7D Macro - Summary after several shoots

I've spent several hours out now taking macro shots with the Canon 100mm f2.8 (non-L) lens on my 7D, and I wanted to showcase my favourite images and give a bit of technical detail about how I've taken them.

(Note that, like with all my post images, if you click on any image you will be able to see a larger version)

A bit of introduction.  For those who don't know, the 7D is an APS-C camera (meaning the sensor diagonal is 1/1.6 times that of a full frame sensor, reducing the area to about 40% that of the full frame sensor), and has a pixel count of 18 million pixels.  A macro lens is (officially) a lens which is capable of at least 1:1 magnification - that is the image on the sensor is the same size (or bigger) than the object in real life.

A fly in a flower, covered in specs of pollen.

The lens is a fixed focal length (100mm) lens, so the only change you can make is to change the focal point.  This also changes the magnification, with 1:1 being at the closest focus point (which is about 30cm from the focal plane - i.e. the sensor of the camera).  Assuming the camera is focussed to 1:1, an object of 22.5mm in length (i.e. less tha, 1 inch across) will span the complete width of the sensor - that is 5184 pixels!  So, you can see, with this kind of sensor resolution and 1:1 magnification, you can get magnificent detail - an object of 22.5mm x 15mm will be captured with 18 million pixels.

A hoverfly, next to some gorse.

Up until owning the 7D, I used to use a Canon 40D for macro shots.  This is 10MP but still produced some beautiful detailed shots.  There is, however, one significant difference in the way the images were captured between the two camera.  On the 40D, I used to switch the lens to manual focus, and rock slight back and forth while looking through the viewfinder.  With the appropriate autofocus point set, there would be a confirmation beep and flash when I rocked through the right point and I would take the shot.  This technique works well, and I used it in preference to using AI Servo AF on the 40D as I tended to get more success.

An ant, climbing to the end of a leaf.

The 7D, with certain Canon branded macro lenses and when switched to AI Servo AF, enters a new macro specific mode where the AF sensor samples at 3 times it's normal rate, thus more rapidly responding to any slight movement of either me or the thing I'm trying to photograph.  I was somewhat sceptical about this when I read about it, but having tried it I was so impressed with the number of keepers I got I tend to use AI Servo AF as my standard capture method now.  The only time I switch to manual focus is when I really want something taken at 1:1 magnification.

Hoverfly on a leaf

One other technique comment is that I generally use a flash for taking macro shots.  Depth of field at 1:1 magnification is tiny - at f2.8 the DoF is 0.6mm, and moving up to f11 it only extends to 2.6mm (figures according to dofmaster).  Most shots are taken in manual mode with a shutter speed of 1/125s and around f11 - this requires either super bright sunlight, or a flash to illuminate the images.  I'm generally content with the flash on the body of the camera, and I always use a diffuser (Stofen type) to make the light somewhat less directional out of the flash.  I have an off-shoe flash cable which I sometimes used, but I find that while taking landscape orientation shots, the source of the flash mimics the sun and ends up with a fairly natural looking images.  I'd like to try a ring flash at some point to see how much difference it really makes.

Fly on a stinging nettle.

Now I'll talk a little about some of the images I've picked out.  The one above is a fly on a stinging nettle - see the big spikes on the leaf (well, they're very small really!) particularly the one just in front of the fly - you can see what causes a stinging nettle to sting now!

Patterned leaf

This leaf caught my attention due to the pattern on it.  It seems like everything to the near side of the white line is dried and dead, and to the other side it's not too bad.  It would be interesting to know what cause this - maybe some caterpillar?

Climbing up the leaf

I've no idea what this is (I'm learning about different bugs but I'm not really there yet), but I like the way it's climbing up the leaves, and the gentle bokeh in the background frames the creature nicely.

These next few were inspired by some shots taken by @robfryphoto.  I went out into my garden and took detail shots of dandelions, and some random shots down in the grass at various aperture values.  All were without flash, and so generally wider aperture (although it was a gloriously sunny day).

