw earlier, that's one of the
features of this tripod. It's one of the reasons I
| | 01:39 | chose this for macro shooting. Not all
tripods do this, and I can very easily get the camera
| | 01:44 | into this configuration.
| | 01:46 | So, after getting my camera set up, and the
light pad in place -- and it obviously runs off
| | 01:50 | electricity, -- I had to find a place to plug
it all in. And, I'm still kind of working with
| | 01:54 | my . . . or I'm still absolutely working with
my window here. Because while the light pad
| | 01:59 | is throwing a bunch of light from behind,
I still want some from the front, so I am
| | 02:02 | in my nice, soft, diffused lighting.
| | 02:04 | After getting all that set up, the next
thing was to find something to shoot.
| | 02:07 | I took a couple of flowers. I want them to
sit flat so I had to trim them, trim the stems
| | 02:12 | off completely. So, these flowers aren't
going to last that long. Right as I said that a
| | 02:15 | petal fell off, so it's
even worse than I thought.
| | 02:18 | Anyway, I got them on the light pad, just
trying to arrange some kind of pleasing composition.
| | 02:23 | They are kind of pointy when you cut the
stems off, so they wobble, and tilt, and fall over.
| | 02:28 | So, I got out my museum wax again, and made up a
little ball, and used that to try to stick them in place.
| | 02:33 | The museum wax doesn't stick that well to
the backs of flower petals, so you've really
| | 02:37 | got to mash it in there.
| | 02:38 | It sticks very well to the light pad;
you'll probably find that you are going to scrape
| | 02:41 | it off with your finger nail when you're done.
| | 02:43 | So, I spent some time arranging those, and
framing up my shot, and built a composition. I'm ready
| | 02:49 | now to actually take my shot.
| | 02:50 | I am at a macro distance here, so I'm
glad that I've got the macro lens on.
| | 02:55 | Again, there is no reason I couldn't have put
the tripod up higher, and worked with another
| | 02:58 | lens, except that my
tripod doesn't go any higher.
| | 03:01 | But I could put the light pad on the floor.
| | 03:03 | I'm going to just go into live view mode
here, because I can't see through the view finder
| | 03:07 | from this position.
| | 03:08 | I'm at ISO 400; that's going to give me
pretty reasonable shutter speed. And, on this camera,
| | 03:14 | it's completely clean. I
won't have any noise problems.
| | 03:16 | Now I'm shooting at f/8. And, I'm not quite
sure how much depth of field I need. These
| | 03:20 | flowers do have some depth in them.
| | 03:22 | But at this distance, I think f/8
is probably going to cover it.
| | 03:25 | The issue that you mainly face when working with a
light table is that you usually need to overexpose.
| | 03:31 | Let's take a look at what I've got when I
shoot with just regular exposure, which is
| | 03:35 | putting me in at a shutter speed of 1/100 of
a second. Some motion stopping isn't too bad.
| | 03:40 | Here is what I came up with.
| | 03:42 | I like the composition. It's not
mind-numbing, but it's still a nice picture.
| | 03:47 | But look at my exposure.
| | 03:49 | You can see what the light pad is starting
to do that's cool, which is I'm really getting
| | 03:53 | the texture of the flowers. And, I like where
the flowers overlap. You get particularly
| | 03:58 | the white flowers; you get a
build-up of their tonality.
| | 04:02 | So, two white flowers lying on top of each
other give you a darker gray where they overlap.
| | 04:06 | But I've really underexposed the fronts.
| | 04:10 | The middle of the flowers have gone to complete black.
I'm not really seeing a tremendous amount of texture.
| | 04:14 | So, I'm going to -- with my Exposure
Compensation Control, -- just dial in one stop of overexposure.
| | 04:19 | I am in Aperture Priority Mode, so that
means that Exposure Compensation is not going to
| | 04:24 | fiddle with my aperture
setting; it's going to stay at f/8.
| | 04:26 | That bumps my shutter speed down to 1/50 of
a second. I am going to take that shot, and
| | 04:32 | this is much better.
| | 04:33 | I have now really got a lot more of the
translucency in the structure and the flower. You know,
| | 04:40 | I'm curious though. Just looking at it
right now, I wonder if there is even some more,
| | 04:43 | so I'm going to overexpose up another
stop. I'm going to go two stops over.
| | 04:46 | Now, what I'm risking here is losing the edge detail
in the white flower altogether. Let's see what happens.
| | 04:52 | Yeah, I think that's maybe too much. I'm
starting to now wash out some of the white flower,
| | 04:56 | so I'm going to back off to
maybe 1 and 1/3, and see what it does.
| | 05:01 | Now, when you're working with your camera
in this position, you have to wait for it to
| | 05:04 | settle down after you handle it, because
this horizontal arm over here really swings back
| | 05:09 | and forth, and I'm at 1/40 of a second.
| | 05:12 | That's looking pretty good. I think
that's the amount of exposure that I want.
| | 05:16 | Now, that's the image as it was shot
straight out of the camera. That middle bit is still
| | 05:22 | underexposed; it's a little too dark.
| | 05:24 | So, I'm going to want to brighten that up
in my image editor later to really pull some
| | 05:30 | of that detail back out.
| | 05:31 | There is plenty of detail there. I
can just even out the exposure that way.
| | 05:35 | If I wanted, I could try bringing in a
reflector, or something to get more light in there.
| | 05:38 | There is really no need. That's a very
simple edit to make in my image editor.
| | 05:42 | So, the last thing that I
might want to do is try an HDR set.
| | 05:47 | I do have some dark tones,
and some very light tones.
| | 05:49 | This is something of a
high dynamic range situation.
| | 05:53 | So, I'm going to just shoot
a bracketed set of images.
| | 05:56 | That is, I'm going to shoot an image at
regular exposure, one underexposed by a stop, and one
| | 06:03 | overexposed by a stop.
| | 06:05 | If you're not familiar with HDR,
take a look at my HDR course.
| | 06:07 | It will walk you through the whole thing, and
fill you in on exactly what's going on here.
| | 06:12 | I've got actually just an HDR mode built
into my camera that automatically dials in all
| | 06:16 | the right settings, so I can just quickly
knock off three shots. And, there we have them.
| | 06:23 | I am going to bump that whole bracket up to be a
little bit brighter. And, I shoot those. And, I get this.
| | 06:33 | Now, I did a Julia Child thing
earlier, and actually prepared the HDR shot.
| | 06:39 | So, here you can see this is what the HDR image
looks like when it's merged, and put together.
| | 06:44 | Here is what my single shot looks like
after I've done that edit to the middle of them.
| | 06:48 | I actually think I prefer the single shot.
| | 06:50 | But the HDR has some promise. I think with
certain types of subject matter, the light
| | 06:54 | pad and the HDR could be really interesting.
| | 06:55 | So, this particular light pad I think was
around $120. It's a lot of fun to play with
| | 07:01 | if you're working with translucent objects.
| | 07:03 | If you like flowers, if you like that sort of thing,
you might want to look in to getting one of these.
| | 07:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Macro Shooting in the FieldField shooting for macro, starting at home| 00:00 | We finally decided to leave the studio, and
head out into the field for some field macro
| | 00:04 | shooting, because very often the things you run
into in the field are a little more complicated.
| | 00:09 | And, we almost made it out the door, but then
we got side-tracked by the Lynda workshop here.
| | 00:13 | This is where the crack team of Lynda
set builders works to construct sets, and that
| | 00:19 | involves saws, and screws, and lots of other
things, very similar to what you might have
| | 00:24 | in your own garage.
| | 00:25 | And so, I want to talk again about just
the ability to shoot around your own house, or
| | 00:29 | just out on the street.
| | 00:30 | One of the really weird things about Macro
shooting is you will often find interesting
| | 00:34 | subject matter in places that
you just wouldn't normally shoot.
| | 00:37 | The other day, I found myself actually
standing in the gutter of a street in San Francisco
| | 00:41 | shooting some piece of garbage
or something down on the street.
| | 00:44 | As you get into the small world, you'll just
find lots of interesting things. And, what I'm
| | 00:48 | finding in here is texture. And, we
haven't talked a lot about that.
| | 00:52 | There is just a lot of interesting
texture that begins to appear in macro shooting.
| | 00:56 | Now, I don't have great lighting in here. It's
pretty much just even fluorescent lighting,
| | 01:00 | there are a few sky lights.
| | 01:00 | So, I'm not being drawn to a pretty place of
light, or things like that. I'm just being
| | 01:06 | drawn a line. This box of screws I'm
finding very interesting; it's got a lot lines and
| | 01:11 | repeating textures in it.
| | 01:12 | You can find that sort
of thing around the house.
| | 01:14 | Another interesting thing you'll find in an
environment like this are very familiar objects.
| | 01:19 | I saw these pencils, these pencil erasers, and
it's interesting to get close to the familiar.
| | 01:24 | And, macro gives you a way of may be presenting it in
a new manner in the way people aren't use to seeing.
| | 01:29 | So, I want to talk real
quick about how I'm shooting.
| | 01:32 | I've got my monopod, because it's pretty
low light in here. It didn't look that way to
| | 01:37 | me at first, but Macro is always going to be
a little darker than you're expecting, because
| | 01:41 | you are getting into areas
that don't get a little of light.
| | 01:43 | Obviously we were seeing that in the
studio, but we were shooting very, very close.
| | 01:46 | Here, I'm at a pretty easy macro level, and still
having trouble with light, so I've brought my monopod.
| | 01:52 | I have a choice of macro lenses.
| | 01:54 | I still, even without deciding to go with the
100. The 180 would have let me have an easier
| | 02:00 | time with the position of my camera and my
body while trying to shoot back into the nooks
| | 02:04 | and crannies of places. But it's dark enough
in here that I really want the stabilization.
| | 02:08 | That's a real winning feature of this
Canon 100mm macro is the stabilization.
| | 02:13 | So, I put my ballhead on my monopod.
| | 02:17 | It gives me a lot more flexibility than
mounting the camera directly to the monopod.
| | 02:21 | I also have to play with the
height of the monopod a lot.
| | 02:25 | Now, when you're adjusting your monopod,
it's best to, as much as possible, work with the
| | 02:30 | higher releases before the lower ones,
because those are the ones you have easy access to.
| | 02:35 | So, if I want to make an adjustment, I'm making
it to the top of the monopod, not the bottom.
| | 02:39 | That gives me a little more flexibility.
| | 02:41 | And, it's not that I clip the camera on
here, and hold it in a particular position.
| | 02:46 | I'll lean with the monopod; I'll tilt it around.
| | 02:48 | The point is it gives me at
least one axis of steady shooting.
| | 02:52 | It's also something I can push against once
I lock the head down, no matter what position
| | 02:56 | it's in. And, that gives me
a little more flexibility.
| | 02:59 | So, I'm just going to frame up
a shot here, on these screws.
| | 03:02 | Now, of course, I've still got my depth
of field issues that I'm dealing with.
| | 03:07 | I'm at ISO 1600 at f/28 in
here; I'm at 1/30 of a second.
| | 03:13 | So, even with stabilization and a monopod,
I need to be careful about camera shake.
| | 03:19 | And, what I'm doing in a situation like this
is, even though I'm just shooting something
| | 03:24 | that's ultimately just a texture, I still
want to have some possible point of focus.
| | 03:31 | So, in that image . . . . And, I'm just getting
started here, so I don't really know what the final
| | 03:34 | shot is yet, or if there
is even a good shot here.
| | 03:37 | In that image, there is one screw that's
poking up, and I focus on the end of that.
| | 03:40 | I've got very shallow depth of field. I'm
hoping maybe that can serve as some kind of
| | 03:44 | compositional anchor.
| | 03:46 | It's very, very difficult to tell what these
shots are really going to look like because
| | 03:50 | of the depth of field issues, just
like we were finding in the studio.
| | 03:54 | So, you've got to work them a lot.
| | 03:57 | Even trying to review them on the back of
the camera is not real telling, because even
| | 04:05 | there, you're not getting necessarily
an accurate view of your depth of field.
| | 04:10 | Notice I'm working the handle of the ballhead a
lot. I'm really moving the camera around a lot.
| | 04:14 | The other thing I'm going to do is bracket
my depth of field, because I'm not sure if
| | 04:23 | I can really get the deep focus that I want,
or where that focus should be. I'm shooting
| | 04:31 | some at 2.8. And now, I'm going to stop down
to 5, which gets me a shutter speed of a 1/5
| | 04:36 | of a second, which is awfully slow.
| | 04:39 | So, I think I'm actually going to even tell
it to underexpose by a stop to speed things
| | 04:42 | up. That gets me up to a 1/10 of a second.
