# Macro tips?



## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

Hey! FIRST THREADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!! haha coool!

Anyways, I just picked up a 85mm nikkor micro lens. Any tips on getting good macro shots? I want to see the hairs on my shrimps legs.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> I want to see the hairs on my shrimps legs.


That made me lol for some reason.

Tip 1: use a tripod.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Congratulations getting the first thread into the new forum!


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Tip 2: Use a Tripod. It's such a good tip it needs two slots.

Stop down you aperture to the lens sweet spot F8, F11, F16 to get a shaper image but to get a fast shutter speed you will need a flash and off camera flash will do it best.


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

Yeah, got myself an off shoe flash and a tripod. I never thought about stopping down the aperture though since I really want the bokeh in the shots. Would you still get it if you stop it down to that small?


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## williamsonaaron (Jan 27, 2010)

First set up a tripod....lol.... then turn off auto focus. Manually set your focus to the area the shrimp you want to capture is you will probably need a flash mounted on top of the tank to get enough light for a fast shutter speed. Then wait for the shrimp to come into the area you have focused and click away.


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## williamsonaaron (Jan 27, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> Yeah, got myself an off shoe flash and a tripod. I never thought about stopping down the aperture though since I really want the bokeh in the shots. Would you still get it if you stop it down to that small?



You will still get bokeh in the shot. even at aperature of 8 the depth of field on a micro lens will be very small probably even frustratingly so.


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## AesopRocks247 (Jan 15, 2010)

I shoot in f32 and 120-160th of a sec with the flash on top of the tank pointing down into the tank


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## AesopRocks247 (Jan 15, 2010)

You want that sucker as small as it'll go, and I also shoot hand held I never use tripods.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> Yeah, got myself an off shoe flash and a tripod. I never thought about stopping down the aperture though since I really want the bokeh in the shots. Would you still get it if you stop it down to that small?


It really depends on the lens and the how far away the background is to the subject. In a fish tank your background isn't going to be that far away so if your looking for that blur effect you probably won't get it at very small apertures. But I do agree using small apertures will give you a better chance of getting the focus correct, but you'll also need more light.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

You will definitely need a flash stopped down and will not get a boken like shooting wide open or maybe none at all, if you have a good camera you might be able to up the ISO a good bit before the quality starts to suffer.

There are so many variables shooting tanks, mine has a 1/2 inch of green glass so I have to be at 90 degrees to the glass or everything is distorted and the green robs all the light. I started a thread of links and the aquatic site has good info.


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## FinalJenemba (Dec 2, 2011)

As a pro photog I agree with all of the rules given above. That being said, I never follow a single darn one of them. :tongue:

Many macro lenses sharp enough they don't need to be stopped down. The only reason most stop down is to get more depth of field. Wide open, focus at 1:2, your dof will be basically a little more than a human hair. You can still shoot this way, it just takes allot of practice.

This shot for example, I took hand held, wide open a f/3.5, focused at 1:2 and no flash. This is not an easy shot to get, i've just been doing this for a long time, and had the patience to wait for it.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Funny how everyone has their own preferred method/settings.  

Congrats on the first post Tu!  

You like bokeh, shoot larger apertures, yes. Set your ISO to 100. Use an off-shoe flash every time for best IQ. You can manually set the flash for weaker bursts since you'll be shooting with larger apertures for bokeh, meaning you won't need as much light. The smaller the aperture, the more light you'll need from the flash. Try your best not to compensate by upping ISO since keeping a low ISO will yield you the best IQ (less noise). Then again with the high end camera bodies, that issue is kinda moot since they perform very well at high ISO ranges.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Every lens, macro or not has a sweet spot. Wide open usually isn't it.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

The aperture will also determine the depth of field of the object. Low aperture numbers = larger aperture and will let in more light, but have less depth of field in focus. High aperture numbers = smaller and will let in less light, but give you more depth of field.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

1. Macro lens
2. Tripod, the more adjustable, the better
3. Shutter release cable
4. Decent sized memory card because you will take a lot of shots for that one or two awesome keeper
5. Patience!!!!


