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Playing with EF 100mm L Macro last weekend

ScottyP
Authority

Great excuse for a hike in the state park.

 

Macro at Brady's Run, May 2017 (9 of 9).JPGMacro at Brady's Run, May 2017 (8 of 9).JPGMacro at Brady's Run, May 2017 (4 of 9).JPGMacro at Brady's Run, May 2017 (2 of 9).JPGMacro at Brady's Run, May 2017 (1 of 9).JPG

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?
15 REPLIES 15


@Waddizzle wrote:

I think your aperture is stopped down way too far.  Stay between f/8 and f/16.  I'm still looking for the sweet spot for the aperture setting with this lens.  So far, I've started at f/8, and haven't budged.

 

EOS Rebel T5, EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM, 1/800, f/8, ISO 250 - Manual Mode, w/ISO Auto.  One Shot Mode.

 

IMG_2016_06_170492.jpg

 

Here is a near 100% crop of the same shot, probably around 80%, I'm guessing.  Backing up a little bit, to about just over 2 feet or so, gave me much more DOF.

 

IMG_2016_06_170492-2.jpg

 

I love the lens.  It's a great prime for non-macro shots, too.  Here's mallard trying to lead me away from its' young.

 

EOS Rebel T5, EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM, 1/320, f/8, ISO 640 - Manual Mode, w/ISO Auto. One Shot Mode.

 

IMG_5967-2.jpg

 

Here is crop, about 80% or so, of the same shot.

 

IMG_5967.jpg

 

All of these shots were processed with LR6, mostly to reduce the noise, White Balance, and Exposure [brightness] adjustments in the dawn light.  The devil is in the details, they say.  Then, this lens is pretty devilish.

 


I like the bee shots a lot. Maybe just backing up and cropping is the solution. 

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?

ScottyP,

 

Thanks for the compliment.  Backing up a bit helped to bring more of the bee's body into focus, but my flowers are no more fully in focus than yours.  

 

Also, don't be mislead into thinking that 1/800 SS freezes a bee's wings.  This guy simply wasn't flappping.  At 1/800, the flapping bee wings were a fuzzy blur, moving about 1/3 of a full stroke.  I would think you need at least 1/4000 to freeze the flapping bee wings.  I guess this might have been close to what shooting humminbirds must be like.

 

Personally, I was amazed to get these results with a T5.  I had planned on backing up a bit, and the T5 was the only crop body that i had on hand at the moment.  The keeper rate was 5-10%, depending upon the shot, sometimes as high as 33%.  

 

I was using One Shot because AI Servo seemed like it wanted to keep "hunting" for something to track.  I was tempted to switch from the manually selected center point to activating all of them len, while in AI Servo.  The T5 only has 9 AF points.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

I have wondered if having a crop body around for macro would help with DOF, but for reasons that make my head hurt I *think*  maybe the whole thing ends up being a wash somehow if you factor in backing the FF up to the same working distance you get with the crop, or something?  

 

 

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?

Maybe this link will help relieve your headaches.

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."



Have you ever tried focus stacking?  You should give it a go if you haven't.  It can produce some amazing results.  Most of the great macro shots you see in print and elsewhere are done using focus stacking.

 

 


ScottyP,

 

Focus stacking is meticulous work.  That photo fo a dime that I keep posting took me nearly 3 hours to shoot.  I made half a dozen shots at 10 different focus positions.  But, like Ernie says, you can produce some amazing results.

 

Stacking photos will test your skills as photographer.  You need a VERY sturdy tripod, and an even more sturdy tripod head.  If you can manually focus the lens while tethered to a laptop or something, then take that route.  I use an older version of Photoshop CS6 to do my focus stacking.   It does a great job, and I don't have to first convert the images to JPEG, either.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."


@ebiggs1 wrote:

Have you ever tried focus stacking?  You should give it a go if you haven't.  It can produce some amazing results.  Most of the great macro shots you see in print and elsewhere are done using focus stacking.

 

I had the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Lens for a while (sold it). I quickly learned that the EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM Lens would be even better which it was/is.  But I have also sold it.  Macro photography takes a lot of time to do it right.  It is a field unto itself.

 

The  EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Lens is an amazing lens.  And, not just for macro.  As a mid-tele it shines too. This lens is ultra sharp at every distance, even wide-open.  It might be the sharpest lens Canon makes.  It is a, you must see it, to appreciate how sharp it is.  I want mine back, now!  Smiley SurprisedSmiley Sad


A good point Ernie. It seems pretty sharp but yes I was concerned about diffraction, only I was more concerned with the DOF.  Only the mushrooms are stopped way down because I used a tripod. The flower and bug shots I took are all between like f/8 or f/11 because they are handheld.

 

I spent the morning looking at macro rails and at stacking software.  

 

I have been very much against getting on the Adobe creative cloud software licensing hook. I almost pulled the trigger today though. I plan to get a 6d2 if it isn't too frustratingly nerfed in the autofocus again, and I have read that Adobe have stopped the purchase-and-own model of Lightroom (LR6) to make everyone sign onto the hook, so they may not write a RAW translation for 6d2. But I could use photoshop to do the focus stacking. 

 

 

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?
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