Macro Shutter Speed
Tabita Knezevic
The optimal aperture also depends on other factors: the size of your camera sensor, the focusing distance to your subject, and even the brand of camera you use (because Canon calculates aperture differently than other brands in high-magnification macro photography). Here is a chart of our recommended aperture settings for different macro photography subjects:
But what flash settings should you use? I strongly recommend using automatic (TTL) flash in combination with manual mode. That way, you pick your aperture for depth of field, but still enjoy the benefits of auto exposure to compensate for changing conditions.
In order to capture a bright enough photo, you might need to adjust flash exposure compensation quite a bit. I often use a flash exposure compensation of +2 to +3 stops for high magnification macro photography.
Hopefully this article answers your questions about the best camera settings to use for macro photography. Although macro photography can be a complicated genre, it is also one of the most rewarding. You can take an amazing photo in your backyard on an otherwise ordinary day, or make the most of rain and fog to capture great close-ups.
It will take some practice to master these settings, and each sub-genre of macro photography has slightly different requirements, too. There is a lot of information to juggle and keep in mind at once. That said, a lot of these are set-it-and-forget-it settings that you will not usually need to change. And if you have any questions about the best settings for a particular type of macro photo, feel free to ask below.
I'm Spencer Cox, a landscape photographer based in Colorado. I started writing for Photography Life a decade ago, and now I run the website in collaboration with Nasim. I've used nearly every digital camera system under the sun, but for my personal work, I love the slow-paced nature of large format film. You can see more at my personal website and my not-exactly-active Instagram page.
this is an old post, but I will answer this anyway. it sounds like you have your shutter speed set too fast for the flash unit! this will cause a dark line at the bottom of your images because the shutter is closing too fast. try it at 1/125th.
good luck
When I do "bugs on sticks" pictures with flash, I usually set the aperture and shutter speed to get the correct ambient exposure, and use the flash as fill. Given that depth of field is usually the number one constraint, I'm usually shooting at a narrow aperture that leaves a shutter speed under 1/200 (the synch speed on my camera).
If you set the exposure with a fast shutter speed, and a narrow aperture relying on the flash as the main light, you end up with black backgrounds, which may be the effect you want, but one I find to often not be the most pleasing.
As an aside, if you want to do macro, you really should be using a tripod. Its extremely hard to get DOF right handheld, when moving the camera a fraction of an inch throws off the area you want to be in focus. Also, the narrow apertures necessary to maximize DOF give some pretty slow shutter speeds, particularly using slow slide films.
You didn't mention what film you shoot. With slow films like Velvia and f11 to f22 apertures (typical for insects for enough DOF), flash will almost always be the dominant light source and you shouldn't have problems with ambient lighting.
Of course, flash is highly useful for handheld photography of active creatures. If I ever shoot flash I tend to use the highest sync speed (1/250 on my cam) when doing all-flash lighting (handheld), or as low as 1/4 sec. (on tripod) when trying to fill-in in very low light conditions.
Bob and Arnab, I understand your argument about the use of tripods. Of course this is the cleanest way, I fully agree with that. I rarely use a tripod basically for two reasons: 1) where I live, there is always a little bit wind outside. Even _with_ a tripod I therefore have to go to higher shutterspeeds. 2) I realized that I'll miss many good shots while setting up a tripod.
About the black backgrounds: yes, this is sometimes a problem and I share John Shaw's objection "when was the last time you looked at night with a flashlight at flowers?" -- but if you're really close to the subject it either fills the frame totally or it is possible, e.g. when taking a photo of an insect, to find a position where a leaf is in the background, so it will not be totaly black.
Digital is extremely helpful in macro photography since it gives you greater effective DOF, due to crop factor, and also immediate feedback on where do you stand in terms of exposure for available flash power.
Uh, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't actually have more DOF right? You have greater magnification; i.e. better than 1:1 with the 1.5X increase by using digital. Isn't this another version of different lenses at the same *subject* distance have the same DOF?
Sergey, I guess Andrew is correct. Cropping the negative size (from 24x36mm to the size of your CCD) doesn't increase DOF. It has the same effect as if you would just cut away the peripheral part of a 24x36mm negative: greater magnification, but no DOF gain.
