Focus peaking, manual focusing and camera movement are my main methods for macro shots also.

great job - very helpful, sharing the bloopers reminds me of how much work goes into these productions, thanks again

Thanks for the great video Stewart! Bungy sat perfectly, I’m really impressed he posed the whole time and wonder how he is so tame 😍

I am equally impressed with your jumping spider training skills as you brilliant tutorials mate. He sat perfectly. I'm struggling to nail good focus with my 60d and it doesn't have lens calibration settings. Thanks again. Don't stop with the out takes either 👍

I always use focus peaking on the a6000... It' becoms really handy. Thanks for your content👍

Perfect Photos and focus

Auto focus is becoming my favorite focusing method on the Fujifilm XT-4 especially for fast moving subjects such as bees.

Thanks Stewart, some good tips here, not heard of focus peaking before going to try now. Thanks Phil

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,really helpful

This is a big help, thank you

I love this guy.. very inspiring and helpful.... Thank you mate xx

Hey Stewart Great video something that I know my students are very interested to master with all these options you presented will help. Thanks mate.

Excellent Tutorial 👌👌👌 My preferred way is moving front and back.

Hey Stewart, I use manual focus on my Sony with focus peaking and magnify. At the mid level of intensity of peaking it is not that useful in magnify, but if I up the intensity of the peaking to high you can use focus peaking at the first level of magnify. Great teaching as per.....

Very informative - thank you!

Great as usual!

Another excellent video. Thank you.

Camera movement and focus peaking are the best for me. I'm able to do both on my old-fashioned D850 DSLR!

I found your channel by chance, since I will start photography ofmacro world. Thank you very much for giving me your knowledge and time. Your videos are very good; understandable, direct, enjoyable. All very well. The best. Regards from Chile.

Such an amazing channel. IM buying a fuji x-s10 collecting all the information i can from your videos, should be fun, and i think the fuji x s10 should be amazing for macro.

Thanks so much this helped alot!

Thanks for the great and informative video, good job!!!

I use a Nikon d5500 and use camera movement to focus when out and manual focus indoors. When the camera is on the tripod I do zoom in when focussing. Turning the beep on is a great tip, thanks.

Excellent video, thank you, got my 90mm macro lens this week and applied your advice. The result are amazing. I did had some practice in the past with my 70-200mm which has a 0.3 magnification. But 1:1 is on another level, these two lenses will always be accompanying me on my future hikes in nature. That spider is better trained than both my Schnauzers. I first thought it was fake and surprised how real it looked.

Brilliant.

Very helpful!

I have clicked the thumbs up even before I watched the video... and I'm not wrong... Thanks.

Thank you this helped me so much

Excellent, thank you.

Love the outtakes

Really one of the best demonistrations I've ever seen ... Thanks a lot brother❤

Recently started photography to help with depression and finding your channel really helpful in learning the basics of macro. I’ve just started to use back button focus and found it to be a real game changer on the 7d mark ii.. Any idea when you’ll be releasing the hard copy backgrounds?

Great video thanks for the details

Excellent video. Thanks

Thank you very very much you help me out I'm just learning

You can bring focus peaking future to almost any canon camera with magic lantern , I have a canon 6d and it works great

Loved it

Great informational video for a beginner like myself. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, very helpful. I can't believe the little fellow stayed put throughout the video.

Fantastic video and very helpful! I am new to Macro photography but love it! I am struggling with focus. I have been using the back focus button and then taking the photo. I think I was using the 'focus ring' and not moving my camera in and out so I will try that. Manual focus only.

Living in S> Africa on the boarder of Kruger have done a lot of wild life photography.. however the park has become so busy I have / am moving to Macro. Using manual with my Canon 60D with Sigma 105 macro lens... You have explained options very well.... some of which I have never used or heard of. Please continue.... as am bookmarking your tutorials.

Fantastic

Auto focus is the best method for me. I’m happy with that.

Fantastic video thanks so much

Very helpful! Thanks for sharing 🙂🙂

Stewart, my name is Christopher Soulé. I am an American photographer who lives in Brazil. I would just like to thank you for taking the time and hard work in making this essential video!

Thanks Stewart, nice video.

Many thanks, you did the job excellently.

Hi Stewart I am new to macro and new to your channel, I love the fact that it is warts and all and showing your bloopers at the end makes the viewers feel less like failures and that no matter your skill level nobody gets it right every time

Great thanks

Great video thanks

Howdy Stewart, Thanks for the great videos. I’ve found that with either my 5D4 or 90D and 100mmL; along with Yongnuo YN24EX, I have a satisfactory handheld keeper rate using the AI Servo mode and back-button focus. I’m no “spring chicken” so my steadiness isn’t up to a surgeon’s level anymore but I'm very happy with this method. By the way, you got me hooked on Jumping Spiders :- ). Most of my Jumping Spider shots are in the wild but during the lockdown, I “re-homed” a few P.audax and now have dozens of spiderlings hatching. Oh; I too, can confirm that the Canon 90D is capable of Focus Peaking.

