How to Focus in Macro Photography
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- In this video, I'll show you how to focus in macro photography. I'll give you six different methods you can use to nail focus every time!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:41 Auto-focus
4:00 Manual focus
5:15 Move the camera
6:15 Use the focusing points
7:45 Live view
8:55 Focus peaking
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Your little jumping friend is so well mannered. I hate spiders but I don’t know why, I love theses.
Thank you
Focus peaking, manual focusing and camera movement are my main methods for macro shots also.
Stewart, my name is Christopher Soulé. I am an American photographer who lives in Brazil. I would just like to thank you for taking the time and hard work in making this essential video!
Thanks for the great video Stewart! Bungy sat perfectly, I’m really impressed he posed the whole time and wonder how he is so tame 😍
great job - very helpful, sharing the bloopers reminds me of how much work goes into these productions, thanks again
Auto focus is becoming my favorite focusing method on the Fujifilm XT-4 especially for fast moving subjects such as bees.
Auto focus is the best method for me. I’m happy with that.
I always use focus peaking on the a6000... It' becoms really handy. Thanks for your content👍
Thanks so much this helped alot!
Perfect Photos and focus
Very informative - thank you!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,really helpful
This is a big help, thank you
Hey Stewart Great video something that I know my students are very interested to master with all these options you presented will help. Thanks mate.
I have clicked the thumbs up even before I watched the video... and I'm not wrong... Thanks.
Great as usual!
Thanks Stewart, some good tips here, not heard of focus peaking before going to try now. Thanks Phil
Another excellent video. Thank you.
Hey Stewart, I use manual focus on my Sony with focus peaking and magnify. At the mid level of intensity of peaking it is not that useful in magnify, but if I up the intensity of the peaking to high you can use focus peaking at the first level of magnify. Great teaching as per.....
I love this guy.. very inspiring and helpful.... Thank you mate xx
My pleasure
Great thanks
Great video thanks for the details
Brilliant.
Excellent video.
Thanks
Excellent Tutorial 👌👌👌
My preferred way is moving front and back.
Thank you very very much you help me out I'm just learning
I found your channel by chance, since I will start photography ofmacro world. Thank you very much for giving me your knowledge and time. Your videos are very good; understandable, direct, enjoyable. All very well. The best. Regards from Chile.
Camera movement and focus peaking are the best for me. I'm able to do both on my old-fashioned D850 DSLR!
Love the outtakes
One more Canon focusing technique, if 1) your lens has autofocusing, 2) your subject is static, 3) you have a tripod to use.
Use the Canon "EOS Utility" software (download from the Canon web site, and install), connecting your camera to your computer via USB. Use the "Remote Shooting" option. It has completely granular control of the focus mechanism in your lens (as well as most other camera settings), and you can see your subject on your computer screen in what's essentially Live View. You can zoom in your view 5x or 10x (the same as with Live View). You can adjust your focus by fractions of a millimeter (it seems like about 1/10 mm). You can take a single shot or make a focus stack, saving images to your camera's memory card or to your computer. You can also preview your depth of field (and so test out different f-stops).
Very powerful. Does much of the same as a focusing rail, but easier to use.
I am equally impressed with your jumping spider training skills as you brilliant tutorials mate. He sat perfectly. I'm struggling to nail good focus with my 60d and it doesn't have lens calibration settings. Thanks again. Don't stop with the out takes either 👍
Thank you :)
If you have a 60D, you could take a look at Magic Lantern (www.magiclantern.fm/). It's a bit technical, but has an excellent feature called Focus Trapping which, when in manual focus mode, will fire the shutter as soon as your targeted point comes into focus. It has all the advantages of manual focus with a hint of autofocus to help with getting things pin sharp. I miss that functionality on my newer canon.
Thanks for the great and informative video, good job!!!
I love messing about with macro photography. I only have a Nikon D3300, some lens reversing mounts and a set of extension tubes, but it's still great fun.
I think the blur/focus failure rate of 80 or 90% is perfectly acceptable. Mine's closer to 97%! Why don't I mind? Because I started out in photography in the pre-digital film era. Today's photographers might not appreciate just how lucky they are.
Imagine struggling with light meters and exposure tables and tape measures and conversion factors (no computers or on-board camera brains back then) and taking hundreds and hundreds of multi-bracketed exposures, with no instant feedback, no idea what they looked like, then waiting three or four days for them to be developed and printed (at enormous expense!).
Every numbered exposure needed to have had a detailed hand-written description of the settings you'd used (so that you could repeat the successes and avoid the failures in future). Even then, the 3 good -ish shots from 200+ useless ones were usually just a tiny bit out of focus...
Aaargh!
So digital photography is wonderful. 😁
Very helpful!
Excellent video, thank you, got my 90mm macro lens this week and applied your advice.
The result are amazing. I did had some practice in the past with my 70-200mm which has a 0.3 magnification. But 1:1 is on another level, these two lenses will always be accompanying me on my future hikes in nature.
That spider is better trained than both my Schnauzers. I first thought it was fake and surprised how real it looked.
I use a Nikon d5500 and use camera movement to focus when out and manual focus indoors. When the camera is on the tripod I do zoom in when focussing. Turning the beep on is a great tip, thanks.
Fantastic video and very helpful! I am new to Macro photography but love it! I am struggling with focus. I have been using the back focus button and then taking the photo. I think I was using the 'focus ring' and not moving my camera in and out so I will try that. Manual focus only.
Very helpful! Thanks for sharing 🙂🙂
Glad it was helpful!
You can bring focus peaking future to almost any canon camera with magic lantern , I have a canon 6d and it works great
Excellent, thank you.
Thanks.
Hi Stewart I am new to macro and new to your channel, I love the fact that it is warts and all and showing your bloopers at the end makes the viewers feel less like failures and that no matter your skill level nobody gets it right every time
Thanks and welcome
Hi Stewart I would like to ask your advice I see you like the platypod products I was thinking of buying the handle and mounting directly on the tripod on its lowest setting so I could sit and not have to kneel then use an elbow attachment to hold the subject on a stick and then use 2 goose necks to holdd do u you our background cards the camera set up is the canon R7 100mm L series macro lens speedlite 430x ii and cygnustech diffuser do you think this would work for sleepy bugs and can you give where is the best place to get it ?
@stephenmarsh883 it should work fine, I do it all the time.
Recently started photography to help with depression and finding your channel really helpful in learning the basics of macro. I’ve just started to use back button focus and found it to be a real game changer on the 7d mark ii.. Any idea when you’ll be releasing the hard copy backgrounds?
Thanks a lot, very helpful. I can't believe the little fellow stayed put throughout the video.
Thank you this helped me so much
Glad it helped!
Fantastic
I just bought raynox msn202 for my m50. It was really hard to get focus. I think camera movement is most fit for me. Big thanks 👍👍👍
Thank you for another informative video. Having recently bought a mirrorless camera I’d agree that the focus peaking is brilliant. Also having the ability to see the shot reviewed in the evf means that there is no need for ‘chimping’ allowing you to stay on the subject until you have the shot you want. I didn’t think I’d be an admirer of mirrorless but am now a convert. It certainly is right for my photography, whilst I accept it may not be right for others.
Mirrorless is great :)
on my eos r, i start with autofocus. when I
i have something generally decent i switch it to manual with focus peaking. i usually use the rings for both focus and aperture then snap the pic.
Really one of the best demonistrations I've ever seen ... Thanks a lot brother❤
Glad you liked it
Living in S> Africa on the boarder of Kruger have done a lot of wild life photography.. however the park has become so busy I have / am moving to Macro. Using manual with my Canon 60D with Sigma 105 macro lens... You have explained options very well.... some of which I have never used or heard of. Please continue.... as am bookmarking your tutorials.
Thank you :)
Thank you, very helpfull tutorial.