Sparkles

Seeds

I particularly like this abstract shot of a single blade of grass - taken completely at random down in the grass, I think the bokeh and green tones of the image work really well:

Blade 

Back to the heathland, and I managed to spot this ant wandering around a leaf.  After a while of shooting macro, you know there's always something interesting nearby, so I now have a tendancy to wait until the creatures get into an orientation that will lead to a nice picture rather than just shooting when I first see it.  There's always a tendancy to get a picture before the thing disappears (either flies off or runs away!), but you get to learn the behaviour of lots of insects and most don't really mind you being about as long as you're not moving too fast or bothering them too much.  I waited specifically for this ant to come towards me to get this shot of it's face:

Ant

A similar story again with this ladybird - it was the second one I saw as the first one flew off when I got close (I moved in a bit too quickly).  I'm amazed at how ugly and scary these things are close up - imagine being shrunk and them coming face to face with this!

Ugly Bug

And as for this beetle - it's got a face only a mother could love!  I like this shot as it shows it doing something - it's chomped a section of the leaf out behind it's mouth.  The light also catches the minuscule hairs on the back and lead to a myriad of colours:

Chomp

This one isn't really a macro, but it was taken with a macro lens.  Wide open, I shot the top of this pine cone, then desaturated the image to give it a wintery feel.  Again, this was taken on a blazingly sunny day!

Winter?

Another abstract shot - this was taken using LiveView to focus on the tip of the leaf.  I didn't saturate the colours quite as much in this shot as it has a kind-of calmer feel than the earlier blade of grass shot.

Serenity

The next few shots were from my third day of going out for macro shots, so I was really starting to look for something different than just static documentary shots of insects.  Here, I waited until the bug was half covered by the leaf and took the shot to make it look like it's rising up out of the leaf:

I'm coming to get you!

A few seconds later, it had explored up to the top of the leaf of the nettle, and met this other insect.  There was a momentary exchange (caught here), and the smaller insect dived off under the leaf to run away:

En Guarde!

Another ladybird shot, with lots of face detail.  Notice that the right hand eye (as you look at it) appears dented - I guess it has been in some kind of fight:

Dented Ladybird

Later on in the day, I stopped at a field full of oil-seed rape.  I had intended to use the field as part of a landscape picture, but I had the macro lens already on the 7D, so I had a quick look around to see what I could shoot before changing lenses.  I was amazed at how many small flies and beetles were covering the plants and flowers!  The image below shows a couple of mating beetles - these things were absolutely tiny - the yellow flower is a single flower on the top of the oil seed rape plant, so these insect can't have been much bigger than 1-2mm:

Mating beetles

Beetle on oil-seed rape.

And my most recent shoot - I decided to go close to some water to see if I could capture a different set of creatures.  I am petrified of wasps, so was quite pleased to capture the shot below.  It's not actually a wasp - it's a Sawfly - but I didn't know that at the time!

Sawfly.  Scary.

It appears to be quite difficult to find spiders at the times when I tend to be out - I think they are mainly out and about in early mornings or evenings.  This one was on a leaf, and is considerably smaller than it looks:

Not a Tarantula

I've seen (and taken) a lot of dandelion pictures recently, and noticed these fairly perfect specimens out near the water.  I wanted to try and capture something a bit different, so I moved around several and found this one with a small patch of tiny blue flowers at the base.  I kept them in the out of focus area, and cropped part of the dandelion away as well as adding a quite strong vignette:

Mellow

Finally, this was the last shot I took yesterday.  I have no idea what it is, but it looks like a properly armed and scary thing out of Doctor Who!  Nature has an amazing way of produce a huge variety of creatures at all scales from cells to whales, and it's been an absolute pleasure to capture some of the ones towards the smaller end of that scale:

Another ugly bug!

And one final image: While I was writing this blog post, my 6 year old son's first tooth fell out!  Here it is, on a 5p piece: