My first Macro lens, and one I plan to keep

SignUpsDot said:

Here are two images that I have shot on a 600D. Due to low light, I had to bump ISO speeds, so detail is not that great.

Click to expand...

Nice selective focus. Looks like you will get a lot of use out of this lens.

Enjoy!

R2

Thanks

When I first picked up my DSLR, I knew nothing. However, I always wanted to take macro shots, even though I had no clue that what it was called or that I'd need a lens for it...

Can't wait to use this sometime outdoors. Hopefully it snows soon.

SignUpsDot said:

Firstly, this lens is much smaller than I had expected. Videos and pictures made the lens seem rather large. However, it's really not a big package.

The focus on this lens is very accurate and doesn't hunt for focus like some cheaper lenses that I own. Build quality is good and it's weathersealed

Here are two images that I have shot on a 600D. Due to low light, I had to bump ISO speeds, so detail is not that great.

Click to expand...

You're going to have a lot of fun with that lens! Shooting macro with a really good lens opens up so many possibilities. Definitely checkout focus stacking for shooting macros. It is a technique for increasing the very shallow depth of field encountered with macro shooting. The following shot was done using focus stacking - it was a series of 10 or 12 pictures taken varying the focus a little at a time from the closest point to the furthest point. Then I used CS6 to combine the shots into a single image. The flower was about 1-1/2 inches front to back and the depth of field at f8 was only a few millimeters.

Any video tut on it? I'm heard of this for landscapes but I never knew how to do it.

When I started doing it a couple of years ago I didn't find any tutorial videos but did find a number of articles about it. Recently I've tried Magic Lantern and Helicon Remote. Both have their strengths but Helicon Remote on a tablet is the easiest and fastest way to shot the series.

This was done tonight using Helicon Remote. Focus point A was on the tip of the nose and Focus point B was on the furthest away point of the tail. With the step size set to 14 (depth of field for f8) it took 6 shots.




Focus Stacking via Helicon Remote and CS6

You may also like to investigate specialist flash units for macro such as ring flash or twin flash units. You will probably have to get an adapter to use them on the 100 L as the filter thread is larger than on the 100 or the 65. They make life a lot easier in all but the brightest lighting. However if you get into insect photography, some of which have shiny exteriors, you will need to learn how to diffuse the light from flash units so it doesn't create burnt out highlights. Getting the flash heads very close to the object can help.

Once you get into macro you keep finding you have to learn new techniques to get the best possible images but it can be very absorbing.

My 1st macro was the 50 . when it broke , I went to the 180 . [ In between was the suck-oh-matic 70-300 macro ]

Now I mostly use the 70-200 mk II and crop .

I've got the old non-L 100 f/2.8 macro and love it--envy your top of the line macro! I've also used it for video and was very pleased.

As others have said, look into focus stacking. It is super easy and I often do it handheld, then use CS6 to stack 6-8 quick shots into a single image:

I love the pocket watch shot!