Macro Focusing Techniques
Hand Held Shooting with FHRS
Macro focus is not easy. This section presents techniques to help you achieve good focus. The first section involves using the FHRS technique to set your focus point and fine tune your focus right before taking the shot. If you still have trouble with focus, relax . . . one of our members developed a unique and effective Gorilla Pod technique which is presented after the FHRS section. Either and/or both will set you on the path to good macro focus.
Hand Held Shooting with FHRS
The highest degree of photographic flexibility and freedom is achieved through hand held shooting, but what you will learn is that subject movement, blowing wind and photographer movement will cause motion blur easily and noticeably in macro photography. And, the more you zoom, the more pronounced the motion blur becomes. FYI: in photography circles, this is known as "camera shake".
So you may think that using a tripod or other camera stabilizer is the solution to camera shake and you would be correct. However, using a tripod is awkward, restrictive, and rigid. Hand held shooting gives you total freedom to change camera angles, zoom level, angles to the light source . . . it is a delicious liberty so we shall now look at ways to help improve your hand held focus.
1 - Set your camera to Program Mode (P Mode). For bright light, select ISO 200. For lower light, select ISO 400. These higher ISO settings will force a faster shutter without significant loss of image quality. The faster shutter will reduce blur.
2 - Use the FHRS focusing technique. This stands for Focus, Hold, Recompose, Shoot. It's a little camera trick which allows you to tweak and refine your focus right before taking the shot. Below is a video which demonstrates how to use FHRS for hand held macro work.
3 - The more you zoom, the more you magnify camera shake, so when you're starting out with hand held macros, limit your zoom to 3x and increase it as your skills improve.
In conclusion, since hand held shooting gives you the highest level of freedom and creativity in your macros, use higher ISO, FHRS and lower zoom to help you achieve hand held macro excellence. Once you improve, crank the zoom and lower the ISO.
They say that practice makes perfect and that saying holds very true in macro photography so spend lots of time practicing . . . even in the house with small objects lying on your kitchen table . . . this kind of practice is just as valuable as practice in the field.
A Novel and Effective Focusing Method
When Elise Cotter began using her LBS lens, her focus was far from perfect. Due to surgery, she experienced a great deal of shake in her hands. One day, she began posting high zoom macros of small hoverflies with absolutely magnificent focus, and I asked her how she achieved such improvement. She explained that she developed a unique method of using a Gorilla Pod (a small tabletop tripod with flexible legs) which provided her with the camera stability she needed for nicely focused shots while at the same time preserving the flexibility and maneuverability of hand held shooting.
She simply wraps two of the flexible legs around her wrists and that extra support worked wonders for her focus. The 3rd leg is left free, but can also be used as a support against a stationary object if one is present at the venue.
She simply wraps two of the flexible legs around her wrists and that extra support worked wonders for her focus. The 3rd leg is left free, but can also be used as a support against a stationary object if one is present at the venue.
Her results were so impressive, I asked her if she'd be kind enough to contribute an explanation of her method for me to share in this blog. So we now let Elise explain her technique to us, but before we do, have a peek at her hoverfly macro. Quite impressive, wouldn't you agree?
Stabilising
The Camera With An Adapted Gorilla Pod Technique.
by Elise Cotter
Following hand surgery, I was left with a pronounced ‘shake’ in my left hand. This made focusing for macro images nearly impossible. I needed to find a way to stabilise the camera, reduce shake, improve focus, but also required the device to be easy to use and extremely portable.
Traditional camera tripods were not easy to use, as they are rigid, with little flexibility, and, whilst being excellent for many photographic situations, did not lend themselves well for macro photography.
I really just stumbled upon the Joby[TM] Gorillapod, and immediately realised this was what I needed. This is a tripod, but extremely flexible at each joint of the 3 legs and base. It screws into the base of the camera like all tripod attachments, and has a locking mechanism. It can twist, swivel and adapt to many positions and uneven surfaces, through its ‘jointed’ legs. It comes in various sizes and colours.
By wrapping 2 of the legs around my wrist, this stabilised the camera, dramatically reducing shake, yet giving me a great amount of flexibility and range. The 3rd leg I rest against my wrist/inner arm as a further support, but can use this as a ‘stabilising leg’ if I want to further steady the camera for very close up/macro shots. By extending the 3rd leg against a hard surface, the ground, a tree or any other surface, I can further increase camera stability. Once you get used to the Joby [TM] GorillaPod ‘hugging’ your wrist, you soon learn to swivel and move the camera into any position to optimise your shots.
I am certain everyone would have different positions for this, which is more comfortable for them. However, the above technique works very well for me, and has significantly improved my overall image quality, focus and camera stability.
Below is a photo of how I attach the Joby [TM] Gorillapod to my wrist. The 3rd leg is stabilising the entire camera/hand against the rim of the pot in this shot. Where no hard surface is available, I use the 3rd leg against my inner arm/wrist as the support structure.
Thank you, Elise, for taking time to explain your innovative and remarkably effective technique!
Using FHRS to Set Focus Where You Want It
Here's a tutorial I wrote for jewelry artisans, but the lessons can likewise be applied to nature photography. You can use FHRS to shift the focus anywhere you would like it to be (which in many instances is different than where the camera thinks it should be).
Even when using a tripod, people are mystified when the camera reports that the scene is in focus but in the actual photo, the focus is in the wrong place. This happens because the camera's auto focus system is not necessarily on the same page with you. FHRS gives you the ability to make corrections and set the focus where you want it.
In this first photo, I placed the bracelet in the center of the scene and let the camera do its thing. As you can see, the texture of the cloth underneath the center of the bracelet has a very nice focus, but the beads in the front of the bracelet are blurry.
To get the focus where I want it to be, I again placed the bracelet in the center of the scene, but this time, I pushed the shutter button only half way down to the focus detente and then I held it there.
While holding at the focus detente, I backed the camera up until I saw the lead beads come into perfect focus in the monitor and then I pushed the shutter the rest of the way down to shoot. Problem solved.
