00:00So hello and welcome to my home. It is, I've lost track now, day 12, 13 of my self-isolation
00:10and today I thought I would have a go at doing some macro.
00:16Now I know probably a lot of other photographers as well who are stuck in self-isolation are also doing
00:21the same sort of thing.
00:24But anyway, I thought I'd give you my take on it. I actually think that getting good macro photography, especially
00:31of wildlife, is one of the hardest things you can possibly do.
00:35It's hard enough doing water droplets and all that kind of thing.
00:39But when it comes to animals that move, it's even harder because you have to nail focus as well.
00:47And you can't rely on autofocus with these cameras either because they just fish around too much.
00:54The depth of field is so shallow, even shooting at f8 or f11 or even f16.
01:00You have an incredibly shallow depth of field to play with.
01:06So you have to basically, the technique, the generally accepted best technique is to set minimum focus and then move
01:15yourself towards and away from whatever it is that you're photographing to achieve perfect focus.
01:23And then take picture as quickly as you can, do multiple shots as well so that at least one of
01:30them might be nailed.
01:32So what I've done is I went out into the garden earlier and I found an old leaf which looks
01:40rather nice and it's got lovely textures on it.
01:42I found this fantastic old bit of wood, a branch that is rotting away slowly and it's got some fantastic
01:51texture to it.
01:52I found a fresh leaf as well, a nice green leaf and a couple of other sticks and bits and
01:59bobs.
02:00And I've also found a little spider and I might nip into the garden again to see if I can
02:07find a snail or something like that once they start waking up in the evening.
02:11See if we can photograph one of those as well maybe or see if I can find one.
02:17And hopefully the spider won't escape because they're really, really quite jumpy these spiders.
02:23It's not a jumping spider unfortunately I couldn't find one of those.
02:27In fact I had a really hard time finding any spiders at all.
02:30I think it's probably still quite early in the year and they're still hibernating or still underground because the weather
02:39is just too cold for them.
02:41So anyway I managed to find a little spider so I'll get him out in a minute and put him
02:45on here.
02:46Let him settle in hopefully for a little bit and then we'll follow him around wherever he moves trying to
02:51photograph him as best we can.
02:53I've also set up my scrim as a backdrop here which just is out of focus enough with the shallow
03:00depth of field.
03:00It creates a nice smooth out of focus green background.
03:08I'll see if it works or not it might be a little bit too much green because the branch is
03:13quite green as well so we'll see how it goes.
03:17I'm not generally speaking a big fan of flash photography for macro.
03:23I mean I've only got this setup here and also the studio lights which we'll have a go at.
03:28So basically we're going to have two setups to have a go with.
03:31One with the on-camera flash with diffuser and one with the studio light that's above me now.
03:39It's just set on the modelling light at the minute so it won't flash as well whilst I'm using this
03:45flash so that we can get clear separation between the two examples.
03:52Like I said I'm not really generally a fan of artificial light.
03:56Quite most of the macro work that I've done has always been natural light in very bright conditions out in
04:02Greece.
04:04But we'll give it a go and see what results we can come up with.
04:09So yeah I'll just get the spider and we can have a go.
04:15Back in a moment.
04:16Back in a moment.
04:18So I've got my little spider in here somewhere.
04:24All I have to do is try to find him and get him out onto this bit of wood.
04:31Just be honest.
04:34Now I'm just waiting in the room.
04:38Jumpy.
04:39Okay, so he's on the bit of wood.
04:49He's lost in the room.
05:00It's one of these species of spiders that likes to stay upside down, look at this.
05:08Stay there, stay there, stay there.
05:13Finally I've got him into a position I can photograph him.
05:16I hate him.
05:19It might very well be a hurrah.
05:25So let's see what on-camera flash gives us.
05:29I'm on manual, manual focus as well.
05:32And I've set it at f8 at 1 60th of a second at ISO of 640.
05:40So let's just take a shot or two and see what we get.
05:44Like I said, I've set the camera to manual focus.
05:48And it's on minimum distance.
05:50And I just move in and out until I gain focus on it.
05:53Oh no, don't move.
05:57Move again.
06:00Just one foot and settle down.
06:12Then jump up here too.
06:22Pink screen.
06:26I tried to start it done.
06:30I managed to wear everything.
06:31Or continueending.
06:32Put it in at aelijk distance.