Glad it was helpful!
Great informational video for a beginner like myself. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic video thanks so much
Thank you.
Thanks Stewart, nice video.
Thank you.
Many thanks, you did the job excellently.
Thank you
Loved it
Thank you
Howdy Stewart, Thanks for the great videos. I’ve found that with either my 5D4 or 90D and 100mmL; along with Yongnuo YN24EX, I have a satisfactory handheld keeper rate using the AI Servo mode and back-button focus. I’m no “spring chicken” so my steadiness isn’t up to a surgeon’s level anymore but I'm very happy with this method. By the way, you got me hooked on Jumping Spiders :- ). Most of my Jumping Spider shots are in the wild but during the lockdown, I “re-homed” a few P.audax and now have dozens of spiderlings hatching. Oh; I too, can confirm that the Canon 90D is capable of Focus Peaking.
Stewart, thanks for this video. It helps a lot to hear that also you have 90% blur pictures. What also helps is to adjust time by time the diopter settings and ensure that your eye "is in sync" with the camera and lense. ;-)
Great tip!
Thanks so much!
You're welcome!
Great video thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
With my EOS 70D and the Laowa Lens, I only use manual focus and the focus beep (which doesn’t always work with this lens for some reason). But Focus Peaking is another reason to upgrade to the EOS RP or R6.
Such an amazing channel. IM buying a fuji x-s10 collecting all the information i can from your videos, should be fun, and i think the fuji x s10 should be amazing for macro.
Happy New Year! Thank you so much for this video. I'm just starting my business to sell my handmade products, and I need all the help I can get with my horrible photography skills.
Great video Stewart! I have a question not related to the focusing techniques but regarding your subject. How come your jumping spider stays put, i.e. does not jump? I caught one in my yard the other day and i put it on a table and it jumped a couple of minutes later.
so that’s a real live spider just chilling?! lol
Maybe it’s some kind of European spider spiders we have down here in Florida move way too much for focus stacking or did he spray it with something I don’t know
@@timothyhancock5364 It’s a jumping spider. They’re one of the most intelligent spiders in the world. That one was probably just very comfortable
Thanks, very helpful.
Thanks
One of my favourite things about my old 60D was the fact that you could install Magic Lantern firmware on it and use the Focus Trap functionality on it. That would then fire the shutter automatically the moment your focal point came into focus. It did a really good job in manual focus mode when just rocking the camera backwards and forwards. Unfortunately, the newer cameras dont have a Magic Lantern firmware version to install.
Also, worth mentioning that on a mirrored camera, you might want to use the diopter adjustment if using the viewfinder. If your eyes arent 20-20 then your images will be out of focus.
Bungee though 😍🕷
On mirrorless focus peaking works awesome
Thanks so much! Great tutorial. I just bought a Canon M50 and a 28mm macro lens. I’m a beginner and I’m having difficulty with manual focus. When I use AF, I can tap on the screen to set focus on my subject but in MF, I can’t do that. So how do I set focus on my subject? Do I move the camera? Thank you so much once again.
Hi Stewart, I like your setup. Do you have any suggestion to increase the work distance ? like 2x Extender ? Will it increase the working distance or magnification ?
Great video, man! Saludos desde Texas!!
Thank you :)
Hi Stewart, I'm new to macro photography and I love it! It's great to have you as a mentor and to demonstrate that it doesn't need to be technical all of the time... sometimes, just keeping it simple works best. For me, I find a combination of auto and manual focus works well. I let the camera hunt for a reasonable focus point and then either fine tune with manual or move the camera. Its amazing how little you need to move to get the shot..... It would be great to see a few videos on getting started and some camera recommendations for beginners like myself and then what to look for as you improve your equipment.... or have I missed that video? Many Thanks for the inspiration, my woodland walks are so much more interesting now. Chris
Thanks Chris, I have done some video about starting out in macro photography but some are old now and may need updating.
