Posted: 5/3/2013 2:02:19 PM EDT
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Camera body Canon_T3i I have been looking at getting a macro lens I take ALOT of pics of jewelry ( I know it is not small enough to be considered true macro) Other than a light box, does any one have any tips for type of macro photography? Advice? Tips? Gear recomenations? Sample photo 
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| Dedicated macro lens are so worth having. I'd recommend something in the 100mm range rather than the short 60mm versions. They give much longer working distance which makes your lighting job vastly easier. Don't be afraid of a manual focus lens either, you'll likely want to focus manually anyway. Remember also that your going to be shooting at pretty tight apertures just so you have SOME depth of field. |
| From what I know great glass tuned to the camera body will help any photo and will really help with macro. Tripod with remote shutter or use the timer. If your doing it hand held be aware of every move you make and shoot a ton to get that one shot that is sharper than the rest. |
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Its all about lighting . I like using strobes but its often tough to eliminate the reflections when taking pics of jewelry
For small product , continuous lighting ( WYSIWYG ) works well Choose your LED light color temperature carefully. If you don't plan to mix with daylight etc then it doesn't matter as much since you can correct in post I like the Eiko brand in 5000K to 5500K ( close to daylight ) Focus : focus in manual F Stop : don't forget the depth of field when you are so close ( read up on hyperfocal distance ) is very shallow. This is why most macro lenses will close down to F32 ! I rarely shoot above F11, the exception is macro work The downside of that is now , required SS go up, which is why tripod is often a must. That is one reason I prefer to use strobes, since I shoot anywhere from SS 125 to as much higher ( I use Pocket Wizard ( Hypersync ) trigger which allows much higher sync speed ) Lighting Experiment with the lighting. Very easy to get creative , especially with product photography...it doesn't care how long you are taking ! ) . Example is no symmetrical lighting ( this is where strobes are much more versatile than continuous ) , using gel on speedlight to add color, lighting form below with product sitting on clear lexan Equipment - spend your money on lighting . Any decent macro lens ( Tokina 100mm is amazing bang for buck , also Sigma 150 ( non OS version ) can be had for a bargain ) Should always use a tripod ( a geared head such as Manfrotto 410 is far better than a ball head for small product photography ) . The reason is not so much the SS , since you can often shoot relatively high SS, but rather the DOF is so freaking shallow , even at mid F stops, that your swaying back and forth will bring the picture in and out of focus. This is why serious macro guys us a focus rail For example, taking pictures of spiders on web are tough if there is any wind, since the movement will bring the subject in and out of focus. The blurry shot is not due to the SS not being able to stop movement Here is quick sample shot with Sigma 150 , F9 1/80 SS , ISO 200 with studio strobes This picture is cropped in about 75% cropped in form original. No PP done yet except for cropping and rotating 
Should always shoot in RAW since most macro lenses are capable of razor sharp image. If you start off with a sharp RAW image, you can crop like crazy and still get usable pictures 
You can see how shallow DOF is, since trigger spring is sharp, the end of the alignment tool less so |
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You'll want a good lens for starters. I like how I can be farther from the subject when using a 105mm lens compared to a shorter focal length like 60mm.
Off-camera flash is useful, or at least a way to bounce light on the subject. A steady tripod. Eventually you may be interested in focus stacking. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Eventually you may be interested in focus stacking. Just looked this up and it sounds interesting. I'm going to have to try it, thanks. Yeah, the depth of field is incredibly shallow in many macro applications. Helicon makes focus stacking software that you can try for free for a while before deciding if you want to buy. The "Remote" utility lets your computer run your camera. The "Focus" software creates a single image from the in-focus parts of all the images. |