And, you can hear there the slow shutter.
| | 04:51 | I'm far enough out that I can work the focus
ring, and even autofocus, and still get some
| | 04:59 | control of my focus without having to worry
about just moving the camera in and out. But
| | 05:04 | I have a feeling of all of
these are going to be blurry.
| | 05:08 | So, something I might do if I'm not sure
if I can get the focus straight is start to
| | 05:14 | use the burst feature on my camera.
| | 05:15 | I'm going to take it off of the monopod, and
I'm going to switch really to just focusing
| | 05:20 | by moving the camera in and out.
| | 05:22 | I'm also putting my camera
into high-speed drive mode.
| | 05:25 | So, as long as I hold the shutter
button down, I get bursts of images.
| | 05:30 | And, what I'm going to do now is pick a
point of focus, and push the button down, and push
| | 05:37 | the camera through the scene, and with the
hope that something in there will be good focus.
| | 05:45 | This camera doesn't have
a super-fast burst mode.
| | 05:48 | I'm shooting with the Mark II now. I kind
of wish I brought my Mark III, because it's
| | 05:51 | a little bit faster.
| | 05:55 | And so, this is very often a way of . . . if
you're not sure that you can hold the camera on the
| | 05:59 | point of focus in drive mode, you're
knocking off a bunch of images around that point of
| | 06:04 | focus, and hopefully one of
them is going to be sharp.
| | 06:06 | So, all of these are things that I'm going to
employ as I hopefully, one day, make it back outside.
| | 06:12 | I don't have to worry about wind in here, so
this is a nice way for me to start practice
| | 06:16 | with handholding, and my
monopod, and some found objects.
| | 06:20 | I'm trying different distances, because with
this lens, like the 65, I can really move to
| | 06:25 | different focus distances.
| | 06:26 | I've got my hand always understanding where
this focus switch is, because I'm also doing
| | 06:32 | just some close-up shooting.
| | 06:34 | So, being able to switch to the
deeper focus modes makes a big difference.
| | 06:38 | I found lots of nice texture in here. I
really like this dark board that I've found, which
| | 06:42 | has some cool texture, and just lots of strong
lines. And, here you see me just playing basic
| | 06:46 | compositional ideas.
| | 06:47 | I like the piece of
chalk that was down below it.
| | 06:49 | There is this tool cabinet full of screws
and things; this is where I found the pencils.
| | 06:52 | There is also these nice
textures, and objects, and line.
| | 06:56 | Again, don't pressure yourself. Think
of this kind of thing as an exercise.
| | 06:59 | Maybe you'll come out with a great shot.
At the very least, you're going to come out
| | 07:03 | with some really good macro practice.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing backgrounds in the field| 00:00 | No matter what type of macro subject matter
you like to shoot, once you get out in the
| | 00:04 | field, you're going to have to be prepared for
this kind of thing, for actually laying in the dirt.
| | 00:08 | A lot of times the small things in the world
are close to the ground. And, to get the angle
| | 00:12 | that you want, you're really going to have
to get down your hands and knees, or lay down.
| | 00:16 | If you are going to be shooting flowers, or
insects, or other things that are moving on
| | 00:20 | their own, or being moved by the wind, you
may be laying there for a long time waiting
| | 00:23 | for exactly the right moment.
| | 00:25 | So, just be prepared for that. Before you
go out, don't go out macro shooting in your
| | 00:30 | Armani or something, because you're
very likely going to get it messed up.
| | 00:33 | I've seen this little daffodil here, and
decided that I want to try and take a look at it.
| | 00:40 | Something we haven't talked about in the
studio is just how significant the background in
| | 00:46 | your scene is, and how sometimes difficult
it is to manage the background in your scene.
| | 00:51 | Once you frame up the shot, the camera
position that you take is going to have a dramatic
| | 00:55 | impact on exactly what your
background looks like, what's in it.
| | 00:58 | That's true, of course, in regular scale
photography, but in macro, a change of just a millimeter
| | 01:03 | or two can make a big difference.
| | 01:05 | But before you even get to that point,
background is a significant thing to think about.
| | 01:10 | One of the difficulties that you have when
you're starting to shoot macro is you simply
| | 01:14 | don't know what makes good macro subject matter.
| | 01:17 | Moving through the world at normal size
scale, it's difficult to understand that, "Oh!
| | 01:21 | That little flower down there
might actually be really interesting."
| | 01:24 | I think one of the reasons it's difficult
to understand that is that when you look down
| | 01:26 | at it, you see all this other stuff behind it.
| | 01:29 | You see I've got dirt clods, and leaves,
and slimy caterpillar thing down here.
| | 01:34 | And, when I look down at that, I think "Well
there is no good composition there, because
| | 01:37 | the background is too cluttered."
| | 01:39 | What's difficult to remember and pre-
visualize is that at the macro scale, your background
| | 01:43 | is going to go so soft, and potentially some
detail is that all those problems may vanish.
| | 01:49 | So, that's something that you'll get better
at understanding as you start shooting more.
| | 01:55 | And very often, I'll find that well,
maybe there's an interesting macro shot there.
| | 02:00 | I'll look through the camera and immediately go, "Oh!
| | 02:02 | There is a very interesting macro shot
here." Because now that the background is out of
| | 02:05 | play, my compositional options change.
| | 02:08 | This is going to be a very simple composition.
| | 02:10 | I am just going to grab the flower, and fill
as much of the frame with it as I can, which
| | 02:16 | of course, is all about getting, figuring
out what my closest focusing distance is, and
| | 02:22 | I can actually get pretty close.
| | 02:23 | I don't have any extension tubes with me.
| | 02:27 | So, let me just show you the
first framing that I'm working with.
| | 02:31 | I am shooting here at ISO 100 at f/5.6.
| | 02:35 | So, I am just at a mid-range
aperture, and I get something like this.
| | 02:42 | Right off the bat, I can see that
I've got some depth of field issues.
| | 02:45 | First thing I need to do is decide
where do I want in focus on this flower?
| | 02:48 | And ideally, I think I
like to have the whole thing.
| | 02:50 | It's pretty small, it's not too
deep, and I am not super close up.
| | 02:54 | So, I think I can get the whole thing in focus.
| | 02:56 | I've got the edge of that middle structure
in focus, but the petels are soft, and I think
| | 03:00 | I'd like to see them sharper.
| | 03:01 | So, I am going to go
ahead and dial down to f/11.
| | 03:04 | And when I do that, I am going to run into
some potential shutter speed problems here.
| | 03:08 | I am down to 25th of a
second. My lens is stabilized,
| | 03:12 | so I can probably hand-hold at 25th of a second.
Okay, but there is a tiny bit of a breeze here.
| | 03:17 | It's moving the flower just a little bit.
| | 03:19 | You may not even be able to see it happening,
but at macro scale, it's pretty pronounced.
| | 03:22 | So, I am going to go ahead and bump my ISO up, and
let's see, 1600. I am now seeing at 200th of a second.
| | 03:30 | That's actually a little more than I need.
| | 03:32 | So, for the sake of noise reduction, I am
going to go down to ISO 800, which gets me
| | 03:36 | at about 100th of a second.
| | 03:37 | I think that will be
enough motion-stopping power.
| | 03:40 | So, I am going to focus
on the front of the flower.
| | 03:42 | Now, you may be used to at, when you're
shooting landscapes, that you follow the rule that a
| | 03:47 | third of your depth of field is in front of
your focus point, and two-thirds is behind.
| | 03:51 | At macro distances, it's
pretty much half and half.
| | 03:53 | So, I am going to focus on the . . . actually,
I am not going to focus on the front of the
| | 03:57 | flower. I am going to focus on the middle
of the flower, hoping that my depth of field
| | 04:00 | will be more evenly distributed in front, and
behind that focus point, and I am going to take a shot.
| | 04:09 | And, I think I've got
better depth of field there.
| | 04:11 | Of course, it's hard to tell on the
camera's viewfinder, so I might bracket my focus a
| | 04:16 | little bit, focus at a few different
depths, and see what I can come up with.
| | 04:19 | But, look what's happened at the background.
| | 04:21 | Just that little bit of aperture change is
bringing in more detail into the background,
| | 04:25 | and I am getting some visible
green patches, and things like that.
| | 04:28 | So, I need to be maybe use my depth of field
preview button a little more, and try to predict
| | 04:34 | what my aperture changes are going to do
to my background, and decide how smooth, and
| | 04:40 | empty I need my background. Because if I need
it a little more blurred out than that, then
| | 04:45 | I am going to have to give
up some of my depth of field.
| | 04:46 | So, these are the issues that I am
constantly battling in shooting macro.
| | 04:51 | So, look at the difference in these. Just
I am making tiny little movements, and I am
| | 04:57 | getting big changes in
blobs of color in my background.
| | 05:00 | I want to keep my deep depth of field.
| | 05:03 | I am still not sure where
my point of focus should be.
| | 05:05 | But, I really want to keep my deep depth of
field, and I'm not willing to open up my aperture
| | 05:10 | to lose some of that background.
| | 05:11 | So, I am going to try something else now.
| | 05:13 | I am going to try and eliminate
the background using my flash.
| | 05:18 | I have here just an off-camera, all-manual flash.
| | 05:22 | If you don't have a flash, this particular flash that
I am working with is a great option. it's a Yongnuo.
| | 05:28 | Y-O-N-G-N-U-O. It's a very nice, very powerful flash, all-manual
that you can get for about 75 bucks off of Amazon.
| | 05:38 | I've got an off-camera flash cord
here, so I am going to put this on.
| | 05:41 | And, the way that I am going to work this is I
am going to just go ahead and set my shutter
| | 05:46 | speed at about 200th of a second,
actually exactly at 200th of a second.
| | 05:53 | And, I am going to underexpose here.
| | 05:58 | The idea being if I underexpose, I will
darken the background, and that will allow me to
| | 06:05 | not see all that stuff in the background that
I always see. And, the flash is going to serve
| | 06:09 | to light up my flowers.
| | 06:10 | So, let me get my shot framed here.
| | 06:15 | Now, I am in Manual Mode, just
using my meter here. All right!
| | 06:22 | Last time I was using Manual Exposure, I was
using a very, very slow shutter speed. Okay.
| | 06:29 | So, I am going to dial down my exposure some,
and see what I can come up with here in the
| | 06:36 | way of a darker background. Okay.
| | 06:42 | So, now my whole image is too dark.
| | 06:44 | So, what I want to do now . . . . I like that.
