Aw, come on... There are many ways or means to an end. No right way, no wrong way, and just your own way. Just remember to review and refine your way as you try it out and improvise. I'm not a techie but I adore hi-tech stuff and I do harness technology to improve my chances of capturing 'good' images. Contrary to usual proper macro techniques, I seldom use a tripod becos I love shooting insects more than flowers. And insects do move! I use high ISO like ISO 800 up to ISO 1250 to capture most of my macro images. Yes, AF and handheld which is why I love my 100mm f2.8L IS USM Macro lens so much. That is me with my way and popping those E-TTL flash to increase my chances of a keeper. Just remember to keep your flash diffused and off the camera.
(PS: when you plan to do focus stacking, tripod is a must!) Update: When the above setup is complemented with a monopod, the keepers dramatically increases!
"Studio Wasp"
Canon 5DMK2 + EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro with Raynox DCR150 + 580EXII. Tips: I had to unlearn what I’d learned about shooting macro with tripod. Believe me, finding and focussing tiny moving target with the camera stuck on a tripod is a real pain and headache. How about shooting hand held + flash and manual focus? A technique I used is to set the lens to manual focus (set to minimum focus distance) and start rocking backward and forward to get the target in focus. I'm not suggesting that you tango around and look like a fool. 'Rock' slowly and when the target is in focus, fire a few shots continuously! I also prefer manual exposure for consistency especially for flash photography. The E-TTL flash does the magic here, so try to use it when possible. The E-TTL flash exposes the foreground automatically. PS: Do not get me wrong, if you can use a tripod and track a moving target, it would be optimal but for me it is hard and just me! Another thing to mention is this shot was taken in broad daylight and the fact that the background is dark is because I used a small aperture (large f #), fast shutter speed and E-TTL flash. The E-TTL exposed the foreground (the hornet) and aperture/shutter speed combo kept the background under exposed. You got the idea of "Studio Hornet...eh.. Wasp" now?
Bangkok
