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How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

Started Jul 4, 2016 | Polls
Photogrrr Regular Member • Posts: 369
How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

Assuming one is photographing moving subjects of course, how commonly do folks employ focus trapping in macro photography?

I've just recently tried exploring a bit of macro (bugs, bees, and other moving things), and I'm curious whether focus trapping is useful or practical in this context.

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Nikon D750 Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.8G Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F4G ED VR Nikon AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED
POLL
I use focus trapping all the time, and it works well for me.
23.1% 3  votes
I've tried focus trapping, and not found it useful for macro.
7.7% 1  vote
What's focus trapping?
38.5% 5  votes
I haven't tried focus trapping because it doesn't work for macro subjects.
15.4% 2  votes
I've tried focus trapping, but wasn't happy with the results.
7.7% 1  vote
I shoot macro using full-time servo AF.
0.0% 0  votes
I get better results using other focusing techniques.
7.7% 1  vote
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BBbuilder467 Veteran Member • Posts: 7,057
Re: How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

Photogrrr wrote:

Assuming one is photographing moving subjects of course, how commonly do folks employ focus trapping in macro photography?

I've just recently tried exploring a bit of macro (bugs, bees, and other moving things), and I'm curious whether focus trapping is useful or practical in this context.

I'm not sure what you mean. With trap focus, as in sports, you can pre-focus and wait for the subject to come into the frame. With macro, you're already in manual focus and might have a fraction of a millimeter that's in/out of focus. I can barely "trap" a flower in a slight breeze. The slight delay from a TTL flash can be a problem if I or the subject moves.

That might work for hummingbirds or butterflies with a long telephoto lens, but that's not macro.

OP Photogrrr Regular Member • Posts: 369
Re: How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

BBbuilder467 wrote:

Photogrrr wrote:

Assuming one is photographing moving subjects of course, how commonly do folks employ focus trapping in macro photography?

I've just recently tried exploring a bit of macro (bugs, bees, and other moving things), and I'm curious whether focus trapping is useful or practical in this context.

I'm not sure what you mean. With trap focus, as in sports, you can pre-focus and wait for the subject to come into the frame. With macro, you're already in manual focus and might have a fraction of a millimeter that's in/out of focus. I can barely "trap" a flower in a slight breeze. The slight delay from a TTL flash can be a problem if I or the subject moves.

That might work for hummingbirds or butterflies with a long telephoto lens, but that's not macro.

Yes, it would seem that the depth of focus is not sufficient for such an approach to be feasible in macro work, which is what I suspected.

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Nikon D750 Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.8G Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F4G ED VR Nikon AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED
gardenersassistant Veteran Member • Posts: 9,656
Re: How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

BBbuilder467 wrote:

Photogrrr wrote:

Assuming one is photographing moving subjects of course, how commonly do folks employ focus trapping in macro photography?

I've just recently tried exploring a bit of macro (bugs, bees, and other moving things), and I'm curious whether focus trapping is useful or practical in this context.

I'm not sure what you mean. With trap focus, as in sports, you can pre-focus and wait for the subject to come into the frame. With macro, you're already in manual focus

Not necessarily. I use autofocus almost all of the time.

I occasionally (by accident) get something like focus trap when photographing something that is on a leaf that is being blown around. I press the shutter button but the subject has moved before the focus has locked on but the focusing mechanism remains engaged and a little later (perhaps as long as a second, perhaps even longer) focus locks and an image is captured, with the subject in focus. It's rare though, and so not something I could use as a routine technique, and the centre of focus probably isn't exactly where I wanted it anyway (I have never checked).

and might have a fraction of a millimeter that's in/out of focus. I can barely "trap" a flower in a slight breeze. The slight delay from a TTL flash can be a problem if I or the subject moves.

That might work for hummingbirds or butterflies with a long telephoto lens, but that's not macro.

Macromeds
Macromeds Veteran Member • Posts: 3,986
Re: How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

An exercise in futility 99.999% of the time.

petrochemist Veteran Member • Posts: 3,615
Re: How commonly is focus trapping used in macro photography?

I very rarely use it but there have been a couple of occasions where I couldn't see through the viewfinder & I used it with much better results than I'd have acheived otherwise.

I think focus trapping is fairly rarely used in any field of photography!

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