Macro Photography in Winter - Tips & Technique 

Thanks! Yeah that lens is definitely challenging to stack with, but the results are so worth it

Thanks Ryan, I'm glad you like it!

Thank you! I rarely use a tripod for macro, I prefer the flexibility of shooting handheld and using a flash motion blur isn't a worry.

Good luck, it's a really fun lens!

Thanks! Good to know, I will plan to do a more beginner-oriented video focused on settings and camera setup in the future :)

thanks Justin!

It's definitely worth a try, there's still lots around if you look hard enough!

@@naturefold I tried it and there's actually quite something to be found 🤩 Thank you 😁🙌

Thank you! I'm definitely planning to do some videos on post processing, and good idea to do some on settings/custom modes as well.

Thanks so much! I'll definitely do some videos on post processing and editing in the future

pleasure! fantastic, cant wait 😀@@naturefold

I use Zerene Stacker to stack the photos in post. Focus bracketing is only possible with autofocus lenses, and both my macro lenses are manual focus only so I always stack manually

It only looks like the flash misses shot due to rolling shutter on my video camera, which makes it look like the flash doesn't fire sometimes. It actually does fire consistently with every shot, the only times it misses a couple shots is if it is low on battery or if I have to shoot at high flash powers, in which case I just delete the photos where it didn't fire.

@@naturefold thanks, helped a lot.

Thanks! The main upgrade for me compared to my previous camera, the Lumix G91, was the higher res 40mp sensor, but another advantage is having faster burst rates and a CFexpress type b card slot (which is one major difference from the XT-5), which allows me to get way more frames for stacking before running into the buffer. If focus bracketing is a priority the OM-1 is definitely your best bet, and the OM 90mm macro is one of the best macro lenses around. I've been stacking manually for a few years so bracketing wasn't a big deal, and for my style of macro I really felt limited by the 20mp max resolution on m43.

Lovely! Nice background music too. The stacks look incredible -- my only comment: having tried this myself I think you make it look way too easy! I don't have the ability to control the distance so well in a deep stack. It would be nice to see a video that goes mor into your technique for this.

Thank you Louis! I definitely want to include more info on the subjects in future videos or maybe some mini-documentary style videos, maybe I can do one on Thomisidae just for you ;-)

@@quietkey5 thanks! I'm planning to do a much more in depth video/series on focus stacking in the future, I'll let you know

Thanks so much! That many shots aren't absolutely necessary for stacking, I only use so many because at the high magnifications I get with the laowa 25mm the depth of field is even thinner than with a regular macro lens. Closer to 1:1 or even 2:1 it's very possible to get lots of depth with just 5 or 10 frames

I do have a question though.✋While shooting the burst for focus stacking, are you doing one single super slow front to back movement, or several front-back-front-back moves?

Thanks so much! When burst stacking I do one continuous slow movement, it taxes some experimenting to get the speed right but I find the results to be much more consistent and easier to work with.

At high magnifications the depth of field is so thin that I often need very large numbers of frames to get the amount of detail I want in a focus stack.

Thanks! It's been around 5-10° Celsius for the last few weeks, I've found that to be the best for finding springtails since once it's below freezing logs and bark are frozen and I imagine a lot of soil animals retreat deeper into the soil, but there is still quite a bit around even when it's well below zero