New macro lens - confused!

[Microdot]

Hi Folks

I recently purchased a tamron macro lens for my sony alpha camera (90mm f2.8 di) but I'm ashamed to say I have no idea how to use it. Please could you give me some pointers.

By way of background, I did a GCSE in photography 10 years ago and have dabbled a bit since but not as much as I would like to. I've always been fascinated by macro photography so took the plunge and bought the best lens I could afford but it appears to be smarter than me!

I'm finding if I use manual focus the depth of field is tiny and I struggle to get all of say the centre of a flower in focus, but in autofocus mode the image is never stable for more than a millisecond to take a picture. (I've tried taking pictures of a plant indoors to eliminate movement while I learn).

I'm also clueless about the switches on the top of the lens which seem to have something to do with depth of field and distance. I have done my best to make sense of the instructions that came with it but to be honest they may as well have been written in chinese.

Sorry for being dumb but any assistance would be appreciated as I would love to master this technique.

Thanks

[crockny]

I just got a 100mm canon macro lens myself, and yes, it is difficult to get started! The depth of field is very shallow on a macro ... you need a very narrow aperture to get the whole flower and then you have the problem of light. Not to mention wind outdoors. There are very particular techniques to learn. I'm still working on the preset manual focus and rocking back and forth one ... keep googling macro photography and you'll get a lot of tips and see how the pros do it. I also sometimes hold the flower with one hand and shoot with the other ... awkward to say the least. Today I experimented with continuous ai servo shooting because it was windy - seemed to help.

[Tzetsin]

Not sure what your having a problem with exactly, but your right, the closer you get to your subject the narrower the depth of field. Unless you have enough light to open your aperture as wide as you can while maintaining a fast shutter speed your very likely going to need a tripod for good macro shots.

Another thing to consider is wind. if your trying to take shots of a flower outside, even with a tripod your going to have to make sure to shelter the flower from anything thats going to cause it to move.

Most people with a camera are aware of camera shake, what i mean is left and right, up down, but with macro and the extremely narrow DOF, you also have to worry about IN and OUT camera shake. this is why the tripod is so important in macro photography.

Dont get discouraged. Remember when you showed someone that first really great picture you took, only to have them say "wow you must have a nice camera!" and you had to explain to them that its NOT the damn camera that takes a good picture, but the hours / months / years of practice and education that the photographer had to endure in order to create that wonderful shot? Well its the same thing with your macro lens. Its going to take more than buying the lens and slapping it on your camera to get those great macro shots you see around, your going to have to put in some time practicing and educating yourself before you'll really see the magic.

[jamesev]

I have the 105 and yes, if you're down at f2.8 and as close as you can get (circa 40cm) then the DOF in in the region of 1-2 mm which is very difficult to focus on without a tripod never mind additional wind factors. I recomend getting and throwing some realistic extremities into a DOF calculator to give you and indication as to what your typical DOF will be at a few f numbers / distances.

for example if you're at 40cm away from subject and f2.8 you might be down in the sub 1 mm DOF range, if you go up to say 90cm away and f5 you might have DOF in the 2-3 cm range (NB these values might not actually be the right figures). So from there on in, you will know that your operating range is between 40 and 90 cm and f2.8 and f5 depending upon how much DOF you want....

This way you will then know what adjustments to make in a practicle sense