Using a focusing rail for macro photography is the best way to ensure perfect sharpness every time
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Macro photography is all about precision; the smallest movement of the camera can completely change focus and composition, not to mention the slightest breeze can make your subject sway violently when viewed through a macro lens.
In reality, this movement is tiny, but the act of capturing a tiny subject at or close to a 1:1 ratio magnifies movement as well as making minute details appear larger than life. Using a Manfrotto 454 Micro Positioning Plate/macro focusing rail is the best way to take care of focusing because it offers more precision than any other macro focusing method.
The advantage of using a macro focusing rail is that you can set your macro lens to a
1:1 ratio using the manual focus scale. Then, once you attach your camera to the rail you can move it backwards and forwards in tiny amounts to find focus. When a macro lens is set to a 1:1 ratio, focus is found by changing the distance between the front element and the subject, rather than turning the focus ring.
For this reason, focusing rails are invaluable when focus stacking to increase the depth-offield in macro shots. But we’re going to look at the basics of using a focusing rail to capture a single image at an extremely shallow depth-offield where focus couldn’t be more critical.
AFTER
PERFECT SHARPNESS
THIS IMAGE WASN’T TAKEN AT A
1:1 RATIO, BUT USING A MACRO FOCUSING RAIL MADE IT INCREDIBLY EASY TO FINE-TUNE MANUAL
FOCUS FOR A PERFECT RESULT.
1
POSITION YOUR TRIPOD Set up your tripod at the level of your subject. If you have a model with an articulating centre column you can spread the legs and get low, but if not remove the centre column and insert it back into the legs upside down so the camera can be positioned low to the ground.
2
ATTACH THE FOCUS RAIL Turn your focusing rail over and attach the tripod plate to the bottom. Next, attach your camera to the middle of the other side of the rail so there’s plenty of room to move it backwards and forwards. Once completed, attach your camera and focusing rail to the tripod head.
3
SET THE LENS FOCUS If you’re shooting a tiny subject set the lens to manual focus and turn the focus ring to 1:1. This will lock focus at the shortest distance possible. For our shot, the subject is about the size of a 10p coin so focus will be set in step five because it’s a slightly different process than at 1:1.
BEFORE
Inset FOCUS HUNTING
Macro lenses are prone to hunt when set to autofocus and this can result in wasted time waiting for the lens to find focus, or simply misfocused shots.
6
CAMERA SETTINGS At this point, you can adjust your camera settings to the desired amounts based on exposure and the depth-offield desired. For this shot a shallow depth-offield was preferable, so the aperture was set to f/2.8 in aperture priority mode. Exposure compensation of +0.7 stops was also applied.
4
COMPOSE THE SHOT Compose the shot using Live View and take advantage of the virtual horizon to ensure the camera is level. If shooting at a 1:1 ratio, compose and then go to the next step, but if shooting slightly further away like we are, roughly focus the lens so that the subject looks sharp.
5
FINE-TUNE FOCUS In Live View, zoom into the part of the subject that needs to be pin-sharp. For this image, it’s the central area of the primrose and its stamen. Once zoomed in, turn the dial at the back of the focusing rail to move the camera backwards and forwards until the subject is sharp.