That's going to be the color of the background or
| | 06:48 | the tone of the background.
| | 06:49 | I am just turning on my flash.
| | 06:50 | I have a soft box on the front of my flash.
| | 06:52 | This is just a cheap soft box
that gives me a lot of diffusion.
| | 06:55 | I don't want to point it down at the ground,
because that's going to just put back in all
| | 06:58 | the light that I just took out. And, I am just
going to flash it here from the side. And, there we go!
| | 07:04 | Now, I have my flower nice and
illuminated, and my background darkened up.
| | 07:09 | So, I've got a number of different
ways of manipulating my background here.
| | 07:12 | I can change my depth of field to blur or
soften the background. I can change my camera
| | 07:17 | position by teeny, tiny little amounts to change
what's in the background, or I can underexpose
| | 07:22 | the background, and use the flash to light up
the foreground to create isolation that way.
| | 07:27 | The important lesson here is to understand that
you really need to pay attention to background
| | 07:32 | in your macro shots, because with your
everyday eyes, it can be very difficult to predict
| | 07:36 | exactly what the
background is going to look like.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting macro water droplets| 00:00 | A lot of people think that when the weather turns
bad, it's time to put your camera away and go inside.
| | 00:05 | But actually, with macro shooting, just after
a rain, or what we've got here, heavy fog is
| | 00:10 | a great time to go outside, because
everything is covered with water droplets. And, water
| | 00:14 | droplets can be really cool looking. When
you get up close, they refract light, they add
| | 00:18 | extra texture to an image, and they really create a
lot of interesting specular highlights, and things.
| | 00:23 | Now, we're just out in the parking lot. We
haven't had to go more than 30 yards from
| | 00:28 | the front door. It's great. There's this
whole wet, soggy macro environment out here that
| | 00:33 | I can just start playing around in.
| | 00:35 | So, where do I start?
| | 00:37 | Well, my eye was immediately drawn to, "Okay,
there are some nice flowers here. I'll start
| | 00:40 | with those." But there is also a lot
of stuff you can just do with leaves.
| | 00:44 | One thing that's nice about dew and rain is
any spider webs that are out here are going
| | 00:48 | to get covered and lit up.
| | 00:50 | So, I'm going to start with this thing. And,
having identified it, I would do the exact
| | 00:54 | same things that we did in the studio. I'm
looking for anything that I think is an interesting
| | 00:59 | texture, anything that I think is just an
interesting-looking subject, but mostly I
| | 01:02 | am thinking about the light.
| | 01:03 | And, right off the bat, what I'm going to do
is go, "Well, the sun is over there. I would
| | 01:07 | really like the sun coming through the
water droplets to get some nice backlighting."
| | 01:11 | Now, the light is changing a lot. We really
have thick fog rolling through this morning.
| | 01:15 | I have got my monopod. It's not a necessity,
but it's a dark enough out here that I wanted
| | 01:21 | a little bit of extra stabilization,
because right now the sun is away.
| | 01:25 | And, as I get down here, it's interesting,
because from up here, I go, "Hmm, I don't know,
light's not that interesting,"
| | 01:30 | because I've lost a good amount of light coming
from the sun. But as I get down here, I realize
| | 01:36 | that actually there's a pretty significant
amount of light coming through the droplets,
| | 01:41 | and they are starting to
light up in a really nice way.
| | 01:44 | And so, I'm just going to start working the shot.
| | 01:46 | I'm going to try getting in closer. I'm at
times focusing specifically on water droplets.
| | 01:52 | And, at other times, I'm just looking for
interesting geometry on the flower itself, and trying to
| | 01:57 | build things around droplets.
| | 02:00 | One thing that's nice about this
particular flower is all of these stems create these
| | 02:05 | cool, receding patterns. That means that I'm
going to have to really think about depth
| | 02:10 | of field, and I'm going to be bracketing my
shots pretty heavily, depth of field-wise.
| | 02:16 | It's dark enough out here
that I'm shooting at ISO 1600.
| | 02:19 | I know on this camera that I can safely go
up to 3200 before I get what I consider to
| | 02:24 | be unacceptable noise. Well, not unacceptable
noise, but conspicuous noise. I actually think
| | 02:29 | the noise on this camera at 6400 is just fine.
| | 02:32 | So, I am just here working away, just like I
would in the studio. As we mentioned before,
| | 02:38 | this is the exact same skill set. I
am just adding a few extra wrinkles.
| | 02:44 | So, what I'm liking about the water drops
is they have a light side and a dark side,
| | 02:48 | a lot of times. They have cool highlights
in them. They even have cool reflections in
| | 02:52 | them. Water droplets,
refract in a very interesting way.
| | 02:57 | And, if it's a very calm day, and you got a
tripod and a lens with lot of magnification,
| | 03:02 | you can get a really interesting refraction.
| | 03:06 | Take a look that Jacob Cunningham, our
director, put together. This is a nice self portrait
| | 03:11 | that he has done of himself
inside tiny, little water droplets.
| | 03:15 | This type of shot is an incredible amount
of work. You've really got to set everything
| | 03:18 | up just right, but this is the
fun thing you can do with water.
| | 03:21 | And, I just notice there's a
little spider web right in there.
| | 03:25 | This is very often the case with macro. You
don't know what you're going to find in your
| | 03:30 | subject until you get in there, and start
looking around. I don't actually know if there's a
| | 03:34 | shot here. All I can do is take it,
and see later if I got anywhere.
| | 03:40 | So, just as we were doing in the studio,
you want to work your shot, and explore around.
| | 03:47 | Now, one thing you're going to find is there
is a difference in what water droplets look
| | 03:52 | like, depending on what their source was.
| | 03:55 | So, we'll find water droplets in the wild
that are caused either by a rainstorm or by dew.
| | 04:01 | And sometimes, those droplets look very
different. You'll see differences in shape; you'll see
| | 04:05 | differences in size. And, naturally occurring
water droplets are very different than what
| | 04:10 | you're going to get from a spray bottle.
| | 04:12 | You can also just carry a bottle of water
around you with you, a spray bottle, even on a nice
| | 04:16 | day. Spritz up a flower, or something to
try to make it more interesting-looking.
| | 04:20 | When you do that, you're going to
find the drops are perfectly regular.
| | 04:23 | And, I don't know, if you're showing images
to nerdy hydrologists or something, they're
| | 04:27 | going to go, "Oh well, that's fake water." And,
most people aren't going to know the difference.
| | 04:31 | Don't just stick with flowers. Don't just
stick with plants. Even though these leaves
| | 04:35 | are very interesting-looking, and have lots
of interesting, textury water on them. It's
| | 04:39 | no reason you can also shoot
metal and other found objects around.
| | 04:42 | So, don't worry about your camera. It's
not so wet out here that anything is going to
| | 04:46 | matter, and most cameras these days can take a good
amount of moisture before anything happens to them.
| | 04:51 | So, get up early in the morning in the summer.
Go out right after a rain shower, especially
| | 04:56 | as the sun is breaking to the clouds,
and start playing around with water.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Depth of Field and Focus StackingCreating a simple manual focus stack| 00:00 | By this point, you should have
enough macro shooting experience
| | 00:03 | to know that shallow depth of field is often an
obstacle to getting the macro shots that you want.
| | 00:08 | The problem is simply that, at macro
distances, depth of field is extremely thin, so thin
| | 00:14 | that a detail that you really like on the
flower may end up rendered out of focus when
| | 00:18 | you've focused on something else that you won't
see on the flower, or whatever your subject is.
| | 00:23 | As you've seen with tiny camera movements,
which are effectively tiny changes in focus,
| | 00:29 | we can alter what part of our subject is sharp.
| | 00:31 | If you've got much image editing experience,
then you might have already thought, "What if
| | 00:35 | I shot a few frames, each with a different part of
my subject in focus, and then combined them somehow?"
| | 00:41 | That's what focus stacking is. It's called
focus stacking, because we're going to take
| | 00:45 | a stack of images, each with focus at a
different depth, and then we're going to combine them.
| | 00:50 | As we move through this chapter, you're going
to see a very elaborate focus stacking procedure
| | 00:55 | that can yield have very dramatic results.
| | 00:57 | First, though, we're going to start with a
very simple version to give you an overview of
| | 01:00 | the concepts involved.
| | 01:01 | So, I have this orchid here, and I'm really
liking this stuff in here, and I want to get
| | 01:07 | a shot. I've got my 100 millimeter macro on.
It's not super bright in here, and that's going
| | 01:12 | to impact how small an aperture I can use,
so I'm kind of inherently facing a shallow
| | 01:17 | depth of field problem.
| | 01:19 | Now, there's some really cool features inside
there, so I'm just going to frame up a shot.
| | 01:24 | At this distance, I have no trouble autofocusing.
| | 01:27 | And, I'm going to go to a smaller aperture,
and see what I can get here at f/5 at ISO 1600.
| | 01:34 | I'm at a hundredth of a second. I don't really
want to go to a shutter speed that's any slower
| | 01:40 | than that, because I'm hand-held shooting,
even though I'm propped up on this table.
| | 01:44 | At this distance, that could be risky.
| | 01:46 | So f/5 is as deep a depth of field as I can
get. So, if I focus on that detail way in the
| | 01:52 | back of the flower that I
want, here's what I get.
| | 01:56 | And, notice the stuff at the front of the
flower that lit there. And, those little tendrils are
| | 02:00 | out of focus. My depth of
field is too shallow at f/5.
| | 02:04 | I could go to a smaller aperture and deeper
depth of field, but my shutter speed is going
| | 02:08 | to go down. I don't have a tripod
with me. Maybe I'm out in the field.
| | 02:12 | So, I'm kind of stuck with that depth of field,
and even at f/16, it still might not be enough.
| | 02:16 | So, what I am going to do is I am going to
take two shots, one focused on that back part
| | 02:20 | of the flower, and one focused on the front.
| | 02:22 | I don't know if that's enough depth of
field to cover the whole thing, but I think it's
| | 02:25 | probably going to be okay.
| | 02:26 | There are some things to consider.
| | 02:28 | What I'm going to do is I'm going to take
those two images, and put them in Photoshop,
| | 02:31 | and blend them together, just
using some simple layer masking.
| | 02:34 | I want to be sure, though, that my exposure
is identical on both, because I don't want there
| | 02:38 | to be a brightness difference between the two.
| | 02:41 | So, I'm going in the Manual Mode, so that I
can ensure that my shutter speed and aperture
| | 02:46 | do not change as I refocus. And, sometimes
that will happen, because as you refocus, you'll
| | 02:53 | reveal another part of the flower that
might be brighter, or something like that.
| | 02:57 | Of course, this doesn't just have to work with
flowers. This will work with any subject matter.
| | 03:02 | So, I'm going to stay locked in there at the
hundredth of a second at f/5, focusing on the
| | 03:06 | back of the flower. And then, without trying
to move too much, I'm going to focus on the
| | 03:13 | front of the flower, and take my other shot.
| | 03:17 | I'm going to actually take a few of those.
| | 03:22 | Now, as you refocus, you may
find that your framing changes.
| | 03:27 | A change in focus is actually a change in
focal length. That's true for everyday shooting,
| | 03:33 | but in everyday shooting, the changes are
so slight, we don't really see them at macro
| | 03:37 | distances. We really see, as I focus in
or out, my image gets cropped differently.
| | 03:42 | So, for a lot of focus stacking exercises --
there are a lot of focus stacking situations, --
| | 03:46 | you need to pad your scene with a little bit
of extra space. I should probably step back,
| | 03:51 | and shoot this a little wider.
| | 03:53 | So, I'm going to try that now, and I'm just
experimenting here with finding a place where
| | 04:02 | I have both my focus points, the
entire structure is in the frame, and it is.
| | 04:07 | So, there is my first shot; there is my second.
| | 04:12 | So, I'm good to go. I'm now ready to merge
those. We're going to do that in the next movie.
| | 04:16 | I can do more than two images.
Also, I could shoot a range of images.
| | 04:20 | This technique is best when, at least if
you're working hand-held, this technique is best when
| | 04:24 | there are plainly-visible planes of focus.
| | 04:28 | If you're dealing with a curved shape, where
you would want everything visible along that
| | 04:32 | curve, that's a very difficult thing to do hand-held.
We'll look at some other techniques for that later.
| | 04:37 | For now, let's get these images into
Photoshop, and see how they go together.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a focus stacked image with manual merge| 00:00 | I've got my couple of shots of the orchid,
I've already put my card in my computer, and
| | 00:05 | here's what I'm seeing in Adobe Bridge.
| | 00:08 | I was shooting Raw+JPEG, so I've got
four files here for my two final images.
| | 00:12 | I am just going to work
with the JPEGs right now.
| | 00:14 | If they had blown highlights or something,
I would probably work with the raws, but I
| | 00:17 | think this is going to be easier.
| | 00:19 | This technique is going to work with any
version of Photoshop that has layers and layer masks,
| | 00:24 | which is most of the versions
going back for at least 15 years.
| | 00:27 | So, you ought to be okay.
| | 00:29 | Some steps are going to be easier if
you're using a somewhat newer version.
| | 00:32 | So, here in Bridge, I
have selected both of these.
| | 00:35 | I did that by clicking on the first one,
and then Command or Ctrl+Clicking, if you're in
| | 00:41 | Windows, on the second one.
| | 00:42 | And now, I am going to go to the Tools menu, down to
Photoshop, and choose Load Files into Photoshop Layers.
| | 00:48 | That's going to load both of those documents,
or both of those images, into a single Photoshop
| | 00:52 | document, and it's going to put each
one in a separate layer. So, here we go!
| | 00:57 | I could also do that manually.
| | 00:58 | I could load the first one, load the second
one, select all, copy, paste it into the first
| | 01:02 | one, whatever. I just need to
be sure they're both in here.
| | 01:05 | I am going to hide this uppermost layer.