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Here's one for you when you setup the tripod. Depending on the height you need always start extending the legs from the upper portion first. Get what additional height you need next from the lower legs and last from the center column. Those upper legs are thicker and stronger. And steadier.


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## zdnet (Aug 13, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> I just picked up a 85mm nikkor micro lens. Any tips on getting good macro shots? I want to see the hairs on my shrimps legs.


I found that very easy shooting with a Nikon D90 through a 60mm micro lens. Make sure you have a powerful flash like the SB-900. Shoot with aperture priority and the lens stopping all the way down. Use the camera's auto focus to ensure precise focus. The following was captured at F/32:













IWANNAGOFAST said:


> I never thought about stopping down the aperture though since I really want the bokeh in the shots.


For the lens that you have, you need to stop the aperture all the way down to avoid vignetting. Chromatic aberration also improves as well. See the test report at:

http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/523-nikkorafsdx85vr?start=1


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

What setting do you set the flash to?


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> What setting do you set the flash to?


If you use a radio trigger for the flash you'll get the best shots but I just have $20 setup so you loose all TTL capabilities but just play with the flash at 1/4 power, 1/2, etc. until you get close and then you can fine tune but it will be different for everyone depending on the lights in the room and on the tank. 

Did you see the link for the aquatic flash setup, it takes some nice shots from what I've seen at the link.


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## zdnet (Aug 13, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> What setting do you set the flash to?


I let Nikon's CLS drives the SB-900's flash level. Just put the SB-900 on remote mode, set the D90 internal flash to commander mode, and then plug in the SG-3IR to prevent any glare from the internal flash.


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

so this is my equipment

nikon d3100
nikkor micro 40mm (will soon get 85mm)
sb600 with remote trigger

I keep getting a black bar on the bottom half of the picture...


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## zdnet (Aug 13, 2010)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> so this is my equipment
> 
> nikon d3100
> nikkor micro 40mm (will soon get 85mm)
> sb600 with remote trigger


The D3100's internal flash does not have a commander mode. To have the camera's CLS drives a remote flash, you need either a flash cable or a commander unit like the SU800.

When you stop the 85mm's aperture all the way down you will get much better image quality than the 40mm micro, at least according to the test report at:

http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/674-afs40f28dx?start=1




IWANNAGOFAST said:


> I keep getting a black bar on the bottom half of the picture...


Seems to me the flash was not strong enough or the shutter was too fast to capture enough light.


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## TickleMyElmo (Aug 13, 2009)

IWANNAGOFAST said:


> so this is my equipment
> 
> nikon d3100
> nikkor micro 40mm (will soon get 85mm)
> ...


That means your shutter speed is too high. With Nikon the usual limit is 1/250 or 1/320 with high speed sync, but third party triggers can lower the limit, so start with 1/250 and go lower until the black bar disappears...


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

The short duration of the flash will effectively freeze the action more than the shutter speed.


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## Ibn (Nov 19, 2003)

Slap a pic up so we're seeing what kind of results you're getting.

You can skip the tripod. Learn to control your breathing and start getting used to pivoting back and forth.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

150EH said:


> There are so many variables shooting tanks, mine has a 1/2 inch of green glass so I have to be at 90 degrees to the glass or everything is distorted and the green robs all the light. I started a thread of links and the aquatic site has good info.


That green can be easily compensated for in a photo editer. I use IrFanView for most of my quick and dirty color channel edits of my tank shots. I can use my old copy of CS2 if I really need to do some element selection layers, but haven't bothered yet as my P&S camera doesn't have any off camera flash abilities I'm aware of and I just use existing light.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

audioaficionado said:


> The short duration of the flash will effectively freeze the action more than the shutter speed.


Very true.

How many people do you think realize that there are actually 2 exposures happening with flash?


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