Macro in the Forest: Top Tips for Lighting and Focus Stacking Your Best Photos

[@fotiss8883]

Hey Andrew, I know how you feel. I've been feeling kind of uninspired the past couple of months and I don't have the will to go out and take photos. Everyone goes through that. You shouldn't worry about "having to make videos or I'll lose viewers". Your loyal viewers will understand. We really appreciate your videos and if you ever want to take a break we'll understand

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you very much, that's really kind to say and I'd like to hope that's true of many of the people that watch my videos. Unfortunately the bigger battle is against "the algorithm" which really doesn't like if you take a break so it does make it more difficult to find that balance. Still, it's been nice to find these opportunities to just concentrate on my own things for a bit.

[@FranklynMendez-n4z]

Something I like about this video is that you actually go and show us how to take the best shots and also show us the different possible shots as you move the amount of light on the target. This is something I noticed that I don't see in most how-to videos on taking macro shots. They tend to get either too technical or to vague and only show us the final shots. Great Job!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! I think it makes sense to show that experimentation as I never just take one shot but always try and refine it. So I always try and show the different approaches each time

[@kenhenley7599]

Beautiful images to cheer me up on a miserable day!

[@debbiewitt7028]

Always love hanging out with you Andrew, beautiful images.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you for watching!

[@gordonociao1231]

I think that understanding how light falls on your subject is a key point. Thank you Andrew!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you!

[@mikekent5788]

Some really lovely shots there! Not my type of photography personally, but beautiful photos and great explanation

[@joefriday4171]

A wonderful wander through your woods with you and you give so many tips to make our shots stand out from the crowd. Thank you so much for another inspiring video.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! That's really nice of you to say!

[@stefansandmeier2080]

Looks like you had a very nice day in the forest. Love it!

[@laurelb8372]

We do watch your videos because you give good instructions and insight into macro , love the images

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much, that's very kind!

[@MrKreweesti]

What a wonderful forrest to have in your neighborhood, along with floating water. I envy you 😮

[@barbarachamberlain6918]

Some lovely shots! I especially enjoyed the bright orange mushroom at the start and preffered the vertical shot of the small single mushroom toward the end.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Barbara! I really appreciate your thoughts! What is it do you think that makes you like the orange one the most?

[@barbarachamberlain6918]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotographyI like the saturated colors of the mushroom and moss, the frilly look of the mushroom, its off center position, your subtle use of light, and the nice bokeh. But really, I liked so many of them, it was tough to choose.

[@gary.kenyon]

A fantastic watch and great shots.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Gary!

[@gary.kenyon]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Love your videos and photos 🙂

[@Thirsty_Fox]

Well-done video with great colours and music, and of course lovely photos. I find the greens to be really soothing in your shots, where it can often be harsh and overbearing in woodland photos.

[@scottjessiman4115]

Really enjoyable video, intrigued by the 35, so thanks for the review and tips 😀

[@just_sandie_photos-j77]

Love all these shots. Thanks for showing the different aspects with the different focal length lenses. I have all three of these lenses but tend to do all my macro with the 100mm. I'm now going to experiment.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Good luck with experimenting. I love using the different lenses and seeing the different looks you can get!

[@doogieham]

Thanks for another great video, Andrew. Like you, I hate being locked-down on a tripod so I really enjoyed your walk-through of how you used hand-held focus bracketing.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! I get why some people love having their tripod locked down and there are some shots that it's absolutely required, but it's increasingly less important, especially when you can use auto focus bracketing on mirrorless cameras to do focus stacks in an instant instead of having to manually turn the focus wheel over many shots. The more I use the camera off tripod the more I feel liberated by it and I end up being a lot more experimental with my compositions.

[@wongkenneth4005]

Mushrooms are a good subject to photograph, different shapes and sizes really make you think a lot about how to present the photos. Good job.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! Are there any of the mushroom photos that stand out as favourites for you?

[@wongkenneth4005]

25 minutes. I like this one.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Good choice! Thank you!

[@bungleandshrek]

Great video. Really enjoyed that one. I'm trying to find my subject focus and I'm leaning towards macro photography.

[@Black73Cat]

Lovely video Andrew...thank you! I've just bought my first macro lens (Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 to go with my Sony A6700) so lots to learn. I haven't done any image stacking, since the early days of HDR but that looks to be an essential method to get the best out of this lens. I love mushrooms...so if I can get anywhere close to the standard of your images, I'll be well chuffed! 👍

[@tomking3800]

Enjoyed the video including your commentary which was very informative. Thank you

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks!

[@thomasriera2030]

Great video and really nice collection of shots! Mushroom vertical vs horizontal at ~30:15 min: both are nice but, I prefer the horizontal. The vertical nicely shows more context/environment but, I really like how much stronger the mushroom is in the horizontal. It's not just that if fills more of the frame but, elimination of the bright sky background simplifies the lighting and color palate. The orange pops out against all of the green dominating the frame. I also like that the mushroom on the 1 third line rather than centered. It emphasizes the feeling that you are peeking around the out of focus foreground to see the mushroom.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much Thomas for your thoughtful comment! I agree with your analysis of the horizontal Vs vertical shot and certainly get that the orange pops out more. I think finding strong colour contrast in scenes is often overlooked in photography in place of regular light Vs dark contrast.

[@SeaAngMo23]

I like your style, guy!

[@Pseagust]

I've just bought my first macro lens and have been binge watching you videos 👍

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! I hope you get some great shots with it!

[@Pseagust]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Than you, Hopefully. 👍

[@robintaylor7374]

another great insightful vid. Thanks.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you, Robin, very kind!

