As a handheld photographer, shooting macro with a 2X teleconverter was something that I had never attempted, or even considered, in the past. That all changed when we purchased the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS macro lens.

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Being able to do handheld macro photography with an equivalent field-of-view of 360 mm is a unique experience… but one that may not be fully appreciated when photographing blossoms.

Doing macro photography of insects is another matter, as getting in too close to a subject may cause it to flee. Having the option of putting a bit more distance between one’s camera and a skittish subject has an obvious benefit.

As we know, the closer we get to a subject, the shallower our depth of field becomes. With macro photography our depth-of-field can be extremely shallow. This is one of the main reasons why many macro photographers use tripod and rail systems to capture multiple images using varying focusing points. They then combine their set of images in post using focus stacking software.

If you examine the EXIF data on the images in this article you’ll see that the vast majority of them were captured with my M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS lens fully stopped down to f/22.

Like many photographers I was told never to fully stop a lens down to f/22, fearing softness in images due to diffraction. This was of particular concern when using smaller sensor cameras.

Well… with over a year of experience under my belt using my M.Zuiko 90 mm macro, I now have no hesitation stopping this lens down to f/22 whenever needed. I also have no hesitation shooting my E-M1X up to ISO-6400 when doing macro photography with this lens.

Every photographer has their own approach to their work so I’m not suggesting that anyone follow what I do. The objective of this article is simply to feature a wide assortment of handheld macro images that were all captured using the M.Zuiko MC-20 2X teleconverter.

From a creative standpoint some folks like to have a small portion of their macro subject in focus, while other photographers want more depth-of-field. One approach isn’t better than another… they’re just different. As we can see in the image above, using f/22 when shooting directly downward on a subject can help reveal details along the length of the subject’s body.

That same aperture of f/22 when used with a front quarter angle and from a closer distance to subject, tends to have some of our subject go out of focus. From an eye flow perspective this composition approach forces a viewer’s eye towards the head of the subject bee.

This creative approach was also used in the image above of a nymph. In this example choosing an appropriate focusing point… the forehead of the nymph for example… was critical to control depth-of-field.

Notice how moving in slightly closer to the subject nymph… from 280 mm to 250 mm… has now put the left antennae of the nymph out-of-focus when compared to the previous image. A difference of 30 mm is only about 1.18 inches closer to the subject.

If we want most of a subject’s body in focus when doing macro photography, our shooting angle to the subject is critical. You can see in the photograph above that the subject nymph’s body was parallel to the sensor in my camera. This parallel alignment helped me get the entire length of the nymph’s body in focus.

A nymph is an immature grasshopper that has not yet fully developed. When it first hatches it is tiny… about the size of a kernel of wheat (~5 mm) and does not have any wings. Its reproductive organs are not fully developed.

It takes five moults before a nymph will become a mature grasshopper. When first hatched nymphs are extremely difficult to spot as they are tiny and often perch motionless on the edges or undersides of leaves. Getting in too close will cause them to leap a comparatively long distance… given their tiny body size… to a new leaf. Once they’ve leaped… they can be extremely hard to find again.

I used a single, small auto-focusing point for all of the images featured in this article. This allowed for accurate auto-focusing on my macro subjects. Given the shallow depth-of-field found in macro photography, focus accuracy is critical.

When doing handheld macro photography it is critical that we eliminate any sway from our own body.  Even the slightest movement of our body towards… or away from the subject… can result in an out-of-focus image. This is the primary reason why I always take a short stool with me when shooting handheld macro photography. It helps me reduce the risk of body sway.

Our shutter release technique can also result in out-of-focus macro photographs. This can occur when we get an auditory confirmation ‘beep’ from our camera letting us know that auto-focus has been achieved…. but instead of following through and fully depressing our shutter release… we pause momentarily.

A slight pause of even a second or two is often all that is needed for some minor body sway to occur. This can put our images out-of-focus. For whatever reason, if we hesitate after getting the auditory auto-focus signal from our camera… we should always reacquire auto-focus. Then immediately capture our image with a smooth shutter release motion.

The risk of an out-of-focus photograph is even more pronounced if we are standing while shooting a handheld macro image. In these situations a shutter release pause can result in a woefully out-of-focus photograph.

Over the years I’ve witnessed many photographers blame their gear for an out-of-focus handheld macro image… rather than realizing that their handheld technique was the root cause of the problem.

Unfortunately when doing macro photography of small critters, we often are not afforded very good shooting angles by our subjects. So, we end up photographing what Mother Nature provides. I suppose the rear end of a spider may be better than no image at all. 🙂

If we can adjust our physical position so we can compose our images with a smooth, monochromatic background… we can create more dramatic and visually pleasing images.

All of the photographs featured in this article were captured two days ago as I wandered around our yard at home. The image above was one of my favourite ones from that afternoon macro photography session.  The tiny fly pictured above landed quite close to my sitting position. It remained motionless long enough for me to move my stool slightly to create a nice, smooth background for my composition. It soon darted off.

A couple of minutes later I watched the tiny fly return and land on a different part of the same plant. I quickly switched my camera setting to in-camera focus stacking… and leaned in closer to the tiny fly. This resulted in the full frame capture seen above.

If you happen to own the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS macro lens, or a macro lens from another brand, and have not stopped it down fully to f/22… there’s no harm in giving it a try to see what images that aperture can produce for you.

And, if your macro lens accepts 2X teleconverters like the M.Zuiko MC-20… that also may be a worthwhile experiment.

Macro photography opens up a whole new world of image opportunities for us. It behooves us to leverage all of the photographic technology available to us, and push our existing boundaries… regardless of the camera gear we may happen to own.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files or out-of-camera jpegs. This is the 1,470 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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