Geraint Radford
‘I class myself as a nature photographer with a macro lens,’ wildlife pro Geraint says. ‘While I love insects, I know not everyone does and I want everybody to get into nature photography, whether it is flowers, fungi or bugs.’
Geraint is an OM System ambassador and uses the OM-1, mostly partnered with the 60mm macro lens and FL-1900R flash. www.geraintradford.com
For getting sharp macro shots, stability is probably the most important thing and that is easier if your gear doesn’t weigh a lot. I use the OM System OM-1 with 30mm f/3.5 and 60mm f/2.8 macro lenses.
I always shoot handheld. I am blessed with steady hands, and can handhold the 60mm macro lens very close to the subject at 1/10sec – and that comes from familiarity with the kit and constant practice. Also, I shoot handheld because I have developed my shooting style to get in, get the shot and move on and that disturbs the subject less. It keeps you moving and exploring too.
I’ve tried tripods but they don’t suit my working style. I like the adventure of taking my camera out and spontaneously shooting what’s happening without having to set things up.
Besides, the OM-1 with its 8EV benefit IBIS system is so stable that it’s almost like shooting on a tripod.
I tend to get the story and composition first and then find focus and worry about detail. You can have a very sharp picture but if it is badly composed and not nice to look at, all it has is sharpness. One of my favourite images that kickstarted this journey is of a springtail shown here. It is tiny, literally 1.5mm, and I shot it from underneath a leaf and behind that leaf is a fungi that is 0.5mm. To get those two subjects sharp in one shot is impossible. So I did a focus stack of the fungi first, pulled the camera back, and waited for the springtail to come into shot and then photographed it. Blending those elements was a challenge but I got the story.
In terms of set-up, I have the AF-ON button set to continuous AF and the shutter button to release only. For single shot AF, one touch of the AF-ON button brings the shot into focus.
I use the smallest single focus point so I can be really clinical with focus. I can shoot an insect through blades of grass for soft out-of-focus framing and the OM-1 is so stable the AF doesn’t hunt. I use autofocus unless I’m at very high magnifications. With extension tubes or the Raynox DCR-250 close-up lens, everything is manual, even focus stacking.
I prioritise focus stacking over focus bracketing because it eliminates any doubt. The camera shoots up to 15 raw files, which are retained, and quickly blends them together to give a JPEG. I check the stacked preview carefully and if the camera has blended it successfully, I know when I process the raws in Photoshop later that it’s definitely going to work; and knowing that in the field is a massive advantage. It saves me shooting hundreds of shots hoping for the best.
For me, focus stacking is a creative feature as well as a technical one. It can be used to gain depth of field, but also to limit it. Say you’re shooting a flower. To get the flower sharp you’d use f/11, but that means the background is quite distinct.
With stacking you can limit where the depth of field ends so you can use f/2.8 with up to 15 frames to get the flower sharp against a blurred background.
In a typical scenario with an insect on a flower I go for 15 frames with a differential setting of five which is a nice happy medium provided I can set an f/stop for enough focus to cover that differential. I usually stack at around f/5.6.
Finally, shooting handheld macro, flash is your best friend. I use the OM System FL-900R speedlight. It recycles fast enough for focus stacking, but I use it responsibly because subject welfare is important.