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November 8th, 2025I Never Did Mind About the Little Things
I am fooling with macro photography today.
I am starting to think the Canon 200D is not all that great for macro. It lacks focus peaking, and you can’t set the temperature manually without a lot of grief. Even then, you’re guessing. Maybe I’m wrong, though.
Today I decided to use the Sony A7IV I rarely take out of the closet. Maybe I was stupid to spend so much. I really thought I would be using it all the time for baby photos, but the phone has turned out to be more than adequate, and it’s always handy. I don’t have to take it out of a bag and re-read a manual.
I used a Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN Macro Art lens. This is a pretty decent lens, so I had high hopes.
Setting up the camera turned out to be a royal pain. At first, the monitor was dark all the time. I found out there was a setting that forced the monitor to show me what it thought the photos would be like, and because I was using flash, it showed me darkness. The camera didn’t know I had a flash attached, which is weird, considering all the other things it knows.
It also has a maddening feature that magnifies things drastically when you try to focus manually. One second, you’re looking at a flower you want to shoot, and the next, the flower is IN YOUR FACE SO FAR YOU CAN SEE THE INSIDE OF THE ROOTS. You lose the shot every time. I had to fix that.
The exposure was too low. The ISO was too low. I finally got the camera to work well enough to produce images, however. They are not spectacular. I think they are underexposed. But the focus is much better than yesterday, with greater depth of field. I kept the f-stop pretty high.
I’ll post a couple of shots. The flower is under an inch across, and the bolt head is around 5/8″ in diameter.
The detail is not great. I don’t know if that’s because the ambient light was low. I would have assumed using a flash from a few inches away would make ambient light irrelevant, but maybe it doesn’t. The sun was fading when I shot these photos.
I left the flower photo somewhat dark. I don’t think every photo has to be bright. Given the exposure, I don’t think it would have been possible to brighten it up much without making it look weird.
I think I’ll get on top of this soon. It should be a very rewarding experience.
November 9th, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Generally with electronic flash being faster than your shutter speed, you can use the shutter speed to control the amount of ambient light. I don’t know a formula. I’ve just tried settings to see what I like.
November 9th, 2025 at 11:52 AM
I need to learn about flashes. I was told to set the flash at 1/16 and the shutter at 1/200, so I would assume the flash would be on during the entire shutter cycle.
November 9th, 2025 at 7:28 PM
It’s possible your flash isn’t hitting the subject. This can be a problem with macro photography if you’re using on-camera flash — by default, the light will be aiming over the ‘Top’ of subject.
A cheap solution is to get a flash extension cord, so that you can hold the flash in your hand, a few inches to one side of the subject. This also lets you get creative with the direction of the light.
You should also still be able to set the flash to ‘Auto’ with the extension cord. Setting it to manual (1/4; 1/8th; 1/16th etc. power) gives you more control but it will require a bit of guesswork and experimentation to get the exposure right.
Your Sony should be able to handle auto exposure mode (You want Aperture Priority) while still getting the flash balance right.
November 10th, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Electronic flash is only a small fraction of a second. The camera has to have the shutter fully open when the flash occurs and that timing can vary by camera. The camera manual should explain it. Digital cameras are generally more flexible than film cameras were.
November 10th, 2025 at 12:21 PM
A lot of the newer Canon mirrorless cameras have in camera focus stacking. That may or may not be useful to you, depending on how much you want to surround your subject with that creamy creamy bokeh.
November 10th, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Thanks for all the help. I’m continually trying to improve my knowledge.