And there, you can see the lower one.
| | 01:08 | So, in this top one, this stuff is in focus.
In the bottom one, this stuff is in focus.
| | 01:14 | Now, as I turn that off and on, you can also see
this whole structure here is shifting to the left.
| | 01:20 | So, these images are out of alignment.
| | 01:23 | I could manually align them by lowering the
opacity on the upper layer, and then grabbing
| | 01:29 | the Move Tool, and dragging it
around until these are aligned.
| | 01:35 | There is an easier way to do it, and that is
to, in the Layers Palette, select both layers,
| | 01:42 | and go to Edit>Auto-Align Layers.
| | 01:43 | Now, this only works with the
last couple of versions of Photoshop.
| | 01:47 | They are the only ones that have auto-alignment.
| | 01:49 | So, I am just going to do that.
| | 01:50 | It's going to ask me what algorithm I want to use
for alignment. I am just going to choose Auto, say OK.
| | 01:57 | And, with just a little bit of
thinking, it has aligned my images for me.
| | 02:00 | If I turn off the visibility on that upper
one, you can see that they're sitting right
| | 02:04 | on top of each other.
| | 02:05 | It's also possibly done some
rotation, maybe even a little tilting.
| | 02:08 | It's a very good alignment feature.
| | 02:10 | Now, if I'm using a version that has auto-alignment, then
I also have a way to automatically blend these together.
| | 02:16 | We're not going to do that yet. I want to
show you a completely manual way of doing
| | 02:21 | it, just because if you don't have a previous
version of Photoshop, you may not have that Auto option.
| | 02:25 | And, even if you do have the Auto option, there
are going to be times where it's nice to have
| | 02:29 | a little more control.
| | 02:30 | So, I'm selecting my upper layer here, and
I'm going to add a layer mask to it. Down
| | 02:35 | at the bottom of the Layers Palette,
this button right here adds a Layer Mask.
| | 02:40 | Right now, the mask is white, which
means every bit of this layer is visible.
| | 02:44 | So, I am going to fill it with black.
| | 02:46 | The easiest way to do that is to make sure
that black is my background color, which I
| | 02:49 | can do by clicking on that
little thing right there.
| | 02:51 | And, just having, and then hitting Command
+Delete fills my layer mask with black.
| | 02:56 | Now, no part of the upper image is visible.
| | 02:59 | So, what I am left with is seeing the lower image,
which is the part that has this bit in focus.
| | 03:05 | If I now take my paintbrush and some white
paint, and just start painting into my mask --
| | 03:11 | I am going to click that to make it selected, --
| | 03:13 | What I am now doing is refining my mask to
reveal these bits of this upper layer, and
| | 03:20 | these bits are in focus.
| | 03:22 | So, I am able to selectively paint in these
focused areas of this other layer. Okay, that
| | 03:27 | bit is not in focus. I've gone too far.
| | 03:30 | So, I am going to switch back to
black paint, and paint back over those.
| | 03:34 | One of the things you'll find
about depth of fields is very strange.
| | 03:37 | It's sometimes difficult to tell where two different
parts of your image actually sit on the same plane.
| | 03:44 | Obviously, focus is all
about distance from the camera.
| | 03:47 | So, sometimes you'll think something should
be in focus, and it won't be in a shot, and
| | 03:51 | that's because it actually sits on a
different plane than you're thinking it's on.
| | 03:55 | I think there is some focus out here to be had.
| | 03:57 | There is a little bit out here.
| | 04:00 | And in there, nope, it doesn't look like it.
| | 04:02 | I am using the X key to switch back and
forth between these two colors. That's a very
| | 04:07 | simple way of going back and
forth between black and white.
| | 04:11 | So, that's looking pretty good.
| | 04:12 | I've now blended these two different layers to
get much deeper depth of field than I had before.
| | 04:17 | These are now in focus; this is now in focus.
| | 04:19 | Look at this stuff. It's not in focus.
| | 04:22 | And, there is a little bit more to be had
there than I thought, but there's not a lot.
| | 04:26 | What I needed was a third shot.
| | 04:28 | And actually, that looks pretty good.
| | 04:31 | Still, if I had done another shot focusing
right in here, I would have gotten these things
| | 04:35 | in focus, and maybe the edge of these petals.
| | 04:38 | So, you'll often find that when you do your
focus stacking exercises that it's hard to
| | 04:42 | figure out how many layers
you need to get the overlap.
| | 04:46 | So, sometimes you may have
to go back, and shoot again.
| | 04:47 | You might be wondering,
"What's all this checkerboard stuff?"
| | 04:50 | Well, when I aligned the images, it had to
move them. It had to shift them around, and
| | 04:55 | so it's opened up a bunch of
extra space in my document.
| | 04:59 | That's areas that the lower layer . . where the
lower layer has no content. So, what I would
| | 05:04 | like to do is restore
those areas of the upper image.
| | 05:08 | If that makes no sense to you, don't worry.
It's about to, when you see what happens when
| | 05:12 | I take white paint, and
paint it to my mask right here.
| | 05:15 | So, what you are seeing is that there is
content in my upper image in these locations, just
| | 05:20 | not in my lower image.
| | 05:21 | So, I'm adjusting my mask to restore these
bits of the upper image where there is data.
| | 05:27 | That said, as you'll recall from the last
movie, I intentionally shot this image a little
| | 05:33 | wider than I needed to, because I wasn't sure how,
when I refocused, how my crop was going to work.
| | 05:38 | So actually, my intent when I shot this
movie was that it was going to need a crop.
| | 05:42 | So, I am going to go to my Crop Tool here,
and I am going to go ahead and pull in a 2×3
| | 05:48 | aspect ratio to preserve the
original aspect ratio of my image.
| | 05:52 | I am just going to crop this down, because
this was the thing I was interested in anyway.
| | 05:56 | So, now that lost space that I got
from the stack doesn't really matter.
| | 06:00 | So now, I can flatten and save, and then I've
got an image with much deeper depth of field
| | 06:05 | than I would have had if I
was shooting a single image.
| | 06:08 | As I said, there's an automatic way of doing
this, and there are lots of different ways of
| | 06:12 | working with that, and we are going to spend the rest
of this chapter looking at automatic focus stacking.
| | 06:16 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a focus stacked image using Helicon Remote| 00:00 | In the last movie, you saw how I was able
to shoot multiple images, each focused in a
| | 00:05 | different place, and then combine them
in Photoshop using some layer masking.
| | 00:09 | That works great for a simple subject. But
if you really want deep depth of field all
| | 00:14 | the way through a subject, with a lot of
depth to it, then you are going to need to resort
| | 00:18 | to a more sophisticated process.
| | 00:20 | And, that's what I am going to do here.
| | 00:22 | I've got a flower here that is
much deeper than what I shot before.
| | 00:26 | It's got all the stamens on it.
| | 00:27 | There's a lot of detail in it that I like.
| | 00:29 | Let me give you a quick shot, just showing
you how . . . what I can get with my 100 millimeter
| | 00:34 | macro and a single shot.
| | 00:37 | So, I framed up something here.
| | 00:38 | What you just saw me do is switch the lens
to Manual, because I want to make sure that
| | 00:42 | I focus on a particular location.
| | 00:44 | I am going to put it at f/11.
| | 00:47 | Much further than that, I might
get some softening from diffraction.
| | 00:50 | I just want to see how deep
the depth of field can go.
| | 00:56 | And, here's what I get.
| | 00:57 | It's actually deeper than I was expecting.
| | 00:59 | But, it's still not razor-
sharp all the way through.
| | 01:02 | The pollen-covered bits that are
a little bit further back are soft.
| | 01:05 | The spots down at the back of the flower are
soft. The lines on the petals are a little soft.
| | 01:10 | It would be nice to have a really
strong depth of field all the way through.
| | 01:13 | So, what I need to do is
shoot a bunch of slices.
| | 01:16 | Now, if you think about the aperture that I have
now, it has a certain amount of depth of field.
| | 01:21 | Maybe it's 2 millimeters.
| | 01:22 | So, I want to shoot a slice focused here at the
front, and then focused maybe a millimeter-and-a-half
| | 01:29 | back, and then a millimeter-and-a-half
back from there, and then from there.
| | 01:32 | Now, those overlapping shots, when they are merged together,
should give me depth of field through the whole thing.
| | 01:38 | So, I could take a shot, and then try to
manually focus forward a millimeter-and-a-half, and
| | 01:43 | take another, and focus forward.
| | 01:44 | There are two problems with
that. One: handling the camera.
| | 01:48 | As you've seen, at macro distances, any
handling of the camera can mess up your shot.
| | 01:52 | And, more importantly, there's just no way I am
going to accurately focus by a millimeter-and-a-half,
| | 01:56 | it's just not possible,
particularly over, and over, and over.
| | 01:59 | So instead, I am going to let
the computer control it for me.
| | 02:02 | I have a program here called Helicon Remote.
| | 02:04 | Helicon is the name of a software company.
| | 02:06 | Helicon Remote is part of a bundle that
includes another program called Helicon Focus.
| | 02:12 | So, I am going to launch Helicon Remote here,
and I am going to take this USB cable that's
| | 02:16 | plugged into my computer, and I am going to
plug the other end into the USB port on my camera.
| | 02:24 | And when I do, first thing is Dropbox tries to
import a bunch of pictures. We'll stop that.
| | 02:28 | Here we go!
| | 02:29 | Now, you can see it's found my camera.
| | 02:32 | You just heard the mirror go up, because
I'm now getting a live feed from the camera.
| | 02:36 | Here, I am going to wave my fingers in
front of the lens, so you can see that this is a
| | 02:39 | live view of my camera.
| | 02:40 | And, watch what that cool, live histogram does
when I do that. It moves all around, anyway.
| | 02:46 | What I've got here is complete control
of my camera from this simple interface.
| | 02:50 | Now, that shaking you are seeing is
because I just put my hands on the table.
| | 02:54 | I'm down here at the other end of the table
from the camera. The camera is firmly rooted
| | 02:57 | on this gnarly desktop tripod thing, and
still, even just that little bit of shaking.
| | 03:03 | This is why I've been so adamant that you've got to
be careful about camera shake when you're working.
| | 03:08 | So, I can control my
Exposure, my ISO, everything.
| | 03:11 | I can also define a start
point and an endpoint for focus.
| | 03:16 | So, I am going to do that now.
| | 03:17 | I'm already focused right
here on the tip of this thing.
| | 03:21 | Let me just double-check that. It looks . . . oh!
| | 03:23 | I can't see through there; that's live view.
| | 03:25 | It actually looks pretty good.
| | 03:27 | I am going to store that
away as my start focus point.
| | 03:30 | I just click this button right here, and it
pops this little thing, little padlock showing
| | 03:34 | that that is locked down.
| | 03:37 | These controls let me focus in;
these controls let me focus out.
| | 03:41 | The different buttons
simply go different distances.
| | 03:44 | So, for fine control, I would use this one.
To simply cover a lot of ground in a hurry,
| | 03:48 | I would use this one.
| | 03:49 | That's what I want to do,
so I am going to click it.
| | 03:51 | And, you should see the
focus in the image changing.
| | 03:54 | What's going on over here at the camera is the
lens barrel is actually turning. The computer
| | 03:58 | can control it through the cable.
| | 04:00 | What I'm aiming for is to get these dots down
here in focus, so I am going to do another jump.
| | 04:05 | I'm going to use that Medium button, because I don't
think I need to go as far. But, I was wrong.
| | 04:09 | So, I will click it again.
| | 04:11 | Then, I am just going to try and zero in
on the area that I want to have in focus.
| | 04:15 | That looks pretty good.
| | 04:17 | So, I am going to set that as my endpoint.
| | 04:21 | Now, notice that as I do this,
this stuff is all defocusing a lot.
| | 04:26 | So, in the merging process, it's going to
have to figure out . . . it's going to have to
| | 04:30 | pull data that's behind these blown-out areas
from images that it was picking up along the way.
| | 04:35 | So, the merging is a
pretty sophisticated process.
| | 04:37 | I am going to hit that.
| | 04:39 | Now, right now, it doesn't
know how many shots to take.
| | 04:41 | I am going to hit my Depth of Field button here.
| | 04:45 | And it's saying, "Okay, you're at f/11. You're at
a focal length of 100." It's got this Correction
| | 04:53 | value that you can tweak if you find that
it's not getting the overlap quite right.
| | 04:57 | It's suggesting a depth of field
and focusing steps of 6.3 images.
| | 05:01 | In other words, it's going to take 6 shots.
It thinks that that's all it needs to get
| | 05:06 | the amount of overlap that it
needs to get complete depth of field.
| | 05:09 | With all that stuff
dialed in, I'm ready to start.
| | 05:11 | Now, it's a good idea -- and I learned
this the hard way, a little bit ago, --
| | 05:15 | it's a good idea to shoot in RAW or JPEG, not RAW
plus JPEG. That will confuse the stacking process.
| | 05:20 | So, I've switched over to RAW.
| | 05:22 | I am at ISO 800, as you saw.
everything looks ready to go.
| | 05:25 | I am going to try and stand back, because
that sounds really dramatic, doesn't it?
| | 05:30 | I am standing back. This could be dangerous.
| | 05:31 | Actually, I am standing back, because I
really don't want any camera shake. And then, I am
| | 05:35 | going to just say, "Start shooting."
| | 05:39 | First thing you are going to see is the focus
rack back towards the front. This is Helicon
| | 05:43 | Remote moving the focus to my start point.
| | 05:47 | And once it gets there, it just took a picture.
| | 05:50 | So, it took a picture. Now it's moving
forward, and it took another picture.
| | 05:55 | So, it's going to do that 6 more times.
| | 05:57 | While it's doing that, let's talk about
a couple of more tips for focus stacking.
| | 06:00 | First of all, this is just
one way of doing focus staking.
| | 06:03 | This is focus stacking through focus changes.
| | 06:06 | There's another way to do it, which is focus
stacking through camera movement. And, we'll
| | 06:09 | talk about the differences and the
advantages of that in a little bit.
| | 06:13 | Either way, however, you're doing focus stacking,
even if you're doing it manually. I really
| | 06:17 | recommend not using natural
light if you don't have to.
| | 06:21 | If you are just grabbing a couple of shots
quickly by hand out in the field, that's great,
| | 06:24 | but if you're setting up a really deep shot
with a lot of steps, you want controlled lighting.
| | 06:30 | If you're working even through a window with
this diffuse light, just the movement of the
| | 06:34 | sun could create a change in lighting
that could trip up the merging process.
| | 06:39 | Helicon Focus, which is what we will use to do the merge,
doesn't like a brightness differential between images.
| | 06:46 | So, we want to be sure
we've got constant lighting on.
| | 06:49 | That means that I am either going to work at
night after the sun goes down, or I am going
| | 06:52 | to work in a room that I can close off
completely, and I'm going to set up continuous lighting.
| | 06:55 | Now, you may think, "Oh!
| | 06:56 | No problem, I've got one of those cool twin
light flashes that I can put on the front of my lens."
| | 07:00 | That's not a good idea either.
| | 07:02 | They don't necessarily produce
predictable, continuous output.
| | 07:06 | And, if you're going to be moving the camera, then
you're moving the light source at the same time.
| | 07:09 | So, we've got continuous lighting setup,
we are in a controlled environment, and here
| | 07:14 | Helicon Remote has finished.
| | 07:15 | It says 9 images were saved.
| | 07:17 | Would you like to view them in Helicon Focus?
| | 07:19 | That's the merging software.
| | 07:20 | So, I am going to say Yes.
| | 07:22 | It's going to launch Helicon Focus,
and automatically load all of my images.
| | 07:26 | We are not going to go into every
control on this piece of software.
| | 07:29 | There are lot of them. It's a deep application.
| | 07:32 | It does a very good job with this kind of
stuff, with what it's intended to do, which
| | 07:36 | is just to merge depth of field stacks.
| | 07:39 | So, these are my images. I could, if I want
to, turn some off, if I had decided that I had
| | 07:44 | shot too many, and my computer was bogging
down. I am just going to leave them like this.
| | 07:48 | I have a few different algorithms
that I can use for doing the merge.
| | 07:52 | By default, it chooses Depth Map.
| | 07:54 | I'm going to leave it there, and I
am just going to tell it to render.
| | 07:59 | Some strange things are going
to start to happen on screen.
| | 08:01 | You're going to start to see it build up a
depth map of the image, or what you might
| | 08:06 | call a Z map, starting out black, black
being the most distant things in the scene.
| | 08:12 | And here, you're seeing
flower outlines start to appear.
| | 08:16 | It's all in grayscale.
| | 08:17 | Don't panic over the fact that this looks
nothing like what you want in a final image.
| | 08:21 | It's not showing you image data right now;
it's just showing you this depth information.
| | 08:26 | Now, what's cool about it is that because
it's gathering this depth information along
| | 08:30 | the way, in addition to presenting us with
a final image with deep depth of field, it's
| | 08:34 | also going to be able to give
us a 3D model of this flower.
| | 08:36 | Now, if that sounds like too
amazing to be true, it kind of is.
| | 08:41 | It's not a great 3D model of the flower, but it's
still awfully impressive, and kind of fun to watch.
| | 08:46 | So, here we go!
| | 08:47 | Here's my final result. And
check that out. This is in focus.
| | 08:51 | All of these are in focus.
| | 08:53 | The dots on the flower back there are in focus.
| | 08:55 | Look at all of the detail that I have on the
petals going all the way into the background.
| | 09:01 | Helicon Focus has some other great features.
| | 09:03 | There's this Retouching Tab here
that lets me clone things away.
| | 09:06 | It's much easier to do this in Helicon
Focus than in the Focus Stacking feature that's
| | 09:11 | built into Photoshop.
| | 09:13 | And of course, I can save an image.
| | 09:14 | So, I am going to do a couple of things here.
| | 09:16 | I am going to save this as a TIFF file.
| | 09:19 | And, I will just spit that out to my desktop.
| | 09:24 | I am also going to save this as a 3D model.
| | 09:30 | And when I do that, it will open it up in this 3D
viewer, and start rotating it around for me.
| | 09:37 | And, you could see that,
actually, it didn't do a bad job.
| | 09:39 | There's some weirdness in here, and that's
possibly an indication of places where maybe
| | 09:45 | I don't have enough overlap.
| | 09:47 | It didn't gather enough data.
| | 09:48 | It could just be that it
doesn't have the right angle on them.
| | 09:50 | But look at this thing. It
got this done really well.
| | 09:53 | It actually looks correct, as we
pan and rotate it around there.
| | 09:56 | I have not found a use for these, but I
still think they are really cool, and it's a fun
| | 10:00 | way to look at your data.
| | 10:02 | So, this is a great way of
getting deeper depth of field.
| | 10:07 | However, it requires very controlled conditions.
| | 10:10 | I need to have my camera firmly mounted. I've
got to have a computer, and a cable attached to it.
| | 10:15 | Well, nothing in here, but the fan just came
on my computer. I need a pretty beefy computer.
| | 10:20 | at least if I want this done in a reasonable
amount of time. I need controlled lighting.
| | 10:24 | One of the things that's difficult about focus
stacking is you often can't see all the details
| | 10:28 | of your final result until you build a stack.
| | 10:31 | And now that I've got this built, I can see
some ways that I might want to refine this image.
| | 10:35 | I'm not crazy about the lighting. I'd
like to get more light into the center.
| | 10:38 | I maybe could have seen some of that
ahead of time, but now, seeing the final result,
| | 10:42 | it's a lot more conspicuous.
| | 10:44 | When I am looking at shallow depth of field,
I don't necessarily see that there might need
| | 10:48 | to be some lighting, more
lighting in a particular location.
| | 10:51 | You don't have to use
dedicated software like Helicon Focus.
| | 10:54 | If you've got Photoshop CS6, 5, and possibly
4, you can do it there. And, we are going to
| | 11:00 | look at how to do that, as well as use some more
sophisticated rigging, in the rest of this chapter.
| | 11:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with a StackShot rail for focus stacking| 00:00 | In the last movie, you saw me create a focus
stack using my computer, and having Helicon
| | 00:06 | remote control the autofocus on my lens to
cycle through a bunch of different slices of focus.
| | 00:12 | I am taking a very different approach this
time. I'm using a special piece of hardware
| | 00:17 | that is going to build a focus stack by
moving the camera, rather than refocusing the lens.
| | 00:21 | There are two advantages to this.
[00:00:2.07]
First of all, I'm set up with my 65 mm 1-
5X Macro, and I am dialed in at about 2 1/2X.
| | 00:29 | That's a much greater level of magnification
than the 100mm lens that I was using earlier,
| | 00:33 | the 100 millimeter macro.
| | 00:35 | However, this lens has no autofocus
feature, so I can't remote control it.
| | 00:39 | So, that's one reason that I've
gone to this other solution here.
| | 00:43 | But even if I was using the 100mm macro or
another macro lens that has autofocus, I would
| | 00:48 | still probably use the stack shot for what
I'm about to do, or for all of my focus stacking
| | 00:53 | actually, because there is a difference
between moving the camera, and refocusing the camera.
| | 00:57 | When I refocus the camera, I actually
change the focal length of the lens a tiny bit.
| | 01:01 | This is not just something that happens with
macro lenses; it happens with any kind of lens.
| | 01:05 | But at macro scale, you can really see that
slight change in focal length, and it's possible
| | 01:11 | that that slight change in focal length will
change some of the spatial relationships in
| | 01:16 | the scene, the scale
relationships between one object and another.
| | 01:20 | When I'm pushing in and out with
the camera, I don't have that problem.
| | 01:24 | If I push far enough, then yeah, I get
some massive differences between frames.
| | 01:28 | But in general, I find this to be a more
reliable way when doing really deep focus to get images
| | 01:33 | that I know will merge together.
| | 01:35 | That said, I don't want to discourage you from
the remote control process we were using before,
| | 01:39 | because it's a very affordable, very
effective way of getting deep depth of field.
| | 01:44 | This bit right here, this rail,
is something called a stack shot.
| | 01:49 | This is a motorized rail that can be
controlled by this little device right here. This is
| | 01:54 | a little control box that
comes with the stack shot.
[00:01:5.07]
So, what you're actually seeing here is several
pieces of hardware. I've got my Kirk Enterprises
| | 02:03 | table top tripod thing here, although it's not really
a tripod, but you know what I mean; it's a stabilizer.
| | 02:07 | I have right here my Manfrotto geared head.
| | 02:13 | Here, I have the Velbon slider that you saw
me use before. And, mounted on top of that, I
| | 02:17 | have the stack shot.
| | 02:18 | I put the Velbon slider in here, because the
stack shot can only go forward and backward.
| | 02:23 | The Velbon lets me go side to side.
| | 02:24 | So, with this rig, I've got full control of
every rotational axis. I can move left to
| | 02:29 | right, and I can move forward and
backward in a couple of different ways.
| | 02:32 | When working extremely close-up, it's
nice having this level of very fine control.
| | 02:36 | You don't actually have to have the slider
in here to get all this to work. I like having
| | 02:39 | it for the extra movement.
| | 02:41 | Now, as far as moving the camera for focus
stacking, I could try to do this manually,
| | 02:46 | using just my regular slider.
| | 02:48 | I could take a picture, rotate the
position forward a little bit, shoot another.
| | 02:53 | But I'm shooting here at
f/11, as I said, at about 2 1/2X.
| | 02:57 | Now, according to my depth of field chart for
this lens, which I have stored in my phone,
| | 03:02 | which is a really convenient thing, because
I've always got it around f/11 at 2X. I am
| | 03:07 | sorry, at 3X is a depth of field of about .35 mm.
| | 03:13 | So, the odds that I could very precisely
manually move the camera forward 0.3 mm every time
| | 03:20 | are pretty much non-existent.
| | 03:22 | So, that's why we need the very
fine control of this focusing rail.
| | 03:26 | Another advantage of the focusing rail over
autofocus is it can make smaller steps, and
| | 03:30 | it can make them very regularly.
| | 03:32 | The autofocus in your lens
may not be able to do that.
| | 03:34 | So, here is how this works.
| | 03:35 | I have got our dead bee back here, and he is
perched on top of this thorny seed pod ball thing.