Happy New Year! Thank you so much for this video. I'm just starting my business to sell my handmade products, and I need all the help I can get with my horrible photography skills.

I just bought raynox msn202 for my m50. It was really hard to get focus. I think camera movement is most fit for me. Big thanks 👍👍👍

Stewart, thanks for this video. It helps a lot to hear that also you have 90% blur pictures. What also helps is to adjust time by time the diopter settings and ensure that your eye "is in sync" with the camera and lense. ;-)

Thank you for another informative video. Having recently bought a mirrorless camera I’d agree that the focus peaking is brilliant. Also having the ability to see the shot reviewed in the evf means that there is no need for ‘chimping’ allowing you to stay on the subject until you have the shot you want. I didn’t think I’d be an admirer of mirrorless but am now a convert. It certainly is right for my photography, whilst I accept it may not be right for others.

so that’s a real live spider just chilling?! lol

Bungee though 😍🕷

Great video, man! Saludos desde Texas!!

One of my favourite things about my old 60D was the fact that you could install Magic Lantern firmware on it and use the Focus Trap functionality on it. That would then fire the shutter automatically the moment your focal point came into focus. It did a really good job in manual focus mode when just rocking the camera backwards and forwards. Unfortunately, the newer cameras dont have a Magic Lantern firmware version to install.

Thank you, very helpfull tutorial.

On mirrorless focus peaking works awesome

One more Canon focusing technique, if 1) your lens has autofocusing, 2) your subject is static, 3) you have a tripod to use. Use the Canon "EOS Utility" software (download from the Canon web site, and install), connecting your camera to your computer via USB. Use the "Remote Shooting" option. It has completely granular control of the focus mechanism in your lens (as well as most other camera settings), and you can see your subject on your computer screen in what's essentially Live View. You can zoom in your view 5x or 10x (the same as with Live View). You can adjust your focus by fractions of a millimeter (it seems like about 1/10 mm). You can take a single shot or make a focus stack, saving images to your camera's memory card or to your computer. You can also preview your depth of field (and so test out different f-stops). Very powerful. Does much of the same as a focusing rail, but easier to use.

Hi Stewart, I'm new to macro photography and I love it! It's great to have you as a mentor and to demonstrate that it doesn't need to be technical all of the time... sometimes, just keeping it simple works best. For me, I find a combination of auto and manual focus works well. I let the camera hunt for a reasonable focus point and then either fine tune with manual or move the camera. Its amazing how little you need to move to get the shot..... It would be great to see a few videos on getting started and some camera recommendations for beginners like myself and then what to look for as you improve your equipment.... or have I missed that video? Many Thanks for the inspiration, my woodland walks are so much more interesting now. Chris

Liked and subbed, even though you didn't mentyion anything about the use of a macro rail/slide. Good tutorial.

Thanks, very helpful.

Thanks so much!

I love messing about with macro photography. I only have a Nikon D3300, some lens reversing mounts and a set of extension tubes, but it's still great fun. I think the blur/focus failure rate of 80 or 90% is perfectly acceptable. Mine's closer to 97%! Why don't I mind? Because I started out in photography in the pre-digital film era. Today's photographers might not appreciate just how lucky they are. Imagine struggling with light meters and exposure tables and tape measures and conversion factors (no computers or on-board camera brains back then) and taking hundreds and hundreds of multi-bracketed exposures, with no instant feedback, no idea what they looked like, then waiting three or four days for them to be developed and printed (at enormous expense!). Every numbered exposure needed to have had a detailed hand-written description of the settings you'd used (so that you could repeat the successes and avoid the failures in future). Even then, the 3 good -ish shots from 200+ useless ones were usually just a tiny bit out of focus... Aaargh! So digital photography is wonderful. 😁

Thanks for the video. It helped me reinforce what I had learned with experience and I learnt new techniques too. Other than that I noticed the attachment to mini tripod holding the clip with a screw for tightening. I havent been able to find it online. Any pointers for the attachment will be helpful. Thanks again.

I use the focus peaking a lot.

Useful post. Focus peaking not always spot on in Sony cams - I use manual focus and then magnify to nail it. Fuji cams have additional manual focus assists: split image and digital micro prism. Focusing rails, w/fine adjustments, can also help. Remember when some analog SLRs had interchangeable focusing screens?

Thanks

Nice one bud 👍

For a moment I thought the jumping spider was just a prop until that thing moved. 🤣

on my eos r, i start with autofocus. when I i have something generally decent i switch it to manual with focus peaking. i usually use the rings for both focus and aperture then snap the pic.

With my EOS 70D and the Laowa Lens, I only use manual focus and the focus beep (which doesn’t always work with this lens for some reason). But Focus Peaking is another reason to upgrade to the EOS RP or R6.

