I have watched all of your RU-vid videos and am truly impressed with your knowledge and how you present your videos to us. You are a very inspirational young man who is happy to share the joys of macro photography and buglife. May your future with your dedication to your craft be a long and happy one.
Let this be said - I'm not even a third of the way through your video and I have learned things about macro and flash photography that were never taught to me over the last ten years of my photographic journey. You have a knack for this education thing Sir. Please continue making these types of educational videos as I am a huge fan of learning from quality educators. Now, onward to the remaining 2/3 of the video...
One of, if not THE best macro photography channels out there. Seriously. I've seen so many, too many! All of that could be spared with just watching your. Your presentation, the results- others simply cannot compare. Thank you. Atb from Norway
Wonderful video Alex, well explained especially flash duration which a lot of shooters either don't understand or don't explain well! This will be a great reference for people newer to macro, excellent stuff.
Yet another fantastic fact filled video for the macro beginner! I have enjoyed all your videos to date. Widel, Shahan watch out there's a new gun for hire on the block!
Thank you so much for putting out this tutorial. Now I have a better grasp as to how to use my flash in concert with my settings. You are a great teacher. 🎉
Very good video..I literally asked you this question yesterday in a comment on a previous video regarding flash settings for handheld stack. Thanks a lot
I'm a novice when it comes to macro photography with a flash, but it seems to me that this advice is spot on as long as you're using a lens with short focal length and the subject is close to the flash/diffusor. For those of us that uses macro lenses with long focal lengths and/or have more of a pseudo-macro photographic style (ie. less than 1:1) I think that the distance to the subject should be considered as the fifth setting. The reason is that effective flash power decreases very quickly when you move away from the subject, and a some point raising flash power will lead to harsh lighting in photo or an image that is not sharp due to movement of camera and/or subject. As an example, my Canon EF 180 macro has a minimun focus distance of 480 mm, and I find that using this with a flash is rather difficult, and even more so if I'm varying the distance to the main subject between shots (it's also difficult to make a diffuser that works at longer distances). In my case, I tend to only use flash for 1:1 macro, and natural lighting when using a longer lens. TLDR; when the working distance increases, the use of flash becomes more challenging.
This is a very helpful video. I have no idea what lens and camera to buy, nor flash, so a video about that would be helpful. Even if brands are not mentioned, features or specs would be very helpful.
Thank you for this amazing video. I can tell it required a lot of work. It’s the best macro settings video out there on RU-vid as of today and I’ve watched them all.
For single shots at MFT I go default for f8 and increase if needed up to f11. For bracketing my default is f4 and up to f8, depends how many stacks I am awaiting. With flash ISO 200, flash at default 1/16 and up to 1/32 (OM System).
Thank you for taking me to macro school Alex! I was battling the 'softness' of many an attempted macro shot. Felt like my succeeded images were slightly lucky single shots. Now, with your insights, I have some techniques to try out and improve my macro to gain some more control in the field. I will be sure to rewatch this from time to time while learning. Great stuff!! :)
Watched your video by chance. Like it very much and subscribed . I already know what you are explaining but for your age that’s extremely knowledgable. Keep it up
The perfect narrative structure! This video will be the most viewed on your channel. Thank you very much for the work done! I came to these rules myself in the process of practice. At first I couldn't do anything, but gradually the result became very good. In total, I usually have an aperture of 5.6, shutter speed of 1/200 (or 1/30 for the background), iso 100, and I balance the exposure with flash power. Thanks again for the video and greetings from Crimea!
Merci beaucoup! Cette video très riche est vraiment bien expliquée. Très bon tutoriel! Des exemples et explications parfaites. Un abonné de plus. Il faut continuer. 👌👍
Nice to see someone talking about slower shutter speeds and ISO to blend flash and ambient. I usually use manual flash when I am photographing subjects at similar distances. During some sessions I switch a lot between very close and more environmental compositions. In this case I find that ETTL -1 or -2 depending on the look I’m after to be less overhead than adjusting manual flash.
Apologies if I missed this, but how do you stack your images on the computer? Do you use a programme? Also I noted you did the focus stacking hand held.. I thought the camera had to be completely still on a tripod.. would love to know if hand held is good enough and the sacking software can still align? Thank you, your knowledge and clarity is fantastic, I have subscribed.
