Tripods and Focusing Rails
Now that you ‘re getting serious about macro-photography, you‘ll start seeing some issues when your trying to get that picture of the flea that just bit you, or the wild-flowers that are so small even the bees ignore them.
Shooting at any macro-magnification is like shooting a long-telephoto lens. Stability becomes a major issue, and, because of the shallow Depth-of-field, focusing becomes critical.
Because many of the small things you might want to shoot (not the kids, mind you, but while we ‘re on it you might want to check out “Shooting the Kids” another great DP Blogs site after, of course, you‘ve finished here…). are not well-lit or brightly-colored, a supplemental-light might also be required (we’ll get more in depth on that later).
A tripod, or monopod are definites in macro-photography. But, since many of the things you might want to take a picture of are busy either hiding from predators or being predators, they aren ‘t always in the most convenient locations.
A flexible tripod like the Benbo‘s or the Giottos MT9180 are good examples of tripods that can get you places other types can ‘t (up-down and all around).
The stability provided by a good tripod will go a long way in helping to get every last detail sharp on that tarantula you‘ve just cornered (or is it the other way around? “The tarantula that just cornered you”? …dunno).
I‘ve actually cobbled-together a tripod set-up that allows for quick target-acquisition for constantly moving targets (red-leader, red-leader, this is Bad-dog, I have a squadron of Bee-52 ‘s in my sights… they ‘re all yellow and have black stripes… permission to open fire?”)
(speaking of Bad dog, check out bad dog photo, another cool blog … after, of course, finishing here ….), maybe after the Patent is approved, I‘ll give you a peek at the Death-pod.
You‘ll find though, that even with a securely tripod-mounted camera, focusing is still difficult, if not impossible through those itty-bitty viewfinders.
They always tell you when shooting a living-thing, make sure the eyes are in focus to give it maximum appeal…BUT, when there are 15-eyes the size of a grain of sand, it can become difficult to focus well manually with the lens (forget about auto-focus at this point).
Also, as you know, your depth-of-field is about the distance of the thickness of a playing card. This is where a focusing-rail set-up comes in handy.
It attaches between the camera (or lens tripod-mount) and the tripod, and allows for minute movement of the camera. the better ones allow not only fore-and-aft movement (for focus), but also side-to-side movement, which is great to help you get your subject where you want it in the frame.
Manfrotto, Velbon, Novoflex, Nikon, and Kaiser are some of the companies that make focusing-rails. Make sure that the action is smooth with fine-threads (or gears) so the movements are slight.
I‘ve taken one of my focusing-rails and hooked it up to my Makita cordless drill and run it back and forth many times to help run-in and smooth-out the threads… just don‘t over do it and strip out the threads.
Mirror lock-up (where you keep the mirror from flapping around in the pentaprisim) and remote triggering will go a long way to making sure your image is as sharp as possible.
(New law proposal: I think it should be a GLOBAL-MANDATE that ALL CAMERAS come with a cordless remote shutter release. They make point-and-shoots with 80x zoom lenses and no means (other than the timer and a few with stabilization) to take a unblurred picture! I can see it now, a new art movement… ” teleblur. Everyone can do it! “
Quick, someone phone Kyoto and demand a new Kyoto-conference that insists on a remote-shutter-release mandate!!!) and if each manufacturer used ONE model of remote for ALL of their camera models (or at least one “Pro” and one “consumer” model ), so much the better for Us.
But I digress….

Next comes lighting….