| | 03:43 | You don't actually have to have a turquoise
vase; it's just the only thing we have that
| | 03:47 | got it to the height that I wanted.
| | 03:48 | I have done a couple of tests to really get it
positioned right, and I am going to turn on live view here.
| | 03:54 | Actually, before I do that, I am going to roll
video, so that you can see what I'm getting.
| | 03:59 | So, what's happening now is you're
seeing video captured by the SLR.
| | 04:02 | It's a little bit cropped, so you are
not seeing the full view that I am.
| | 04:06 | So, you can see my bee here, and right away,
you can see how shallow depth of field is.
| | 04:10 | I am at 1600 ISO. I don't want to take my
aperture down much smaller than this, because
| | 04:17 | then my depth of field will go so shallow,
I'll have to do a tremendous number of shots.
| | 04:21 | So, I am right in here. You can see I've
tried to position the bee, so I can see his face
| | 04:26 | a little bit. We've been struggling a little
bit with getting the light right off of his wings.
| | 04:31 | You can also see that I can't actually see
very much about my composition, because depth
| | 04:35 | of field is so shallow.
| | 04:37 | It looks like those highlights on the
wings, particularly this wing on the right side,
| | 04:41 | it looks like those highlights are too bright,
but I don't know if they really are. It may
| | 04:44 | just be that the defocusing is smearing them
out to be much bigger than they really are.
| | 04:49 | Very often, when you're focus stacking with
depth of field this shallow, you're simply
| | 04:53 | going to have to put a stack together, see
what it looks like, refine your shot, refine
| | 04:57 | your lighting, put another stack
together, see what it looks like.
| | 05:00 | So, this can take a long time to get a good
shot out of this process, because you can't
| | 05:05 | get a final visualization of your scene
until you do the whole thing. And, it can take an
| | 05:09 | hour to put one of these things together.
| | 05:11 | So, the next step is to configure this box.
| | 05:15 | Now, the stack shot controller lets you work
in a lot of different modes for specifying
| | 05:20 | how you want to define the steps to happen.
| | 05:22 | I'm in auto distance mode, and what that lets
me do is tell it how wide I want each step.
| | 05:29 | I gave it a start and stop point, and it just
figures out how many pictures it needs to take.
| | 05:33 | What you'll see here is I have got a cable
going from the stack shot box to the stack
| | 05:37 | shot rail. I have another cable going from
the stack shot box into the remote control
| | 05:41 | port on the camera, so it's going
to take the pictures for me as well.
| | 05:45 | Now, to get this configured, what I need to do is
first dial in the distance per step that I want.
| | 05:52 | I've looked up the depth of field on my
depth of field chart, and I'm dialing in a little
| | 05:56 | bit less than what it said, and now I've forgotten
what it did say. f/11 at . . . I said 3X, so that's 0.35.
| | 06:07 | So, I currently have a Dist/step (distance per step)
set to 0.16. I can actually increase that a little bit.
| | 06:15 | I usually go less than what the depth of field chart
says, because I want to ensure that there is overlap.
| | 06:20 | So, we'll go in here in about 290. I
just pull that number out of nowhere.
| | 06:26 | It's less than what I think I need, and
it is giving me a little bit of padding.
| | 06:36 | So now, what I need to do is
set my start and stop point.
| | 06:39 | Right now, it's saying start again. That's
because I have done one of these already.
| | 06:41 | So, I am going to tell it, "Yes
I want to start again." Oops!
| | 06:43 | Wait. No, I don't want to start again. I want
to change my settings. That's what I am doing.
| | 06:47 | It asks me to select the start position.
| | 06:49 | So, I am going to roll video here again,
so you can what I'm seeing on my camera.
| | 06:53 | What I want to do is find
my forward-most position.
| | 06:57 | I am going to use the forward and back controls
to move the camera forward and backward. That's
| | 07:02 | actually moving the rail, and you can see the
slice of focus move from front to back through
| | 07:08 | the bee as I move forward and backward.
| | 07:12 | So, I need to find the front-most point, which
is going to be one of those antennae, I think.
| | 07:17 | And, that looks pretty good, right there.
That looks like the first point of focus, so I
| | 07:22 | am going to select that, and now I
need to select the end position.
| | 07:28 | And, I am going to try and go all the way
through the wings, all the way to that fur on back
| | 07:32 | there, or hair on the back.
| | 07:33 | I don't know if bees have fur or hair.
| | 07:36 | For that matter, I really don't know what the
difference is between fur and hair, but that's
| | 07:39 | probably a question for another time.
| | 07:41 | So, that looks good. We are going to stop there,
and select end position, and now we are ready to go.
| | 07:45 | I have to take this out of Video Mode to get
this to work. And, let's think about exposure.
| | 07:50 | As I said, I am at ISO 1600. I'm at f/11. I
am going to half-press the shutter button to see
| | 07:55 | what the exposure is, and
it's about a 1/3 of a second.
| | 07:59 | So, between shots, the stack shot will take a
pause. It also takes a pause after it moves.
| | 08:06 | This is all to try and control vibration,
and all of those pauses are programmable.
| | 08:09 | So, the stack shot moves, there is a pause,
it takes a shot, there is a pause, it moves,
| | 08:14 | it pauses, and so on, and so forth.
| | 08:16 | I have programmed the post-shot pause to be
a little bit longer than default, so that I
| | 08:22 | can use longer shutter speeds.
| | 08:24 | I don't want it to trigger the step shutter, and
then start moving in the middle of the exposure.
| | 08:29 | I also don't want my exposure to be too long.
| | 08:32 | So, I have dialed in some under-exposure,
just using Exposure Compensation.
| | 08:35 | I am locked down at f/11, but to try to get
my exposure a little bit longer, I am going
| | 08:40 | to go to one stop under -- I am sorry, to
get my exposure a little bit shorter, -- just
| | 08:44 | because I've got a better
chance of reducing vibration.
| | 08:47 | So, I think I am ready go. I do this in Live
View Mode, because that will further reduce
| | 08:52 | camera vibration, so I'm
going to tell it to start.
| | 08:55 | Now, you are going to hear a lot of whirring
when I do this, because the first thing it's
| | 08:57 | going to do is pull the
camera back to the start position.
| | 09:02 | So, it's coming back to the start. It's
pausing, pausing for a long time there.
| | 09:09 | It just took a picture. Now
it's moving forward, pausing again.
| | 09:12 | It's going to go through this for 27
frames; I can see that on the display here.
| | 09:16 | It has calculated that, for the distance
that I want, it needs to this 27 times.
| | 09:21 | I am shooting in RAW plus JPEG mode, because,
as I said, I can't tell a lot of things about
| | 09:27 | my composition until I get
this whole thing assembled.
| | 09:29 | Assembling the full 20 plus megapixel RAW
files will take a long time, and it's a drag
| | 09:35 | to go through all of that, and then find out, "Yeah, my
lighting is a little off. I should go do this again."
| | 09:39 | So, I set for RAW plus the lowest resolution
JPEG image with the best quality compressions.
| | 09:45 | So, then I've got some nice, small files that I can
merge really quickly. See what the outcome is like.
| | 09:50 | If I like the result, then I can just go
merge the RAW files, which is a more complicated
| | 09:54 | procedure, or I can come
back, reset, and try again.
| | 09:58 | Some other things to remember. We are going
to lose some area around the edge of the frame;
| | 10:03 | we encountered this in our last stacking exercise.
| | 10:06 | As we're pushing in, we are
inherently getting more of a crop on our image.
| | 10:11 | So, the only parts of the image that can be
completely stacked are parts where there is
| | 10:16 | image on all 27 frames, or similar image on
all 27 frames, so we are going to lose the
| | 10:22 | edges. So, I framed this little wide.
| | 10:25 | There might be times when it's better to set
the end point first, because on the end point,
| | 10:31 | you're going to want to be pushed in, or the
end point is where you're pushed in all the way.
| | 10:35 | So, sometimes it's better to set that point
first to find out what your final framing
| | 10:38 | is, and then back up from there.
| | 10:40 | So, if you're really concerned about having
certain details in your frame, push in all
| | 10:44 | way, and then zoom out a little bit to give
yourself that padding that you need, because
| | 10:48 | you're going to have to crop, then
come back, and set your first frame.
| | 10:52 | I'm working again with completely controlled
lighting, because some stacking software doesn't
| | 10:58 | like there to be an exposure
differential between frames.
| | 11:01 | When this is done, I am going to first
merge these together using Photoshop, so you can
| | 11:06 | see how that method works, then we will use
Helicon Focus, so you can see how that works.
| | 11:11 | Helicon Focus has the advantage of some
really nice retouching controls for post-production.
| | 11:15 | Photoshop has the advantage of 1) being
something you've probably already have, but 2) it's
| | 11:20 | not as picky about brightness differential.
| | 11:22 | I will actually do focus stacking just in
natural, uncontrolled light, and still get good
| | 11:29 | merges out of Photoshop. So, a lot of times I
defer to Photoshop, because I'm working during
| | 11:33 | the day, and I don't have a completely dark
room with completely controlled lighting.
| | 11:37 | It's finished. It has now pulled the
camera back to its original start position.
| | 11:42 | So, now we're ready to take these out of
here, and see how they merge together.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Merging a focus stack with Photoshop| 00:00 | So, I've taken my massive data, my huge
stack of images, out of my camera, and copied them onto
| | 00:05 | my computer. I am ready to
start the merging process.
| | 00:08 | I am going to do that using Photoshop CS6.
| | 00:11 | Now, if you are using an earlier version of
Photoshop, you might still have the same feature.
| | 00:15 | You can find out by going to the Edit menu,
and seeing if there is an Auto-Align Layers,
| | 00:20 | and Auto Blend Layers. Doesn't matter if
they are grayed out; you just need to have them
| | 00:24 | there. If you have got them there, then
you're going to be able to follow along here.
| | 00:27 | I'm going to switch over to Bridge now, where I am
browsing the folder, where I copied all of my images.
[00:00:3.15]
As you will recall, I shot RAW+JPEG.
| | 00:35 | My idea was merging raw files takes such a
long time that, because I don't know yet if
| | 00:42 | my shot really works, I would also shoot lo-
res JPEG files, so that I could get a quick speedy
| | 00:47 | merge to find out if my lighting is okay,
if I like the shot, if it set up well.
| | 00:51 | So, that's what we are going to do.
We're going to merge these JPEG files.
| | 00:54 | First thing I would like to do is get all of
the jpegs into one folder. You can do that any way
| | 00:58 | you want. You can go to the File Manager of
your Operating System, and move them. I think
| | 01:01 | there's an easy way to do that in Bridge,
which is I am going to go to the Filter tab
| | 01:04 | here, and tell it to Filter for
JPEG's. That shows me only the JPEG images.
| | 01:09 | Now, I'm going to select all, and go to File>
Move to, and I am going to create a new folder,
| | 01:17 | inside the folder where my RAWS and JPEGs are.
| | 01:20 | I am going to create a new folder called jpegs,
and move my files into there, so that's going
| | 01:26 | to get them all into one place.
| | 01:27 | So, now I'll just navigate over to that folder.
And here we go. I have an entire folder that's
| | 01:33 | nothing but JPEG's.
| | 01:35 | Now, I want to you to watch something. I
had told you before that we needed to pad our
| | 01:41 | composition with some extra space,
because as we push in, we will be cropping.
| | 01:45 | You can really see that here if you scroll
through the images. See that? You can see how
| | 01:49 | the zoom goes in. I am going to lose a lot
of detail here on the left side. I am going
| | 01:54 | to lose a lot of that wing. I am going to
lose some stuff down below. Basically, my final
| | 01:59 | image will probably have this composition. We
are just getting a little close to his face there.
| | 02:04 | But we will see. We might
have a little more than that.
| | 02:07 | Lets take a look at a single one of the images.