Great work! I think I saw that the camera shutter outpaced your flash so you had some darker images interspersed with well-lit ones. BI suppose that would be a good argument to take double or more the number of useable images you expect to need because you'll throw out at least half of them? ut that could have been and artifact of the video sync speed as well. Thoughts?
Excellent video, thank you. I have two questions: 1) What setting do you use for White Balance? I have been keeping my camera on Auto WB while using flash and am happy with the results. Perhaps the the camera is automatically using a 'Flash' WB, but in Lr it just shows the WB as 'As Shot'. 2) Are you stacking 'in camera' and then further editing the JPeg it produces, or are you stacking in post, and if so what software are you using?
Thanks! I use custom white balance at 5800k, which gives the most neutral wb with my setup. It's usually better for macro to have a set white balance to keep color consistent between shots, since the flash gives out a consistent color temparature.
Hey Alexis, Been following you for a short time now, and first congrats on your work, it's amazing and inspiring! I've got a few technical questions regarding gear and the capabilities of your camera(s) : - On instagram, you seem to have switched form a X-H2 to a G91 somewhat "recently", do you use them in tandem or is there a reason from moving from one to the other? (i' m currently on the hunt for a macro-oriented camera setup, and i'm looking for as much info as i can) - How do you mount your Laowa 25mm to the G91? I can't seem to find the right mount on the laowa website.. Is there an adapter? And if yes does it hamper your ability to do focus bracketing? - Regarding brands, i'm also eyeing an Olympus Em1, any opinion about their gear? I hope you don't mind all the questions, it can be a bit much answering to many comments. Keep up the great work, looking forward to your future pictures!
Thanks! Sorry it took me so long to respond, I'll do my best to answer those questions :) I swapped the other way around, I was using the G91 until early this year and felt it was time for an upgrade because I was generally feeling quite limited by the G91 for macro, partly by the 20mp max resolution on MFT but also the bad support of flash in burst mode and small buffer. The X-H2 solves all these issues with a 40mp sensor, 15fps burst with flash, a large buffer with the CFexpress card and lots more great features for macro.. currently I use the X-H2 for macro and the G91 for filming my videos and general photography, since I have lots of micro four thirds lenses. I have the Laowa 25mm in Canon EF mount and have adapters to Fuji X and MFT mounts. Bracketing isn't possible with manual focus lenses like the Laowa anyway as it requires autofocus to work, so that isn't an issue. The Em1 series is great, as long as you get the Em1 mkii or later they all include Olympus' great implementation of focus bracketing which is one of the biggest selling points of their cameras for macro.
Very good and comprehensive video. However, I think that you missed out the part about training the insects to stay still when you are doing the focus bracketing. Maybe they were frozen by the light of the first flash?
Thank you, Alex, for explaining your macro settings. In my opinion, the macro settings depend heavily on the system used (means find out what's the best you yourself). If I understand correctly, the depth of field with MFT is doubled by a factor of 2 compared to FF, which is a big plus. With my FF camera, the optimal depth of field ends at F11 (out of camera), after which only Topaz helps.
Sensor size makes no difference to DOF. DOF is a combination of only 2 factors, aperture and distance to subject. The reason smaller sensors appear to give more DOF is because at the same focal length you're shooting from further away which increases the DOF. Crop sensors do just that, crop. Nothing else, cropping does not change DOF. Gerald Undone has an excellent video about this you can find called "Does focal length & sensor size affect DOF?"
@@shanewilliams613 Thanks for the info, of course Undone's explanation is clear. If I understand correctly, that means the DOF is the same: FF/100mm, F11 corresponds to MFT/50mm, F5.6. I think I expressed myself incorrectly. The advantage of MFT is that you have a larger DOF with the same F-Stop. With MFT/50mm I get a DOF of 9.9mm at F11, I get this DOF with FF/100mm at f27 and as we know diffraction has a negative impact on the calculation (what I'm writing here is based on the assumption that diffraction depends on the F-Stop and not on the sensor size). But I'm a bit confused. Why? I have a DOF calculator, if I set a distance of 30cm for FF/100mm and F11, I get a DOF of 3.8mm. For MFT/50mm (equal FF/100mm, right?) and F5.6 (equal F11, right?) it is a DOF of 5.0mm. I get roughly the same DOF for MFT/50mm, F4, which means 3 F-stops. Perhaps the different aspect ratio between FF and MFT plays a role or the DOF calculator is calculating incorrectly.
