In a world where we’re always told to hurry up and get something quickly, macro photography is a meditative process that makes us slow down. Not everything needs to be shot at 120 frames a second — especially when you put a lot of work into a single excellent photograph. And most importantly, not everything has to be fixed in post-production. The past few years have seen a few major changes in photography, and if you’re an experienced macro photographer, then we’re going to let you know about a few tips that no one has really talked to you about.
This article is presented in partnership with Tamron. See how the NEW Tamron 90mm F/2.8 Di III 1:1 VXD for Sony E-mount and Nikon Z mount can make your images even better.
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Live View Setting Effect Can Influence Your Autofocus
If you’ve come up in photography in the past 10 years, then you probably started with mirrorless cameras. But did you know that the Live View Setting Effect (exposure preview) of your camera can actually affect the autofocus performance? This has been confirmed to us by so many camera company reps over the years to the point where it has affected the way that we test both cameras and lenses.
Where Tamron has a unique advantage with Sony cameras is with the fact that Sony partially owns Tamron. This leads us to believe that the autofocus performance just works better because of that relationship — at least, that’s what we see in our camera tests. This is super important for the experienced macro photographer if they’re capturing wildlife, for example. When we used the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III VXD 1:1 in our editorial review, we found the lens to be really fast to focus in nearly any situation. This is all thanks in part to turning off the Live View Setting Effect.
Why does this matter? When you’re shooting macro images, you have to be really pinpoint accurate with autofocus performance. So why not give yourself and the camera every single advantage. As it is, we also turn off the AF-C mode and switch it for AF-S. Then it’s just an issue of reading the light meter.
We only ever use scene detection and AF-C if we’re focusing on something small that’s moving — like insects.
How Far Can a Macro Photographer Really Stop Down?
Pixel peeping, as it was called for years, is something that many photographers did to see how sharp their images are. Beyond a certain f-stop, all lenses experience something called diffraction — which is where the sharpness begins to not have positive returns. So here’s a bit of the truth that many photographers probably haven’t told you:
- The new Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III VXD balances sharpness, character, and beauty all very well in a single lens.
- With a full-frame camera like the Sony a7r V, stop down to f11 to get the maximum sharpness. After this, you’ll start to see diffraction as a matter of pure science.
- With APS-C, air a bit more on the side of caution and stop down to around f8 or so just in case.
- If your images are only going onto social media, then none of this really matters because you can probably add a bit more sharpness in post-production
- If you’re shooting for a client of some sort, we generally recommend not stopping down all the way
- The closer you focus to your subject, the shallower your depth of field becomes at any given aperture.
- The power of the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III VXD is its ability to focus incredibly closely. Tamron has been doing this for many years—over a decade ago, we reviewed a variant of this lens for DSLRs. But trust us when we say that you don’t always have to use the superpowers that this lens has to its full potential all the time. Even Superman held back.
How Your Breathing Can Affect Your Shots
When I first started photographing insects over a decade ago, I learned that my breathing could affect their skittishness. So be sure to breathe slowly, calmly, etc. That sometimes means that you too have to move slower instead of rushing in to get the photo. However, breathing goes for more than just photographing insects.
Lots of folks like to photograph without a tripod. We’re going to start this paragraph off by saying, first and foremost, use a tripod — and use the delayed shutter option. You’ll get the most stability and the sharpest photos as a result.
But if you’re breathing and hand holding the lens, tune into your body. Ask yourself: when are you most calm? Are you a deflated balloon when you completely exhale? Or are you more of a filled bottle when you inhale and hold your breath? This also has to do with several other factors like heart conditions, core strength, etc.
Luckily for us, the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III VXD is very lightweight and balanced with the cameras that it’s on. So it shouldn’t be all that heavy. For even more stability, use the viewfinder and bring your arms in closer to your body instead of having them outstretched.
Flash vs LED Lighting
The big question here is if you should use a flash or an LED. In the past few years, LEDs have become very popular because they’re so easy to use and give you light when you want or need it. And why wouldn’t we just make our lives easier?
But there are also lots of drawbacks. They’re weak and they can also be annoying to wildlife or people. This is one of the reasons why we often choose the use a flash instead.
When a camera works with a dedicated flash unit, something happens with the laws of physics where the images actually get sharper. Part of this has to do with specular highlights that you couldn’t see with the naked eye, but another has to do with something called flash-duration. Flash duration acts almost like a second shutter speed — and so it can really help ensure that your images are super sharp.
When using the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III VXD 1:1 for macro photography, you can get the sharpest possible photos using a flash and a high megapixel camera. Otherwise, you could lean more into an artsy technique with LEDs if you’re not using a technique like slow sync flash.