Up Close with Nature

Officially, it wasn't my first night macro anymore. Tried it when i was at Endau Rompin. But this time it was together with our usual macro gang. I also mentioned about a secret weapon here. If you are shooting full flash, with typical setting of 1/200, F11, ISO100, and flash (from your speedlight or dedicated macro flash) on, there is really no difference whether it's day or night, rain or

When shooting macro / closeup with  natural light, sometimes you need not just a reflector, but a diffuser as well. First, a little bit about diffuser and reflector. Diffuser and reflector set. White translucent fabric (left) is great for diffusing harsh direct light. The cover (right) has 4 colors: silver and black (underside) and gold and white inside. Of course, you can turn it inside out

Macro workshop for beginners/intermediate macro photographers. Other services offered: Nature Trips; Macro Safari/Photo Tour. Upcoming workshop:  When : Once a month on Saturday and/or Sunday. Email me to book a date:  orionmystery at gmail dot com) Where : Kuala Lumpur. Exact location will be disclosed via PM to participants. Type : 2 types of workshops: (A) Full Workshop; (B) Hands- On

I mentioned the use of reflector in my "Tips on shooting with natural light" post. In this post I will show you sample shots taken with and without the use of a reflector. I use a 24 inch (60cm) 2 in 1 collapsible reflector. When collapsed,  it fits into my backpack nicely without taking up too much space. I use it not only for natural light macro but also for shooting bigger models/subjects like

I have tried photomerging 3 or 4 images into one in CS3 before but I have never tried 6. Besides, all my previous photomergings were done in a single axis i.e. either X axis or Y axis. However, just yesterday I took a 6 images of a mating pair of assassin bugs in both X and Y directions with the intention of photomerging them. Why photomerge? At its minimum magnification of 1:1, the MPE65 can

The MPE65 is a great macro lens which can go from 1:1 to 5:1, but it is strictly a macro lens and will not allow you to go lower than its minimum magnification of 1:1. Translation: if you use it on a cropped sensor i.e APS-C body like my 40D, you will see 22.2mm filling up the width of the frame at the MPE65's minimum magnification of 1:1. Of course, if you use the MPE65 on a full frame body

Natural light macro / close-up photography tips: In this post, I will be sharing tips on shooting with natural light. Although all my shots here are macro and/or close-up shots, the same tips apply for non-macro photography as well, i.e. landscape, product, etc. Note: for flash macro/close up photography, check out this post. I seldom shoot with natural light with my MPE65. Even at its minimum

This is a simple Adobe Photoshop tutorial - manual focus stacking using layer/layer mask. If you intend to stack multiple images (i.e. more than two), then it's probably easier to use stacking software such as CombineZP (freeware) or Helicon Foucs or Zerene Stacker. Focus stacking using CombineZ is covered here. However, if you intend to manual focus stack only two or maybe even three separate

In this post, we will talk about the use of Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) and EV (Exposure Compensation) in our Full Flash Macro Photography. But before we do that, we need to know what Full Flash photography and ETTL are. Full Flash is easy to explain. Take a look at my typical Full Flash Macro Photography setting: MT24EX on ETTL Mode, 40D on manual exposure mode: F11, 1/200, ISO100. At

This post is all about how to calculate/measure  macro magnification. It's really very simple but since I get asked this a lot, I might as well prepare a post on this for everyone's benefit. A lot of macro photographers add Raynox DCR250 and/or Extension Tubes and/or Teleconverter to their macro lenses (or non macro lenses) and wonder what magnification they are shooting at. Well, I say, shoot

In this post, I will be sharing a macro photography tip on why we always face problem capturing macro photo of some flash sensitive macro subjects, followed by a simple trick/solution on how we can overcome the problem by just switching our flash mode from ETTL to manual power. I am sure you have encountered a scenario like this before. You took a full flash shot ( or two ) of a flash (

Another SLR macro photography tip and also Photoshop post processing tips. Since we don't always get to choose the perfect background when shooting macro, or any other genre of photography, sometimes we just have to make use of digital photography software such as the Adobe Photoshop to enhance the background and/or other aspect of our macro shot. Since i normally prefer my macro images to have

I try not to share just a macro shot or two, but a macro photography tip as well in my blog. And I am not going to make any exception here. This macro photography tip, however, will only work if you have a short or medium focal length macro lens, such as the Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon 60mm macro lens, or the Canon MP-E65 1X-5X Macro Lens. But first a bit of story and drama first :D A bee fly

More workshops coming up. Keep an eye on Canon Camera (Malaysa) Facebook site for the latest update: Direct link:

Photomerging is one thing that Photoshop (mine is CS3) does beautifully! Gotta love it! In fact, i helps to get me extra DOF too. How so? Let's dwell into the details here! First, lets look at the merged image i.e. the outcome: The whole robber fly is in focus, from head to tail...except the legs... Now lets look at the two pre-merging images that contributed to the merged images above: the

More slr macro photography tips in this post :). Just a few non technical tips on ways to stabilize yourself when shooting macro photography. Very simple tips but these will improve your odds of getting sharper macro images! Check these out and make them work for you the next time you go for macro. Photo courtesy of Leong Sherney. Me in action. I used a pvc tube as my monopod. You can use a