Sergey does exactely what I tried and now wonder if it really makes sense: shutter speeds of 1/500s or 1/2000s don't really stop motion on that timescale for the whole picture as not the whole picture is exposed at the SAME 1/500s. Only a tiny slit is exposed at this 1/500s, the area above and below that particular slit are exposed earlier or later for a DIFFERENT 1/500s. That's why I wonder if it actually doesn't make more sense to just go to the top X-sync speed and expose the whole film area AT THE SAME TIME for only a few milliseconds (the duration of the flash burst).
I am not sure about exact way the shutter works and exactly how wide the slit is, but if significant ambient light is present, such as for example when shooting bees gathering polen on a sunny day, short exposures certainly do help.
I take a lot of macro pictures, so using a tripod can be very inconvenient at times. And when I'm so close to an insect I find my hands shaking a lot even though I try to be as stable as possible. So I set the shutter speed pretty high (1/400-1/1000) that way I can just snap away and the pictures don't come out blurry. Are there any disadvantages to this? I know I get a lot less light this way, but I set my ISO to 6400 which helps a lot.
For macro work a tripod is highly recommended because the DOF is so shallow. Even your tiny movements may change the plane of focus and cause problems. That is why people often use it in combination with a macro-rail which lets the camera move back-and-forth in a precise and controlled matter.
By using a high ISO value, you add much noise to your picture, which can be very disturbing, especially in macro pictures. In a dark environment there is no real way to get away from a tripod, but while capturing images in a bright environment high shutter speed will do the trick.There are no disadvantages by using a higher shutter speed in a bright environment (if you keep thee ISO value low).Depending on what camera and lens you use, you might want to take advantage of features like Nikon's VR to keep your images still, even with lower shutter speed.I managed to take a close up picture with a 108mm lens with a shutter speed of 1/13sec free hand with the help of VR and it is mostly sharp.
If you have image stabilization, you can keep the shutter open for as much as 3-4 stops more. Thus, 1/200s would become 1/30s, though your mileage will vary based on the lens IS system and how shaky you yourself are.
If you do not have a tripod, you can open up the aperture (shrinks DOF) or increase ISO (increases noise). Sometimes these schemes are useful (e.g. ISO 200 -> 400 won't make much difference), but if you don't have a lot of light to start with, they can negatively impact your photo.
A tripod eliminates all blur due to camera shake (if it is a sturdy and well positioned tripod). Some people are as paranoid as to flip the mirror before taking the photo, in cases where the camera has this feature.
With macro photography a tripod is essential. A high shutter speed will certainly reduce blur caused by camera movement. Ditto for subject movement. That's fine. But it doesn't matter if your focus is sharp if it is focused on the wrong thing. The key constraint of macro photography is the very narrow depth of focus, sometimes a matter of millimeters. To accurately place your plane of focus you really need to slow down, use a tripod, zoom in one your viewfinder and get the focus exactly where you want it.
Of course, that is the ideal, in a studio setting. If you are dealing with live insects, that are moving, perhaps rapidly, then you may need to compromise. For example, I find that using a ring flash at f/11 works well shooting hand-held. 1) The flash freezes subject motion. 2) The smaller aperture gives greater depth of field making the focus more tolerant. 3) And the inverse-square fall-off of the flash illumination knocks out the background which would otherwise be distracting at f/11.
Depending on the situation, high shutter speeds may compensate for lack of physical support for the camera. However, this is not a complete solution, and is not a substitute for a tripod in macro photography.
I have just purchased a Braun Nizo 801 Macro camera and am intending to use it for some animation work. I have managed to locate the corresponding shutter speeds for all of the various shooting speeds on the camera, except single frame exposure. As I will be shooting under a variety of conditions, I really want to manually meter my exposures, which is why I really need your help!
Shown below is a set of ten amazing macro images with macro photography tips for the relevant image. Each photograph also includes an explanation of the camera equipment that was used and camera settings.
The photo shown below was shot in a shady part of the garden. Using a Canon Macro Twin Light MT-24EX flash allowed me to keep the aperture on a high f/11 without sacrificing shutter speed (exposure). Having the ability to keep the shutter speed at a fast 1/200th of a second allowed me to capture the moving insect sharply.
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