Thank you for your time and effort, I love trying macro but my hands are not as stable as they used to be. I use my camera handheld normally in my garden. If I am lucky 1 in 10 will be in focus. I find trying to nail the eyes of flies etc to capture the cells very difficult. I will give some of you techniques a try to see if I can improve. Your channel is great.

Thanks for all the advice. At first I wondered why that spider is holding still for so long and I assumed it was dead. No offense ;) But I was very happy to see it moving in the later parts of the video.

Great video Stewart! I have a question not related to the focusing techniques but regarding your subject. How come your jumping spider stays put, i.e. does not jump? I caught one in my yard the other day and i put it on a table and it jumped a couple of minutes later.

good quality tips :)

Thanks so much! Great tutorial. I just bought a Canon M50 and a 28mm macro lens. I’m a beginner and I’m having difficulty with manual focus. When I use AF, I can tap on the screen to set focus on my subject but in MF, I can’t do that. So how do I set focus on my subject? Do I move the camera? Thank you so much once again.

Hi Stewart, I like your setup. Do you have any suggestion to increase the work distance ? like 2x Extender ? Will it increase the working distance or magnification ?

easy for you to say :P usually manual and move camera

Can we get a closer look at your dedicated flash set up please.

Well, this is a little old but the techniques haven't changed. I've been using Focus shifting but the first image needs to have critical focus. This upcoming Mushroom season I'll be using the Atomos 7" field monitor so I can zoom in and use focus peaking.

I think you still see the autofocus myth rehashed from old camera tech. Modern cameras are capable as you say. I know a bunch of older models that are incapable. Great video as always.

How well does live view, or photo peaking work outdoors? Seldom get to use live view when shooting outside. Do you have any suggestions? Love your work and respect everything you have to say. Bill.

Thanks for your great video. Did you have a similar video for mirrorless cameras?

Very interesting and detailed explanation! I'm a beginner and use a NikonD3400. Is the Canon camera you used in this video a mirrorless camera? Thank you.

Good to see an endorsement for autofocus. My eyes cannot be trusted for manual focus anymore and using the back screen outdoors on a sunny day s almost useless. Some macro shooters on youtube are putting down autofocus and thats a very bad thing to do. Many people cant use manual focus because of poor or aging eyesight and if people are telling them to only use manual focus then those folks will not want to try the fantastic world of macro photography and stay away from it,that can only hurt the industry.I do all my shooting with either my Nikon D500 or D810 and a Nikkor 105mm macro lens and I get about 70% keeper rate with perfect focus on the eyes and shooting outside in the wind, I also use VR on every shot while some folks say not to, it works for my set up. I also use a home made flash diffuser for my onboard flash . Every shot I’ve taken is with autofocus and VR and im perfectly happy with the results, you can see for yourself at “mikemcneil.smugmug.com” if you don’t believe me, everything from jumping spiders to dragon flies turn out great. I would think that most modern cameras are capable of producing great shots with autofocus these days providing the lens is up to the task. Like I said it’s good to see you included autofocus to this list,not every shot needs to be at 1 to 1 and I think it’s important to include the terrain where the insect lives as well. I only shoot insects in the wild however if I shot in the studio then manual focus would be a possible option wth the tripod and rear lcd screen. Once again, great video. Keep up the great work and stay safe out there.

This is great as long as the lens communicates with the camera; if a totally manual lens (e.g. Laowa) the electronic ways don't work (i.e., I have an EOS-R and peaking, blink, beep) don't work. If you have a method to the contrary, then let me know; I have the Laowa 2:1 like you have (as well as the Canon 100mm).

peaking without a doubt, especially when you're old and gray, like me!

I have a question though, sometimes even when theres some light in the scene it becomes extremely dark in the viewfinder. How do you focus on those situations? I had situations where I have the flash set to a good exposure, however i cannot see whats in focus in the image cause the f stop is at like 8 or 11, the iso is low... I can open up the apperture for like 3,5 or something but if I do this in macro, the object or the animal will only be like 10% in focus cause it's super close and theres a lot of depth of field

What is the flash name? It's really cool.

I wonder if our spidey knows that He's helping hundreds of photographers 😂. Great video Btw✌️

Hi Stewart, thx for video in my camera menu (eos m50) are two level of focus peaking, high and low. what is the difference and when should I use one and when the other?

hi...thank you too much ... can i ask y ... what is the flash light y used? and can i use it with my canon 6d?

im just mind blown how is that jumping spider sitting so still the entire time?!!!!

This is what a tutorial is suppose to do, TEACH. Thank you

Never heard of focus peaking before. I like the idea of live view and zooming in but zooming the lens will wobble the live view screen too much. I also don't trust my eyes as nothing ever looks perfectly focused to me. I rely on single point auto focus unless it just won't work, then I do my best with manual live view.