@@markustappeser841 It gets very complicated. It took me a long time to wrap my head around it until I watched that video. Yes, you get more DOF at the same f-stop, but that's only because you're going to be shooting from farther away with the same focal length. Equivalencies etc are complicated, as the size of the photosites impact noise and diffraction as well. I suppose the main thing for me is that it's a common misconception and sated by a lot of shooters that you just get more DOF from crop sensors which just isn't the case, so if you shoot FF you are not at a disadvantage. It's just different working distances and field of view. The main thing is to shoot at your sharpest aperture for the kit you have and get as many pixels on subject as possible so you get max detail and cropability. At the end of the day it makes no difference to DOF what kit you do that with as you can't beat the laws of physics, but crop sensors certainly give you a lot closer field of view while maintaining a decent working distance, and of course many other benefits like size, weight and price.
Please don’t change anything about your videos. The combination of narrative and stunning images is as near to perfect for presentation you can get….I did miss the soothing music though 🙂🤙
Quick question....are you doing focus bracketing with the Fujifilm XH2 and the manual Laowa lens? I believe this focus bracketing is not possible on lenses without autofocus am i right ?
Sorry I missed this earlier, yes like you said bracketing isn't possible with manual focus lenses. I stack manually by moving the camera forward to change focus while taking a burst
It was my first time seeing one of your videos! I really enjoyed it. Your directions are very precise into the point. You said that you've done focus stacking in the past. Which video was it. I'm sure I will get to it sooner, Or later, but it would help if I knew which video it is. What camera are you shooting with, and what flash is that? What model of the defuser are you using? New subscriber to your channel!
I show bts of focus stacking in basically all my videos, any of the "macro walks" episodes would be a good bet. I haven't done a tutorial on the technique yet, but will definitely do that at some point. I always put the equipment I use in the caption of my videos.
I use manual focus as my lens is manual focus only, but on my old setup with an autofocus lens I'd sometimes use manual focus to set the focus with one hand.
Great video, thanks for sharing 🙏🏻 I have a question, how you’re handling focus pick when there is not enough ambient light. This is the problem that I couldn’t handle with Fuji X-T5. I’m also using Laowa 65mm and Natural View setting but it’s not provide enough visibility all the time. Do you use any additional settings on this regard? Thanks in advance 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thanks! Sometimes it's really difficult in dark situations as the camera just can't get enough light to preview, have you tried using some sort of focusing light to help? I use a small headlamp strapped to my flash, and some flashes like the godox v860iii have a focusing light built in.
8:20 this is a common misconception. The noise/grain doesn't come from high ISO, but from lack of available light. ISO 100 photo in low light situation will be much grainier than ISO 6400 photo in bright daylight.
Yeah that might have been worth mentioning.. In this video I mostly wanted to focus on the effect on your images when using flash, and with flash you should always have sufficient light so the main effect of raising the iso is you'll have more noise (Provided you adjust the exposure with other settings to keep it stable).
My camera can focus bracket automatically, but I don't use auto bracketing since it requires an autofocus lens and my lens is manual focus only. Instead I shoot in burst mode and move the camera forward slowly to change focus between shots.
Love your videos but now confused you say to avoid apertures that cause difraction and yet "Emilie Talpin" who is an olympus ambassador said not to worry about them a few days ago in her video on macro, so now im left confused.
I don’t know what is going on. I have tried to focus stack in camera several times, and then used Photoshop and Helicon Focus so stitch them together, and they always turn out blurry! There is not a single area on the photos that is in focus, and alongside corners there is extreme blurriness. I have tried different setting, and done 20, 50, 100 images, nothing works. Im doing this indoors, having the camera on a tripod with a still subject and good light.....it should be perfect, but It looks terrible! Moving the camera further away and taking a single shot and then crop is soooo much better.....but then of course the entire subject is not in focus.
Nice Video, I watched this with the girlfriend and although I followed what you were saying the girlfriend commented that 'does he ever take a breath', i kind of understood what she was saying, you need to slow down 'A Lot!', take a breath now and then, and make the technical details a secondary item, and not have it as a blur of the main title of the section, have some on screen information to explain what you are trying to say, the video could have easily been split into about 5 sections and slowed down would make a lot more sense. Still a good video though, but way too much information in such a small amount of time.
