The subject beetle is probably 3-4mm in length. Camera is a Canon EOS 700D with a standard 200mm zoom lens and a 40mm lens spacer

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[–] [S] 3 points 6 days ago (1 child)

I've heard of focus stacking but haven't tried it yet. I suppose I'd need a way to jog the focus in steps or something while taking a series of shots from the same distance? All my pictures are free hand, not on a tripod, and outside where the wind blows things around so I don't know how I'd get a steady stepped series of shots, if that's required.

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  • Yes, that’s the general idea. There are different techniques, but the traditional method is physically moving the camera in small steps to create a larger “artificial DoF” than your shot settings produced in a single frame. Fuji and Nikon have “in-camera” focus bracketing that moves your focus from minimum focus distance to infinity, with Fuji offering a better, more robust option. I wouldn’t be surprised if canon had a similar feature by now. This allows the camera to remain in place and move the DoF with optics. Regardless, yeah, free-handing won’t cut it without tons of light so you could stop down for a larger DoF and use a very rapid shutter speed. You could likely get some decent results if you’re sure-handed, but you’d probably want at least a monopod. Then there’s the software side of blending them together to produce the “single” image. So it just depends on if/how much you want to continue exploring the macro world. But it is some fun stuff, so have fun with it and feel free to ask anything any time.

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