New('ish) Macro lens

[JeffH]

Some months ago I treated myself to a new Macro lens.

After much research and deliberation I opted for the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM as opposed to the Sigma 105 or 150 preferred by many of WAB's macro specialists. Why? - for several reasons but mainly because it has internal focussing; better build quality (in my humble opinion ); faster autofocus and because 2 out of the 3 Pros I talked to about Macro lenses said the Canon is a much better lens!

I know that some will disagree but anyway the decision has been made and although I've had little opportunity to use it so far this year I thought I'd throw myself into the lion's den and show you the results of some of my early efforts/experiments with it.

Most of the shots shown below were hand held, some with flash and all but one (the 1st) were taken in my own garden. I'm told that the 1st butterfly is a Brown Argus - I thought it was a Common Blue - and I spotted it whilst out looking for Grizzled Skippers on a local Wildlife Trust Reserve just down the road from my home. You'll see it's tightrope walking on a spider's web thread

Comments, advice and constructive criticism from some of WAB's Macro gurus would be most welcome (but please be gentle with me )

Jeff

[glsammy]

Not sure if I qualify under the Guru label..

I'll make no comment on your comparisons with my lovely, treasured, adorable Sigma 150mm!!

You've some striking images there Jeff, some let down mainly by image noise. You can easily remedy this though. Download Neat image of similar, it's a free download which you can use for images suitable for WAB. I use it all the time, I run just about every image I take through it.

Have a look at the Butterfly and the darter in particular. I assume on these at least you used quite a high ISO setting?

Here's your darter with a quick run through:


I also altered the contrast and brightness a little.

It's a shame the EXIF data isn't there with the images so we can see what aperture and shutter speed you used.
The Butterfly looks slightly out of focus, I think you must have had quite a slow shutter speed for this one, as you can clearly see the outline where the butterflies legs have moved.

I love the flower shots, the last one in particular is very effective.

[big bill]

Hello Jeff I think your shots are fine not done much macro/closeup photography myself still learning but the pics are all OK except for the 1st fly pic which Is slightly out of focus,reading the various photo mags they reckon on that you should use manual focus in macro as using auto could lead to the lens searching for the correct focus point.
Focus on the head in manual and try and stay on a level plane as the subject and the image should be sharp thru the image and try to use either a tripod or monopod if conveniant,but myself the shots are great except for the first fly well done no doubt someone else mat say something else just going by what I have read

[ron1863]

I also find Neat Image to be excellent and it's free. glsammy's improvements to the darter are a case in point.

[JeffH]

"Not sure if I qualify under the Guru label.." - you certainly do Graham

Thanks for your comments and very helpful advice Graham. I've never used any noise reduction software but will certainly download 'Neat image' as you and ron1863 suggest - your improvement of the Darter shot speaks for itself.

I think the noise is probably as much to do with overcropping as high ISOs as I was careful to avoid getting too close to the subjects so as not to disturb them - should have got the Sigma 150 perhaps

As for the blurring of the butterfly's legs - I think it was quivering with fear as it embarked on its tightrope walk

Like you I particularly like the 'Bleeding Heart' shot and, although I didn't know it at the time I took my shot, I see that the RHS Diary for 2008 has a similar shot on its cover.

Thanks also to bigbill and ron1863 for your helpful advice.

Jeff

[glsammy]

Big bills point about using manual focus is very sound. I rarely use auto with macro shots. Flash is also very useful, I find the built in flash is very good, allowing me to use pretty high aperture settings, say F16.0. DOF is always going to be a problem with macro shots, especially if your face on as in your first fly shot, so as high an aperture as you can get away with is a good idea. Don't be scared of using ISO 800 as well, especially if you've got neat image.

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by glsammy

Big bills point about using manual focus is very sound. I rarely use auto with macro shots. Flash is also very useful, I find the built in flash is very good, allowing me to use pretty high aperture settings, say F16.0. DOF is always going to be a problem with macro shots, especially if your face on as in your first fly shot, so as high an aperture as you can get away with is a good idea. Don't be scared of using ISO 800 as well, especially if you've got neat image.

Thanks again Graham. I downloaded neatimage immediately after my last post and I've been playing around with it - it's FANTASTIC!

Jeff

[Brocker]

Jeff, Great shots. A couple have increased noise and a couple are very slightly out of focus. This could be because they were taken without a tripod. I do not do a great deal of macro shots myself, but when I studied macro a short while ago it would apear it is almost imperative to use a tripod or equivalent. That way you will get that pin sharp focus. . . . Something is puzzling though. Are you using any editing software on these pics at all? The reason I ask this is because some of the images have the characteristic of being slightly over sharpened.

[matt_xyz]

Hi Jeff,

I would agree that one or two have a lot of noise, probably because they were underexposed and/or a high ISO was used, also I would partly put this down to them being oversharpened. Some may be heavily cropped as well? Neat Image is great, but it's best to try to avoid the noise in the first place. Sometimes this is difficult if a high ISO is needed, but avoiding underexposure is generally the best way to reduce noise particularly if you're shooting at ISO 400 or 800.

With a 100mm lens you should be able to get away with handholding images if the shutter speed is fast enough and particularly if you're not near to minimum focus. That said, you will certainly notice an improvement in the sharpness of your images if you use a tripod, and especially for images close to 1:1 reproduction e.g. small flies.

The shot of the mating beetles also shows you had a fair amount of dust on your sensor. This tends to be unseen when shooting birds at f5.6 or f.8 but rears its ugly head when shooting macro at smaller apertures.

For my shots I use a mixture of MF and AF, in the latter case I will generally select the AF point nearest to the insect's eye. If the light isn't great or if I'm working at 1:1 I will tend to use MF.

I should say that there are some nice shots there as well - the Gatekeeper and the Emperor dragonfly egg laying are both very nice. Keep practising Jeff and you'll soon have macro shots on a par with those Kingfisher images

Matt

[mh68]

Jeff, if you havent already, download the noise profiles for your camera model from the Neatimage website - theyre a lot more effective than just auto profiling an image.

Mark H