bodiebill

Macro Photography of rocks, minerals and coins.
I am just beginning Macro Photography and would appreciate some information, techniques, and does or dont's.
I will be using my new Canon T6i camera and currently have a Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens and a Canon 18-55 mm lens that was included in my kit.
I also have a set of Viltrox Extension tubes (12 mm + 20 mm and 36 mm tubes)
What combination of lens and tubes do you recommend?
Most rocks and minerals display well on a green velvet cloth although I am open to back ground suggestions.
What about lighting? I prefer daylight natural lighting.
If I don’t use a tripod what should my settings be?
Thanks BodieBill

agillot

most of your questions will be answered by experimentation .artificial light at time does well , or use natural light with reflectors if needed .try the 18/55 with the 12mm tube first and go from there .you are not shooting film anymore , so , with dig you see the results now .take notes of the results .

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Right On suggestion. Welcome to the forum.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

I don't know Canon lenses so my best suggestion would be to use a tripod and the 2 second delay (or remote shutter release). I think a tripod would make the fiddle of getting a good composition easier and good focus.

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

I use Canon. I use tubes. The same set(I bought two sets). They seem to work best on lower power fixed lenses, like your 50. Depth of focus can be a problem, but at least your subjects are still. Get a yard of a few different colors of felt. I am shakey, so a tripod . Use a focus rail and orient camera shooting straight down. I use a monitor and live view, I can 5 or 10 x for fine focus. Works for me. And try, try, try. Bill Oh, and a remote shutter switch.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

The 50mm should give better image qual, but your small zoom will be a bit more convenient while experimenting. You can try some comparisons between the two to see if the 50mm is in fact a teeny bit sharper.
Different combos of tubes give different magnification (of course really meaning different closest focusing distance).
I understand that some minerals may look quite different from daylight lighting versus flash, and perhaps sometimes daylight just looks better. So maybe be open to daylight plus light reflectors to fill in shadows?
My first choice would be to use an external flash plus a lot of diffusion, but you might well know something I don't know.
Anyway, you are free to experiment at length since your subjects won't fly away!