Thanks Stewart, I'll take a look. I'm sure they will still be relevant and add value to the start of my "journey".
For a moment I thought the jumping spider was just a prop until that thing moved. 🤣
Well trained 😃
Thanks for the video. It helped me reinforce what I had learned with experience and I learnt new techniques too. Other than that I noticed the attachment to mini tripod holding the clip with a screw for tightening. I havent been able to find it online. Any pointers for the attachment will be helpful. Thanks again.
It's a simple mini tripod with a aligator clip on it.
Liked and subbed, even though you didn't mentyion anything about the use of a macro rail/slide.
Good tutorial.
Thanks for the sub!
hi...thank you too much ... can i ask y ... what is the flash light y used? and can i use it with my canon 6d?
What make is your camera flash/ diffuser setup? Thanks in advance
I use the focus peaking a lot.
Useful post. Focus peaking not always spot on in Sony cams - I use manual focus and then magnify to nail it. Fuji cams have additional manual focus assists: split image and digital micro prism. Focusing rails, w/fine adjustments, can also help. Remember when some analog SLRs had interchangeable focusing screens?
I wouldn't know about the Sony cameras as I don't use them but the focus peaking on my EOS R is very good :)
Thanks
Welcome
Can we get a closer look at your dedicated flash set up please.
Thank you for your time and effort, I love trying macro but my hands are not as stable as they used to be. I use my camera handheld normally in my garden. If I am lucky 1 in 10 will be in focus. I find trying to nail the eyes of flies etc to capture the cells very difficult. I will give some of you techniques a try to see if I can improve. Your channel is great.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for all the advice. At first I wondered why that spider is holding still for so long and I assumed it was dead. No offense ;) But I was very happy to see it moving in the later parts of the video.
What is the flash name? It's really cool.
if using Af Can we use the images for
photo stacking?
Hi
How to you get peak focus on your camera please
I have a question though, sometimes even when theres some light in the scene it becomes extremely dark in the viewfinder. How do you focus on those situations? I had situations where I have the flash set to a good exposure, however i cannot see whats in focus in the image cause the f stop is at like 8 or 11, the iso is low... I can open up the apperture for like 3,5 or something but if I do this in macro, the object or the animal will only be like 10% in focus cause it's super close and theres a lot of depth of field
Well, this is a little old but the techniques haven't changed. I've been using Focus shifting but the first image needs to have critical focus. This upcoming Mushroom season I'll be using the Atomos 7" field monitor so I can zoom in and use focus peaking.
Focus peaking is the best :)
What is that flash set up called ? I have Sony A1
Nice one bud 👍
Thanks 👍
Hi Stewart, thx for video
in my camera menu (eos m50) are two level of focus peaking, high and low.
what is the difference and when should I use one and when the other?
I'm afraid I wouldn't know as I don't have the m50. best to try both and see what you like best.
I think you still see the autofocus myth rehashed from old camera tech. Modern cameras are capable as you say. I know a bunch of older models that are incapable. Great video as always.
good quality tips :)
Thanks! 🙂
easy for you to say :P
usually manual and move camera
peaking without a doubt, especially when you're old and gray, like me!
So true.
Never heard of focus peaking before. I like the idea of live view and zooming in but zooming the lens will wobble the live view screen too much. I also don't trust my eyes as nothing ever looks perfectly focused to me. I rely on single point auto focus unless it just won't work, then I do my best with manual live view.
Very interesting and detailed explanation! I'm a beginner and use a NikonD3400. Is the Canon camera you used in this video a mirrorless camera? Thank you.
The last camera I use is the mirrorless EOS R
How well does live view, or photo peaking work outdoors? Seldom get to use live view when shooting outside. Do you have any suggestions? Love your work and respect everything you have to say. Bill.
The focus peaking works great as you can see it in the EVF. Live view can suffer from bright sunlight so you may need to cover the screen to it clearly.
im just mind blown how is that jumping spider sitting so still the entire time?!!!!
Well trained!