I am just going to preview it here in Bridge,
| | 02:11 | and you can see that, sure enough, my depth
of field is razor thin. The antenna here
| | 02:16 | is in focus, but not all the way to the end, and
there's not much else that is. And remember, this was at f/11.
| | 02:24 | So, I should have pretty deep depth of field at
a normal scale, but here Macro goes razor
| | 02:28 | thin, so this is a fine
candidate for focus stacking.
| | 02:31 | So, here's what I do. I am going to select
all, and then I am going to up to the Tools
| | 02:34 | menu, and choose Photoshop>
Load files into Photoshop Layers.
| | 02:39 | Now, if you worked through the manual focus stacking
lesson that we did earlier, you've already seen this process.
| | 02:45 | What this does is it creates a new
Photoshop document. It takes each one of those files
| | 02:49 | that I have selected, and
that puts it in its own layer.
| | 02:52 | Now, I'll be able to manipulate, and combine those
layers into a finished image that has deep depth of field.
| | 02:57 | In the manual lesson, we did that by
hand. Fortunately, here we don't have to.
| | 03:01 | So, it loaded those pretty quickly, because
they are such lower resolution JPEG's. First thing
| | 03:06 | I need to do is get them all aligned.
| | 03:08 | As you saw from that push in with each
image, different details in the image are in a
| | 03:13 | different part of the layer, so I
need to get all those lined up.
| | 03:16 | Click on the topmost layer in the Layers
palette. And then, I am going to scroll down to the
| | 03:20 | bottom, and Shift+Click on the
bottom layer that selects them all.
[00:03:2.01]
Now, I can go up to Edit>Auto-Align Layers,
and I am going to take the Auto Projection,
| | 03:30 | which will attempt to find the best way to align
these. And, in my experience, it always does a very good job.
| | 03:35 | So, it's now shifting the layers around, trying to
get whatever details it can find lined up together.
| | 03:41 | It is then, in our next step, going to do what
we did by hand earlier. It's going to create
| | 03:46 | a layer mask on each layer, and it's going
to fill in that layer mask to reveal only
| | 03:51 | the parts of each layer that are in focus.
| | 03:54 | When the whole stack is viewed, with each
layer stacked on top of each other, with these
| | 03:58 | layer masks in place, I should have an
image where everything is in focus, so at least
| | 04:01 | most of the bee is in focus.
| | 04:05 | The downside to this technique is that if I
want to make a change to one of those masks,
| | 04:09 | it's very difficult to figure which mask
has the change, and which mask needs to be left
| | 04:13 | alone. This is an advantage of Helicon Focus,
which we will see in the next movie. All right!
| | 04:18 | It's done. And, that looks pretty good. You can
see that I have got this extra space around
| | 04:22 | my image here. That's because Photoshop had
to expand the canvas size a little bit. But
| | 04:27 | we're going to crop all
that out anyway, so it's okay.
| | 04:30 | My layers are still selected. Now, I'm ready
to just move on to Edit>Auto-Blend Layers.
| | 04:35 | You might have used the Auto-Blend Layers
feature before if you've shot panoramas, and
| | 04:40 | stitched them in Photoshop. This is the exact
same tool. But instead of using the panorama blend
| | 04:44 | method, I'm going to stack images. And, you'll
notice that that came on auto already selected.
| | 04:50 | Photoshop does a good job of
figuring out which one needs to be selected.
| | 04:53 | I'm just going to hit OK, and
it's going to set off to work.
| | 04:57 | Now, as I said before, I'm doing these lo-res
JPEG's, because I don't really know for sure that
| | 05:01 | my final image works here.I don't know how
these highlights on the wing are going to look.
| | 05:05 | I don't how to final crop is going to look.
| | 05:07 | If I like the result, then I
will go back, and merge the RAWS.
| | 05:12 | This is a pretty simple stack we're doing
here, As complex as it is, and, as much
| | 05:17 | data as we generated for it -- this is
around 2GB of data just to get this one image.
| | 05:21 | 2GB of data, and all this processing for a
single image, -- as simple as it is or as complex
| | 05:26 | as that is, it's actually pretty
simple compared to some stacks.
| | 05:29 | If this bee was much
larger, well, it would be real scary.
| | 05:33 | It would also be a more difficult stack,
because doing those really deep depth of field moves
| | 05:39 | can be tricky to merge, because it's so
much data. You might have 175, 200 images.
| | 05:45 | I find, very often, that even with these lo-res
JPEG's, I can't do all 175 or 200 layers at one time.
| | 05:52 | So, I will divide things into groups.
I'll do 25 layers, or 25 images, at a time.
| | 05:58 | I will load 25 images, merge them, save the
results, get the next 25 images, merge those,
| | 06:03 | save those results. And, at the end, I might have
25 interim documents that I then load into
| | 06:09 | Photoshop, and merge to get my
final, completely merged image.
| | 06:14 | One thing to know about that technique is
it is possible. There is a limit to how much
| | 06:20 | depth you can shoot in a focus stack.
| | 06:23 | Sometimes, if you do too far push your
geometry in, your scene will just change too much, and
| | 06:27 | Photoshop won't be able to align and blend them.
| | 06:31 | At other times, there might be a foreground
element that blurs out to such a large degree
| | 06:36 | that it starts to obscure the details that
are further back, and you can't get a good merge.
| | 06:41 | So, doing really, really deep merges can be
difficult, and you very often need to experiment.
| | 06:46 | Here we are. This is our final merge, and
it looks pretty good. Look, it's sharp all the
| | 06:50 | way through. Boy, you can really get a
sense of the papery texture of the wing.
| | 06:54 | Check around the edges here. There are these
areas that are blurred and weird. Those are
| | 06:58 | areas where we didn't have data in every single
layer, because as we pushed in, we effectively
| | 07:04 | got to pan to the right a little bit.
| | 07:07 | So, that's going to have to be cropped.
| | 07:09 | Now, something else to notice as I zoom in here.
| | 07:12 | First of all, I notice that these are very
dirty. Second, I notice that focus is really
| | 07:18 | good. It really did get sharp all the way
back. That said, there are some curious little
| | 07:22 | focus artifacts here.
| | 07:24 | This is soft right here. This is soft. There
is a patch of softness right there. And there.
| | 07:30 | You'll find these throughout the
image. There's another one there.
| | 07:33 | I've never been clear on if this is simply
an artifact of the merging process, or if
| | 07:37 | it means that I didn't have
my slices overlapping enough.
| | 07:41 | So, I might want to try and experiment where I
go to a smaller interval, and shoot more shots.
| | 07:47 | I'm starting to believe, as I do more of
this, that it's actually just a merging artifact,
| | 07:50 | and it's always going to be there.
| | 07:52 | Now, I can fix this by flattening the image,
and going in with the Rubber Stamp tool,
| | 07:57 | and trying to hand retouch
some of those blurry areas.
| | 07:59 | Fact is, I don't think this is really going to be a
problem at any reasonable print size. You're
| | 08:04 | just not going to notice it.
| | 08:06 | Now again, this is not our full data set. This
is just the lo-res JPEG image. Even that . . . look
| | 08:11 | at all the detail we have got on his eye here. I
can actually see the little compound bits.
| | 08:16 | But we've got more data if we want it. We
have those raw files. I am not going to do that
| | 08:20 | merge now, because it will take a while.
Instead, I am just going to pull out the finished raw
| | 08:24 | image that I merged earlier,
| | 08:26 | and let you see just how much more
detail there is to be had. And, here it is.
| | 08:32 | This is the full pixel count raw merge. And,
if I go into 100% . . . Wow! I can get a lot closer.
| | 08:38 | So, we can see a lot more detail in there.
I could print this image very large. This is
| | 08:42 | Canon 5D Mark2 that I am shooting
with, so it's about 21 megapixels.
| | 08:47 | I would also say, though, that as I get into 100% --
I was shooting this image at 1600 ISO, -- I am not
| | 08:53 | crazy about the noise that's in here, not
because I think it's going to be that visible,
| | 08:57 | but because it limits the amount of sharpening
that I am going to do, and this image definitely
| | 09:02 | needs some sharpening.
| | 09:03 | Let me quickly call up the Smart Sharpen
dialog box, and you can see that if I go too far, I
| | 09:08 | am going to start exaggerating that noise.
| | 09:10 | So, I think I would like to
try another one at ISO 800.
| | 09:14 | I've still got the rig set up the same way.
I don't have to on to anything other than
| | 09:17 | dial ISO down to 800 make sure my
exposure is correct, and start the stacking process,
| | 09:22 | because the Stackshot control box
still has all the correct settings in it.
| | 09:26 | Nevertheless, even if I, even if that doesn't
turn out to be much better, I think this is
| | 09:30 | a really nice image. The
noise doesn't bother me.
| | 09:33 | So, next steps would be, maybe I would want
to play with the lighting a little more. I think
| | 09:38 | it's okay. It might be nice to have a
little more light right on the front of the bee.
| | 09:40 | I could possibly do that
with a reflector over here.
| | 09:44 | But that's basically the focus merging process.
I start with the JPEG's to see if my image
| | 09:50 | is right. If I need to redo
something, I redo it. If not, I merge the RAW.
| | 09:54 | If I do redo the image, and it turns out to be okay,
then I'll probably just go and start with the RAW file.
| | 09:59 | One thing to know is I had some trouble
getting the RAW file merged. This is a MacBook Air.
| | 10:03 | It's a speedy little computer.
It has got 8 Gigabytes of RAM.
| | 10:06 | But when I threw 27 RAW files at it, it choked.
And, it choked because it didn't have enough
| | 10:11 | scratch disk space.
| | 10:12 | So, I hooked up another hard drive.
| | 10:15 | And, I have taken care to kind of architect
my scratch disk settings. I have my scratch
| | 10:19 | disks to be set on one external
hard drive and my internal hard drive.
| | 10:22 | And, I have got my source
data on yet another external hard drive.
| | 10:27 | That's so that it's not reading the data from the
same place that is reading and writing scratch disk.
| | 10:31 | That simply speeds things up, because it is not
have to do all these different seeks on the same drive.
| | 10:37 | 27 images is enough that I can merge all of
them at once on this computer if I have enough
| | 10:42 | scratch disk space. If I was doing a hundred
images, then I probably would've needed to
| | 10:46 | have broken it into different steps.
| | 10:49 | Because we were shooting with controlled
lighting, Photoshop is not our only option for doing
| | 10:53 | this merge. We can also do it with Helicon Focus.
| | 10:56 | As I mentioned earlier, one of the great
advantages of Photoshop is that it can work with images
| | 11:00 | with a great brightness differential. That's one
reason I like it, and it's where I do most of my merging.
| | 11:05 | But for times when you have controlled
lighting, you'll probably find that Helicon is much
| | 11:09 | faster and easier, and we'll look at that next.
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| Merging photo stacks with Helicon| 00:00 | In the last movie, you saw me merge my bee
stack with Adobe Photoshop. This time, I am
| | 00:05 | going to use Helicon Focus.
| | 00:07 | I'd like you to see the difference between both.
| | 00:09 | Helicon is very reasonably priced.
| | 00:11 | If you do a lot of focus stacking, it's something
you may want to consider, because it can sometimes
| | 00:17 | work a lot faster than Photoshop. It very
typically can handle a large data set more
| | 00:21 | easily than Photoshop can to break things into
batches, and do as many intermediate steps.
| | 00:26 | And also, it can run a little more unattended.
You start it up, and you just let it go.
| | 00:31 | With Photoshop, you've got these three
different steps that can each take some time.
| | 00:35 | So, I'm going to go ahead, and just merge my RAW files,
so that you can see the final, finished image there.
| | 00:40 | I am going to switch over to Helicon Focus.
| | 00:41 | It's a pretty simple interface. I want to
start by choosing some Source Images. So, I
| | 00:46 | am going to hit the plus (+) button, and I
am going to just navigate to my RAW files,
| | 00:51 | and select them all, and hit Open, and
you are going to see them come pouring in.
| | 00:55 | You've got to be careful in Helicon that
you don't tell it to just take the contents
| | 00:59 | of a folder, if there is something in that
folder besides just the images you want.
| | 01:03 | For example, I have that folder full of JPEGs.
It would have tried to have loaded those also,
| | 01:08 | and it would have gotten confused.
| | 01:10 | As you saw earlier, when we used Helicon
Focus, when we're running Helicon Remote, I have
| | 01:14 | a few different methods for doing the stack.
The default is Method B (Depth Map), and I
| | 01:21 | am just going to stick with that.
| | 01:23 | Sometimes a different method can get
you around a brightness differential.
| | 01:28 | There are finicky, technical
reasons used one over the other.
| | 01:31 | I find that, for the most part, they all work just
fine, so I am going to go ahead, and choose Render.
| | 01:36 | And, it's going to start loading the things.