[@sh8736]

Liked the groups of little white fungi best. I’ve often found that I see a subject and then when I get down low with a shallow depth of field if can’t find my subject! So have packed a coloured lolly stick to place near by and locate. Think it’s been too dry for fungi yet here in south midlands

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

That's such a good idea! I definitely saw some compositions in the big groups of mushrooms that I then lost sight of and didn't take, but I also got distracted by finding more and more shots I wanted to get so I don't feel like I missed out at all! Late summer is still too early for them really but we'd had a few wet days in Scotland and I think I got lucky. I'm looking forward to getting out more over the coming months!

[@BadSloucher]

This was such a beautiful video 😍 love the hint of light tip, going to try that next time I’m out and about

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you as always! It's always worth playing around with the light. Often just a tiny hint of it, well placed, makes all the difference!

[@bkc1965]

I enjoyed the video, thanks for sharing your walk with us. I need to get out in the forest here and look for some mushrooms, but it is a bit too warm here in southern Germany at the moment I think.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you for taking the time to watch! Hopefully you get some nice ones springing up soon, although there's always something fun to photograph in a forest!

[@zhuanjifarms5050]

Andrew! Such a funny guy...mushrooms don't exist much anymore here in fiery Colorado...thanks for the content!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you for watching!

[@M31glow]

Great post!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you!

[@duringthemeanwhilst]

mushroom season is back - yay!! it was a real disappointment here (south Wales) last autumn. hopefully it'll be better with more varieties fruiting! very enjoyable watch as usual. some of that getting down low photography displayed olympic gymnast level skills ;-)

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

It wasn't so much the getting down low that was tough, it was getting back up that was the problem!

[@duringthemeanwhilst]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography I know all about that!!!

[@robertkluck7964]

Thank you for another great video. I had a question/thought for a future video. In this one, you had a focus stacked image of a bee. Assuming it was moving, how did you do that?

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hi Robert, thanks for the question. The bee was actually barely moving when I took the shots. And using the auto focus bracketing tool (found on many mirrorless cameras) it rattles through the series so quickly that even the tiny bit of movement it did have didn't make any real difference. Even so, I did quite a few attempts to get it right. Hope that helps!

[@garywebster8355]

Fantastic 😊

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks!!

[@scotskinner4350]

Lots of cool photos in this one Andrew, very inspirational. Thanks for sharing. Which extension tube did you use?

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Scot, I really appreciate it! Any fav images in the set for you? I was using a JJC set I found on amazon a little while ago. They work natively with canon Rf mount and seem to do the job well enough!

[@scotskinner4350]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography I meant, which length of extension tube did you use (Why can't people ready my mind? 😛)? I've got a set of extension tubes that I bought way back when I was shooting film. They don't support auto focus. I really liked that whole group of mushroom photos around the stump of tree near the beginning of the video.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I think it was an 11mm. But don't quite me on that. It's the skinniest one. They often don't support AF as they usually don't allow for communication between camera and lens. So focus stacking becomes a solely manual affair. But that's usually fine in my experience.

[@scotskinner4350]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Thanks. That's what I thought. My skinniest extension tube is 12mm. I'm thinking about hitting one of our local woodlands this week see what I can find. I was in the city park that's walking distance a week ago today. I may go to the local state park or a site managed by the federal government.

[@Hannemanneke]

Thanks Andrew! Nice again and I almost can’t wait till the mushroom season and autumn colors… Today I’ve tried a Raynox DCR 250 on my Sigma 90mm macro on Dahlia flowers… great option too! Do you have used such clip on lenses like the Raynox? Giving more magnification… 😍

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks! I haven't tried one of the clip ons. I might give it a go at some point!

[@billbromer]

Really enjoy your videos. Just wondering how you set the Focus Increment? I have had mixed results with R6mii EF 100mm at f2.8 with very small increments, and poor results with larger increments 5 or higher.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hey Bill, thanks for watching! I honestly find some of the auto focus bracketing settings to be a bit like alchemy and I tend to operate on a 'best guess' approach. I'll often have it set to use smaller increments (maybe not the smallest, but definitely in the lower end) and lean more into taking a higher number of focus points in order to guarantee I get all the focus points I need. This can often be 60+ photos, but storage isn't an issue (I use fast 2TB CFExpress cards) and I usually use very wide apertures with narrow focus so I need to take more focus points than if I were at f/10. Even in these shots I did them multiple times and I often shot way more focus points than I required and simply culled the spares in post later on. Do you also find it to be a trial and error process?

[@johnlangford7788]

Very good

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks John!

[@flyingfd]

Great video Andrew. Just out of interest where are these woods?

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you! These are in the blairadam country park in Scotland

[@flyingfd]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Thank you, Andrew!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

@flyingfd my pleasure!

[@LonerJoe]

Thanks alot

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you for watching!

[@LonerJoe]

@AndrewLanxonPhotography the pleasure was mine 😃

[@FleetingMoments-2]

Have you ever thought of running local tutorials? I have the R5, and started with 35mm f1.8, and today finally picked up 100mm F2.8 from WEX Edi :)

[@lynnecliffe3056]

talk about lying down on the job 😉

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Turns out the middle of the forest is a wonderful place for a nap

[@rayzalaf8988]

What size was the extension tube? The smallest I've come across is 13mm I could do with something around 7 or 8.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

I used an 11mm one which I bought on amazon for RF mount

[@briantafelmeyer7337]

Maybe on days you feel your images and content are not up to par for the videos you can set the camera up and dance in front of the camera in the middle of the forest with some really good music……😂

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

I think I might have seen that somewhere :)

[@SreejithRc]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography @courtneyVictoria she does 😅

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Yeah she's great

[@SreejithRc]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography you too 👍😊

[@sandihermana4873]

You should take a macro with a phone huawei pura 70 ultra😂