Marvellous Macro page3

Mike McNamee returns to his roots in microscopy

until the correct zone becomes sharp and shoot. The focusassist light in your viewfinder is a boon if your eyesight is not top-rate (over 55? - forget it!) but for those with good vision, a plain ground glass screen is best (for youngsters – our old cameras allowed you to change the screens).

For field macro (eg insects) the problem of body movement is acute, the natural rhythmical movements of the body due to heartbeat, breathing and muscle twitching all play their part in destroying image sharpness. In the field, tripods and monopods make life very difficult, frightening shy insects and slowing things down. The only answer is to use flash (of short duration) combined with the highest synchronisation speed you have available. If you do not take care, even a 1/250 synch speed will be too slow. The problems of poor focus due to body-rhythm movement and to camera shake are different. Poor focus leaves you sharp, but in the wrong place, camera shake leaves you with images that are fuzzy, especially in insect wing details and the like.

Given that you are unable to lock down the camera in the field, stance is very important. Bracing against the knee or getting an elbow on the ground is very helpful (see the graph). Leaning over to reach an awkward subject or leaning out to a subject at the margins of say water and a sure way to guarantee fuzzy shots. If the subject is some distance away you are better fitting a teleconverter and finding a better stance further away. Whilst digital is a boon, in that you can afford to shoot multiple frames, you have to avoid simply arriving home with megabytes of rubbish because you thought ‘one of them might be OK’ and became sloppy with your technique.

Choice of Focal length

The choice of focal length is better than it ever has been. As you can see from the tables of specifications, you can purchase from 50mm to 200mm with the option of doubling your money with a teleconverter. Your decision is mainly dependent upon the required working distance, rather than perspective. Although the normal perspective rules apply at macro distances, we have yet to meet a wasp that was conscious of its nose looking too large on a 55mm lens rather than a 200mm.

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Photo Quote: Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. - Erica Jong