And, it's going to start merging them. And, we
| | 01:39 | are going to see the image build
up. And, it's going to take a while.
| | 01:43 | There is a progress bar down here that
shows its progress as it barrels along here.
| | 01:50 | So, you see it loading them. After awhile,
like we saw earlier, we are going to see an
| | 01:53 | image begin to appear.
| | 01:55 | Again, the reason that I would choose to
use Helicon over Photoshop is if I have shot
| | 02:01 | with controlled lighting, it's just going
to be faster and easier. But I am very often
| | 02:05 | not shooting with controlled lighting, just
because of the nature of where I shoot. At
| | 02:08 | home, I am using window light a lot, and it
almost never works with Helicon Focus, because
| | 02:13 | there is too much brightness differential, in
which case I will switch back to merging in Photoshop.
| | 02:18 | The other big advantage of Helicon Focus is
this Retouching tab here, which lets you do cloning.
| | 02:23 | In the last movie, you saw that there can be
areas that are a little bit blurry, a little . . .
| | 02:27 | that haven't been merged with actual detail.
| | 02:31 | It's much easier to fix those in
Helicon Focus than it is in Photoshop.
| | 02:35 | So, this is barreling along, and while it's
doing that, I am going to switch back over
| | 02:40 | to Bridge to show you something else.
| | 02:42 | If you have sensor dust on your
image, you may see something like this.
| | 02:47 | This is earlier. I mentioned that when I was
in the kitchen, I tried shooting some orange
| | 02:51 | peel, and it turned out to be
kind of a boring image. This is it.
| | 02:54 | It kind of looks like a close-up of a
Cheez-It to me, actually, but maybe I am just hungry.
| | 02:58 | Notice these weird little patterns,
repeating patterns of black dots. That's sensor dust.
| | 03:07 | And, the reason it's repeating is because, as
I pushed in, the position of the sensor dust
| | 03:12 | on the image got moved, so I am getting these
perfectly-replicated patterns of sensor dust
| | 03:18 | marching across my image.
| | 03:19 | Took me a while to figure that's what it was. I
then went and cleaned my sensor, and everything was okay.
| | 03:24 | So, if you see this kind of
thing, that's what it is.
| | 03:27 | You can clone this out of the image, and I
had no trouble doing that. It's just a whole
| | 03:31 | lot of extra work, so there is no reason
not to clean the sensor, and try it again.
| | 03:36 | Here you see these defocused bits,
like you often see in focus stacked merges.
| | 03:40 | This, I believe, was just a merging error. This was
not a function of having a bad interval defined.
| | 03:47 | So, if you see these sorts of
things, head off, and clean your sensor.
| | 03:52 | And, here we go. Helicon has finished.
| | 03:55 | As you can see, that was much faster than
using Photoshop. I've got decent depth of field
| | 04:00 | all the way through. But check this out. The
antenna is not as sharply rendered as it was in Photoshop.
| | 04:08 | In Photoshop, I had a little more detail in here.
| | 04:12 | So, what I am going to do here is use
Helicon's Retouching tab to fix that blurry problem.
| | 04:19 | What's curious about it is that I know
there was a source image where that part of the
| | 04:23 | antenna was in focus. It's one of the first images that
I shot. In fact, it's how I established my start point.
| | 04:28 | I am going to click on the Retouch tab, and what
happens here is I go into a split screen view of my image.
| | 04:34 | On the right, I am going to see my final
output image, and over here, on the left, I see the
| | 04:38 | currently-selected source image.
| | 04:40 | So, let me zoom in. And, I am using Command+Plus
(+) to do that, just like I would in Photoshop.
| | 04:46 | I'll make my window a little bit bigger, and that
will give me the opportunity to zoom a little bit more.
| | 04:53 | So, what I'm seeing here on the left side
is image 8964. What I am seeing on the right
| | 04:59 | is my final composite.
| | 05:01 | Watch what happens if I come down here
farther in the stack. We will see the foreground go
| | 05:05 | out of focus on the source image, and our
focus, our area of focus has moved back here to
| | 05:14 | further on the bee's back.
| | 05:15 | So, I am definitely in the right zone with
my source image. I am going to just click
| | 05:18 | on that. And now, you see that I've got
identical cursors in both windows tracking the exact
| | 05:23 | same piece of geometry.
This is basically a clone.
| | 05:27 | If I now click and paint along the sharp part of this
antenna, it's copying that data into my final image.
| | 05:36 | So, this is a way that I can go back to
specific images -- I think I am going to grab this stuff
| | 05:40 | also, -- and just cherry-pick data, pull areas
of focus into my final image. So, it's a really
| | 05:47 | nice, easy tool for doing retouching, and this
is very often a way of fixing those strange
| | 05:54 | little areas, like we've
seen, that can be out of focus.
| | 05:57 | So, and I think this is interesting, in the
Photoshop version, we were out of focus here,
| | 06:02 | and here. Helicon computed that better, but
it may have its own little areas that it messed
| | 06:08 | up, such as the antenna.
| | 06:10 | This maybe looks a little weird to me. I don't know
what that stuff is, so I think I'll clone that out.
| | 06:15 | So, I can really go through here, and easily
touch up the image by pulling data from specific
| | 06:19 | images into the final. This is one
of the great advantages of Helicon.
| | 06:22 | You also saw that it chomped through those
27, or whatever it was, RAW files, and merged
| | 06:28 | them very, very quickly.
| | 06:29 | So, if you're serious about focus stacking,
you are going to want to take a look at this.
| | 06:33 | One of the nice things about their pricing
structure is you can buy a license that lasts
| | 06:36 | a year, or you can buy a
license that lasts forever.
| | 06:41 | And so, if you're finding that you just
have a focus stacking project that you need to
| | 06:45 | work on, and then you're maybe not going to
go back to it for a couple of years, you don't
| | 06:47 | have to spend a whole bunch of money.
| | 06:49 | So, an excellent focus stacking
alternative that's well worth the time to look into.
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| Understanding the aesthetics of depth of field| 00:00 | Throughout this course, I've been defining
shallow depth of field as a problem, as something
| | 00:04 | that you are kind of constantly
fighting when you are working at macro scale.
| | 00:08 | Now that you've seen focus stacking, you have a
solution to that shallow depth of field problem.
| | 00:14 | But does that mean that every image you shoot,
when you're working macro, needs to be really
| | 00:18 | deep depth of field?
| | 00:19 | Obviously, if you are shooting a moving subject,
or if you are out in the field, focus stacking
| | 00:22 | is not always an option, but here in the studio
it is something you could try to do on every shot.
| | 00:27 | But should you?
| | 00:28 | Take a look at this.
| | 00:30 | Our Director, Jacob Cunningham, shot this
great shot of a bee, and I was looking at it, and
| | 00:35 | thinking, "That's a really great shot of a bee."
| | 00:38 | But I love the texture on the ball, whatever
that is, that seed pod think that the bee is
| | 00:42 | standing on. And, I thought, "Well, it would be
cool if there was some more depth of field
| | 00:46 | underneath the bee."
| | 00:47 | So, I started to rebuild the shot, and came
up with this -- and obviously I don't have the
| | 00:52 | lighting right, here -- but here is one with really
deep depth of field, and it doesn't work as well.
| | 00:58 | So, I started fiddling with the lighting some
more, and as I did, I found that actually going
| | 01:04 | back to a shallower depth of field, having
less of the ball, and focus was creating a
| | 01:08 | more evocative image.
| | 01:09 | What this picture really needs is the
backlighting that Jacob had in his shot. I ran out of time
| | 01:14 | before I got to there.
| | 01:15 | But you can see this as an example of shallower
depth of field creating a more evocative image.
| | 01:22 | As I had more deep depth of field, it's
almost like there was too much information. There
| | 01:26 | was less for the viewer to do, and the
image became less mysterious and evocative.
| | 01:32 | Now, here is the opposite problem.
| | 01:34 | I was shooting this rose, and as you
can see, I was just shooting it head on.
| | 01:38 | And, as I was looking at it more, I was thinking,
"What does this image need? Maybe I need to
| | 01:42 | soften some of those darker shadows in there.
Get some light in there to make the image less contrasty."
| | 01:47 | And then, I realized what was actually
really striking me about this image, or about this
| | 01:52 | rose, was how soft and pillowy
those folded-over petals are.
| | 01:58 | So, I went in closer.
| | 01:59 | So, here is a single shot. And, here I am in
real close to just one bit of form within
| | 02:06 | the rose, and I have got very, very shallow
depth of field here. And, I began to wonder
| | 02:09 | if I should focus stack it
to get deeper depth of field.
| | 02:12 | I did that, and I came up with this.
| | 02:15 | Now, this doesn't have
completely deep depth of field.
| | 02:18 | I could do that. I could continue to merge
them. I just had to merge these in batches,
| | 02:22 | because there were so many of them.
| | 02:23 | I could take the depth of field all the way
to the back, or I could go softer. And, it raises
| | 02:27 | an interesting question.
| | 02:29 | What had struck me about the image was the
softness of the petals, the pillowy texture,
| | 02:34 | how gentle they were.
| | 02:35 | So, you could think, "Well, I need shallow depth
of field there, because that's going to create
| | 02:40 | an even softer image. It's going to smear
the texture off of the image, and create a
| | 02:43 | really gentle, soft, pillowy scene."
| | 02:49 | The thing is the rose has that inherently. I
don't need to add to it. I don't need to simulate
| | 02:54 | it. I don't need to exaggerate it.
| | 02:55 | This is a case where I think going to the
deeper depth of field image actually works
| | 02:59 | better, because the rose itself is the soft,
pillowy thing that I was trying to capture.
| | 03:04 | I don't need to soften it
further with shallow depth of field.
| | 03:07 | However, I don't think I want to go to the
full, deep depth that I could, because there
| | 03:13 | is also a scale characteristic
involved in shallow depth of field.
| | 03:19 | If I go to deep depth of field all the way
through this rose, I'm going to lose the sense
| | 03:23 | of how small the scene is, because our eyes read
shallow depth of field as something very small.
| | 03:30 | That's why this trick works. This was shot
with a tilt shift lens, which allows me to
| | 03:36 | really play with depth of field. You've
probably seen this effect. It's this little toy effect.
| | 03:39 | So, what was actually a landscape ends up
looking very, very small, because our eye is used to
| | 03:46 | shallow depth of field, meaning small scale.
| | 03:49 | So, if I keep the shallow depth, some shallow
depth of field in the rose, I will keep that,
| | 03:53 | sense of correct scale about the size
of the object that I was working with.
| | 03:58 | But I don't want to go so shallow
that I'm now kind of editorializing.
| | 04:04 | The rose itself is soft. It doesn't need
any more depth of field. This is the
| | 04:09 | exact opposite solution to what I found
with the bee, where too much depth of field gave
| | 04:13 | me too much information, and I didn't need it.
| | 04:15 | So, just because you have the power to shoot
extremely deep depth of field doesn't mean
| | 04:19 | you should do it all the time. You're going
to be facing a lot of aesthetic choices as
| | 04:22 | you work with this new skill set.
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ConclusionNext steps| 00:00 | If you've watched all of this course, you should now have
a solid grounding in the foundations of macro shooting.
| | 00:06 | But, just as gazing into the fine details
of a small subject reveals a world of deeper
| | 00:11 | photographic possibility, so can
your macro study now go much farther.
| | 00:16 | From here, you will want to work towards a
deeper understanding of macro lighting, natural
| | 00:20 | lighting, light modifiers,
strobes, continuous lights.
| | 00:24 | You'll also want to build up a skill set
of specialized macro shooting practices.
| | 00:28 | Insects, flowers, tiny animals, and macro
product photography all require specialized techniques
| | 00:33 | and skills that build on the
foundations that you've seen here.
| | 00:37 | But, as with all forms of photography, the most
important thing you can do right now is practice,
| | 00:42 | not just to develop the necessary skills
required for macro shooting, but to train your eye
| | 00:47 | to recognize macro potential, and to better
understand how to use the macro visual vocabulary
| | 00:53 | to build up an image.
| | 00:55 | Because macro photographs can be found
anywhere, there is never a reason that you can't do
| | 00:59 | a little macro practice.
| | 01:00 | So, turn your eyes to the smaller
details of your environment, and have fun.
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