gemofnj wrote:
Hi Everyone! I want to pursue macro photography and very critical about sharpness, BOKEH and clarity when shooting moving subjects and insects. I currently have a Nikon D7500 and a Tamron 90 mm 2.8 lens. I have several questions about changing my gear:
1) What would be OVER THE TOP lense(s) with Vibration Reduction that would give me SUPERIOR clarity and sharpness, especially with hand held shots?
2) Should I also upgrade the camera for better stability or clarity? Someone I know uses the D850 and his shots are incredible !
3) What are the best products for purchasing an external flash system and the best diffuser?
Thanks a bunch for your advice.
Hi Everyone! I want to pursue macro photography an... (
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There is nothing at all wrong with the camera and lens you've got. They are both quite capable. You just need to learn to use them well.
At high magnification, VR does little to no good what-so-ever. You would be better served getting a tripod and using it.
There are many tricks to doing macro with small, active subjects.... For example, get out and photography insects early in the morning while it's cool and they are immobile or sluggish. Alternatively, set up a stage indoors with leaves, sticks, etc.... put the insect in the fridge for a short time to "chill", then take it out and make some quick shots before releasing it back "into the wild".
The difference between a D850 and a D7500 will primarily be how large the images can be printed. The full frame 46MP camera's images will have greater potential for enlargement than a crop-sensor 21MP camera's images. But at modest sizes... up to about 13x19"... you're unlikely to see much difference. If you plan to make 16x24" and larger, you might want a higher resolution, full frame camera.
Gear upgrades rarely make for better images.... Usually it's the photographer themselves who need to upgrade their techniques and skills, to get better results.
There are a number of ways to light macro shots. It depends upon the subject and the level of magnification. Working in the field, you'll probably want to keep it relatively light and simple. I often just use a standard flash attached to the camera via an off-camera shoe cord so I can hand hold it wherever I like, diffused very simply with a couple layers of white gauze over the flash head.
Other times for up to around 1:1 or slighyly greater magnification I use a twin light setup, but that's a lot bulkier and a fairly specialized type of flash (isn't very useful for non-macro work). For greater than 2:1 I use a ring light. That's even more specialized, when working in really close to small subjects! I simply do not like the "flat" lighting of ring lights at less magnification (looks clinical... and in fact is used a lot for dental and medical photography).
There are modern LED lights that might be worth a try. There are also reflectors that can be used with built-in flash (which I don't use for various reasons... incl. that they are slow recycling and draw down the camera's battery rapidly).
Reflectors and flags for ambient light... and diffusion tents with either strobes or some form of continuous lighting might be useful for some types of subjects.
Bokeh is rarely any problem with macro... close-ups naturally have strong background blur effect that most macro lenses can render beautifully. It's usually the opposite that's of more concern... finding enough depth of field for a three dimensional subject to be fully or mostly in reasonably sharp focus. For the latter, you may want to explore what "focus stacking" can do.