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Tips for focusing in macro

One of the single biggest problems new macro photographers have is the issue of focusing.  This is particularly evident in insect shots, where most of them are a bit out of focus.  In this post, I will provide some tips for focusing.

First, if you are using autofocus at all when shooting macro, turn it off.  In macro, when you change the focus using the focus ring, you are actually changing the magnification.  Generally, you care what the magnification is on a given shot. The camera, on the other hand, has no idea. Therefore, do not let the camera do this for you.  Set the magnification yourself (most macro lenses have it printed on the barrel) and focus by moving towards and away from the subject.

As you increase in magnification, focus becomes even trickier.  With lenses like the MP-E 65 at high magnifications such as 3x-5x, focusing is incredibly challenging.  When shooting subjects like flowers, typically the camera is on a tripod and if you have Live View you can use the zoom feature to verify focus.  However, when shooting handheld – particularly subjects like insects that are on the move – it is much more challenging.

One trick that I use very often is obtaining focus at a smaller magnification, then increasing magnification to the desired level.  This will only work for subjects that are either stationary or easily trackable.  For very quick subjects like bees, you will need to preset your desired magnification.

I always start farther away rather than close in.  I try to place the lens just beyond the point where it will be in focus, then slowly move in.  One goal, of course, is to not whack the subject with the lens.

When focusing on your subject, there are two things you must always keep in mind.

1) The angle of the subject to the lens.  This will determine what is in focus, and what is not.  This is particularly important as you will not be able to determine the focus for the entire subject if it is moving or may leave any moment.  Instead, you should learn what is possible with each aperture at different magnifications and approach your subject accordingly. 

2) When determining focus in the viewfinder, look at only the most important part of your subject.  When focusing on insects, I look only at the eyes.  I do not pay attention to the rest of the insect, as I already know what will be in focus and out of focus based on the angle of the insect to the camera.  Once I know I have the eyes in focus, I will take the shot.

For insects, the eyes are incredibly important.  With rare exceptions, if the eyes lack focus the shot is lost.

In terms of triggering the shutter, I find it very much like my old rifle target shooting days.  Learning how to consistently get shots in focus takes a great deal of practice, but the following are some tips that may help.

1) Holding the camera steady is huge. Pay particular attention to where your elbows are.  Try to hold your elbow against part of your body.  When sitting, I rest my elbow on my knee.  When standing I try to rest it against my chest if possible.  Standing is by far more difficult than sitting.  Very often when standing, holding the camera steady is a function of getting the right stance while holding the camera with both hands.  I cannot really describe it, but practice definitely helps.

2) When you take the shot, hold your breath.  This will prevent some camera shake, which often is the culprit for missed shots.

3) Do not take a single shot of any subject. Take a number of shots at each angle.  I often take twenty to thirty shots of a single subject if I can, though most of my subjects do not allow me anywhere near that number.  Very often, I find that a number of shots are still out of focus, but if I get a number of frames off there usually is a good in focus one in the bunch.

4) Use a high shutter speed or flash.  If the frame is sufficiently dark, you can use flash to stop the subject and a lower shutter speed.  I will cover this in a bit more depth in a later post, as I have found that there are negatives with using the lower shutter speed.  However, the important thing is to stop the subject, which must use either a high shutter speed and/or a flash.

Related posts:

1. Playing around with dandelion seeds Dandelions have always been one of my favorite subjects – in particular the seeds as they fall.  Sure, they’re weeds – but they’re graceful weeds. This particular image is a focus stack from two images.  I have been working a bit more with focus stacking using Zerene stacker and find...
2. Going Past 5x Recently I pondered a bit how to break the 5x barrier in terms of macro magnification.  While my MP-E 65 provides magnification up to 5x, of course I had to wonder about progressing beyond this.  I read a bit about using bellows, reversing lenses, and other techniques, but all of...

Tags: focus, insect, macro, photography, tip