07:12I can work with that.
07:26He's got a very grumpy little face.
07:30I'm not quite sharp, so I'll try again.
07:33I might have to increase my depth of field.
07:50The light's not too bad.
07:52Oh, I quite like that.
07:54Not bad at all.
07:55I have to flip it over in post.
08:01Let's see if I can go along this way around.
08:12Okay.
08:13It's actually quite nice, but too dark.
08:20And to shoot at f11 I have to increase my ISO.
08:26Now has he gone again?
08:31What is it they say about working with children and animals?
08:55I'm trying to get a straight on shot of his little face.
09:04I don't know if this is going to give me a shot or not because he's right underneath that.
09:23At last I've got the shot I was after and the background looks great and the light looks
09:29great.
09:30So I think I'm going to call it quits.
09:34I'm not going to try with the studio light after all because I think I've given him a
09:40hard enough time and even though he hasn't made it that easy for me.
09:48But I just got the shot that I'm happy with so I don't want to make it any harder for
09:54him.
09:57And I'll put him back in the tub and I'll take him out and release him.
10:05And whilst I'm out there I might try and find something else to photograph.
10:10So I shall be back in a little while.
10:14Okay so I'm back again.
10:16And unfortunately I didn't find any snails that we could photograph.
10:21It's pitch black up there now so I was using my torch hunting around.
10:24But I did find a different spider.
10:28So I've put him in this tub and I'm hoping that he will not be as jittery as the previous
10:37one.
10:38And he might give us an opportunity for some more shots.
10:43He's a different species of spider.
10:49He's popping down.
10:51He just jumped off me.
10:54Also whilst I was off camera what I did was I set the studio light up.
11:05Why does it keep jumping off the leaf?
11:08So I set up the studio flash and because this is a lot more powerful than the on camera flash.
11:24I've actually reduced the ISO down to 250 shooting at f11.160.
11:34He's just balancing right on the tip here of the leaf.
11:39And I think he's probably going to jump off again.
11:42So my settings are slightly different from what they were before.
11:52With the speed light.
11:55Because obviously this is a lot more powerful.
11:57It's also a lot flatter.
11:59More diffused light.
12:02Because of the soft box.
12:04The big huge soft box that I've put on it.
12:07I'll try and get it into a different background than the previous guy to get a slightly different photo.
12:17Okay so it's not bad there.
12:20Let's see.
12:38Oh amazing.
12:39He's starting to work.
12:42It must have been just an anchor line.
12:44Like jumping spiders they tend to throw an anchor line.
12:48A safety line.
12:50A safety line.
12:50When they jump.
12:52So that if they don't manage to land on it.
12:55There they can pull themselves back up again.
12:59So I guess that's what he was doing just then as well.
13:02So it's a game of patience.
13:03With little bugs on it.
13:07Let's go off again.
13:10Let's go off again.
13:12Let's go off again.
13:24Let's go off again.
13:28Let's go off again.
13:35Let's go.atamente.
13:47градicos
13:47How are
13:48you doing? Trying to
13:49film? Are you
13:54doing this? Yes.
13:55It's
13:55used to me for the most part of me. Can you
14:13So I think I'm going to have to release this little guy as well because it's just being
14:17too difficult, and I'm scared that I'm going to hurt him. I think he's a kind of orb-weaver-spider,
14:31a very little one. Being an expert, I could be totally wrong.
14:43Alright, I'm going to put him back in the garden. I'll show you those pictures right now, but
14:49it goes to show you how difficult it is to get decent shots of a tiny spider, so more
14:57appreciation for the guys who do this professionally because they come up with some amazing shots
15:02that look incredible, and it's difficult to know how they do it, but there you go. Anyway,
15:09so I thought it might be a little bit of fun for you to have a go at it at
15:13home. You can
15:13either try it. If you've got studio gear like this, it's a much better source of light than
15:19the speed light, but the speed light is okay, and I'll show you the ones that I did with
15:24speed light and I'll label them as such so you know the kind of lighting that you can
15:28get with a speed light. It is pretty good. So yeah, thanks again for watching. I hope
15:35you've enjoyed it, watching me struggle with a couple of spiders. And yeah, until next time,
15:43again, thank you for watching, and I'll see you then. Bye for now.
16:02Bye.
16:28Bye.
16:30Bye.
