This easy macro idea is AMAZING to try at home (Tutorial with lighting, focus stacking)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 เม.ย. 2023
- In this week's tutorial, I show an easy macro idea to try at home that beginners and experienced photographers can have great fun with. I explain how I use LED lighting and focus stacking to create beautifully-lit, sharp images using little equipment and a plant I picked up at good old Morrisons.
I demonstrate how lighting angles can totally change the look of your image, and why a spritz of water changes everything. I then show how I merge my focus stack using Helicon Focus and how I edit my exposure and colours using Lightroom.
The light I used is the Zhiyun Molus X100: amzn.to/41baj7Y (Affiliate link - I will receive a commission if you buy through this link)
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Follow me on Instagram: / batteryhq
#macro #photography #tutorial
00:01 - Intro
00:25 - Macro subject idea
01:00 - Macro camera and lens
01:20 - Zhiyun Molus X100 LED light
02:15 - Lighting angles for macro
06:10 - Backlighting in macro
06:38 - spraying water droplets for macro photography
08:00 - Focus stacking
12:22 - Export as DNG in Lightroom
13:05 - Focus merge in Helicon
14:34 - Better shadows in Lightroom
16:00 - Brush tool for clarity
16:30 - HSL tool in Lightroom
19:50 - Best presets in Lightroom
Macro shots are everywhere if you look.
That flower looks like a gerbera.
Funny you picked this flower, I've been having a lot of fun shooting macro of red Gerber's myself as well, recently! 😃
Great minds, Tim!
Excellent video! Thank you!
Great watch and Stunning Shot
Always a pleasure watching your Workflow . Thank you for your work
Thank you so much for watching!
Love it ! Fun to see these little home experiments
Thanks for watching, Kim!
Excellent tutorial Andrew as always don’t get on here as much as I like, but when I do I look for you hope your photography trip goes well. You definitely inspire me to get out and take some pictures of flowers. Thanks very much for your time very professional❤
Really love how you worked this image Andrew. It’s beautiful ❤.
Thanks Chris!
Mate your vids are great, I’m learning so much from your content 👌🏼
Thoroughly enjoyed this video, thank you!
Thanks Johan! I've now put the link in the description. Cheers for watching!
I realy enjoyed this video. Thank you and hugs from Brazil
Love this Andrew I have yet to try stacking . Many thanks
Thanks for watching! I recommend giving it a go some time, it's amazing what you can do with it!
Inspirational 👍
Thanks Mike!
Excellent work. If those were my photos, probably print 3 of the ones you showed. You make it look pretty easy &, truth be told, the more you do it, the easier it probably gets. I always play with something at home during the winter months, (& some summer too). Keeps the photographic juices flowing. A while back I purchased the 2 pack Lume Cube (I think Pro Kit) that comes with the light shaping tools. They are great for playing around with this type of photography. Nice vid.
Another interesting one.
Thanks John!
I'm inspired
Another great video Andrew! I so appreciate these, which you have a knack for, showing that you don't always have to leave your home to get great photographs. It is a nice reminder that one can create stunning images with very simple setups.
I am also a big fan of Helicon Focus. It does such a great job on larger stacks (>5-10) and is so much faster than PS. I find it does a much better job on the subject though I find sometimes it can create some odd blotchy spots in the background. However, these are easily cleaned up in HF. I just grab my most out of focus image and and paint it in for the background.
Thanks Thomas, I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment! I love doing these home projects, they're such a good creative boost, especially on those days when you look out the window and see horrible weather and lose all desire to pick the camera up! You're totally right on HF, it's much superior for these big stacks.
Andrew. That image is just so gorgeous. I love what you did to it in post. Thank you for always “bringing it” to your videos. I’m heading to Florida next week. Dragging along my gear. Hoping to find some great Macro spots. Great video as always. ❤
Thanks Tamara, I hope you get some good shots in Florida!
Guaranteed opportunities for mosquito bites following the intense rain storms - mosquitoes are a macro subject, no?
I got a new pot last week, but was lacking inspiration till I saw this video. Outside here in Ontario, Canada is still pretty dull. Now I know what I will do inside this weekend.
Thank you, great video with good instruction. I've just started with tabletop macro so learning tips and tricks. I'm a night photographer so I happen to have an intervalometer which is very convenient to trip the shutter at low shutter speeds without touching the setup. Also shooting a Canon R with 100mm macro. Thanks!!!
Brilliant, such a beautiful image, your videos are always very inspirational, thank you 😁sadly my d5600 doesnt have the focus shift bracketing, I have been looking at upgrading but unsure on mirrorless
Thanks so much, Gale! You can do focus bracketing manually, so don't feel like you need to spend more money on upgrading for that reason alone. It's more efficient using the auto function, but you can get the exact same results doing it by hand.
The image is incredible, but at a certain point, its more special effects that photography.
You're very pleasant to watch
Thank you!
Great video! I am researching and I am seriously considering a new DSLR or mirrorless camera and a lens for macro like this but I don't know where to start with a starting budget of $2500 - $3000 for camera and lens (or higher but I think I have to start reasonable and not be dumb and overequip a new hobby) or less of course if I can. I tend to analyze products to the point of exhausting myself into no decision at all :) I just love the idea of creating my own shots rain or shine, and be creative with lights and materials, insects outside of my plants, etc...just a whole new universe for me to explore in when I can't fly my drone or just don't want to.
Great inspirational video!! Does anyone know if Sony a&IV has focus bracketing in its menu? I could not find.
Thank you for this presentation. I do have a question about creating a field macro kit bag. If have done this before can you direct me to it? Otherwise this might be a good opportunity for a upcoming video.
Nice video as always, Do you have then link for the light?
Thanks Anthony, I'd forgotten to include it but it's now in the description!
Great video Andrew, as always! I was wondering, what are those presets you use near the end and where could I find them? Many thanks 😎
Thanks for watching, Eugen! I use VSCO presets which they used to sell for lightroom. Unfortunately, they stopped offering them some years ago.
Thanks for the tutorial! I wish sony had focus bracketing!
Does it not? I think I assumed it would do!
Actually, the Sony A7RV is the first Sony camera to feature it. There are lots of TH-cam videos out now that illustrate how to set it up, etc.
@doogieham Ahh, good to know; I sadly do not have that feature in the A7iv. I swear they could just shoot out a firmware to the rest of us, if they wanted to.
Nice video Andrew. Which 100mm macro lens did you use, the EF or RF version? I use the Laowa x2 100mm so I have to resort to manual focus steps or the macro focusing rail. As I have an R6 I was tempted to get the Rf 100 macro to take advantage of the focus bracketing, but I hear a lot of people saying there is focus shift issues and back focus issues.
Thanks Greg! I use the RF version here, though I have the ef for my older 5D4 still. Honestly I think it's an amazing lens and have almost nothing bad to say about it. Except that the whole spherical aberration dial is totally pointless, I never use it, and slightly resent having had to pay for that feature.
Appreciate your video technique and your sharing “how to” style. Just beginning my journey into macro. Is there a reasonably price tripod you can recommend?
Thanks for watching, Bev! I did a video a while ago about what I look for in a macro tripod: th-cam.com/video/_dHBPfjwLZQ/w-d-xo.html I love 3 Legged Thing tripods and the Punks Travis model is very reasonably priced, IMO.
Thank you
✨🤩✨👍
If you leave the center column down and raise the tripod by extending the legs you will get a lot less camera shake 😊
did you try glycerin for rounder drops?
ooooohh man, i wish there was a focus stacking option in the sony a7c :(
Andrew, I have been watching you for a couple of years now, especially your macro work and I really must ask why for the love of God will you never use a wired or wireless trigger? I don't understand but hey I'm the one watching you, not you watching me, and honestly yes all our Canon mirrorless bodies have amazing IBIS but there is still the chance of movement. Maybe on a video, you could answer this question for me?
The curious photographer Matthew from Western Canada.
my pc cant handle photoshop doing photostacks of more than around 8-9 images. Does the canon blend them into one image in camera or are you still using photoshop to do it Andrew. If so may I ask the spec of your computer? I am extremely enthusiastic about my macro photography but the limitations on being able to stack is frustrating the life out of me.
edit: the message I get is that the scratch disk is full
I'm a complete and amateur and have a question: I use me phone as my camera and have seen tutorials showing the exposure adjustment in the camera app. Do I need to adjust exposure if I can adjust it so much in post editing anyway?
It's generally better to get the exposure as close to perfect as possible when you take the photo rather than have to make drastic adjustments later. Even if you are using raw files too much adjustments is going to introduce noise or lose detail. A stop or two either way is usually ok with raw files but the less adjustment the better.
how to do these with a reverse ring and 18-55 kit lens
Is that the EF or RF macro? Looks like maybe the RF but wasn't sure.
Hi Matt, it's the RF version. Thanks for watching!
Auto Focus Stacking on the R5 ?
One more reason to upgrade!
Couldn't help but notice your framed photo behind you needs to be taped against the backing :)
It does, and the frame needs fixing in a way that means it doesn't fall onto my head when I'm shooting videos!
Instead of bringing the shadows down and then back up, could it be better to use an inverted radial mask to avoid darkening the shadows in the center of the flower? Maybe it doesn't matter since it's a TIF file and Lightroom is non-destructive?
I absolutely could have done it that way and it would have made little difference. There's always a whole bunch of different ways of doing things in LR/PS and there's usually no right or wrong way!
Always use manual focus.
$300 for the light is costly for a weekend photographer.
Don't understand why you didn't use a cable release for you shutter instead of concerning yourself with camera shake.
You lost me at focus stacking. Please explain or point to a video ?
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