Olympus OM Macro Photography Tips – Part 2 “Blurred Macro Shots”

This is the second part to my posts on macro photography tips. Part 2 looks at reasons why you may experience blurred images when starting out, along with some suggestions on how to avoid blurring your pictures which I hope you find useful.

Why do my macro shots turn out blurred?

I started out shooting close ups with my Zuiko Olympus OM 50mm F1.8 lens on front of a set of Vivitar extension tubes, and the majority of my first attempts were assigned to the bin as the pictures came out blurred. The cause for blurred macro pictures will typically be for one of two reasons, either camera shake or subject movement.

Why did I encounter camera shake or subject movement? The answer was that as I increased the level of magnification, I suffered loss of light reaching the film. This resulted in slower shutter speeds.  Slow shutter speeds increase the likelihood of camera shake when hand held.

I attempted to counter this by using wider (open) apertures on my lens, but this was sometimes not even enough. I was willing to suffer the loss of depth of field for a fast shutter speed, which sometimes can lessen the impact & result of your picture. I also found myself regularly cursing the weather conditions .. too cloudy (dim light conditions) … too windy (subjects moved). One time that clearly sticks in my mind was when I went to Durslton Country Park over by Swanage one summer. I wanted to try taking close ups of wild flowers. It was sunny BUT it was windy, and I remember spending a long time trying to hold my camera steady to take shots of flowers that didn’t stop moving about! It turned out to be a very frustrating day.

How do I stop my pictures from turning out blurred?

The cheapest option, is the elements! Bright sunny days or calm (no wind) days are great, the combination of the two is the utopia. If you live in the United Kingdom then you know that these did not come along that often, so grab the opportunity when it presents itself. For the many many other days, do not fear, there are items you can buy if you have the money.

There are several accessories available and I would recommend that you look into a tripod and / or macro flash gear.

Placement of your camera onto a tripod will provide a more stable platform than hand holding. This is very useful for still subjects and when you are shooting at slow shutter speeds, e.g use of low ISO film (reduce grain effects) or higher aperture (F16) to increase depth of field.  It is not so useful if you intend to shoot lively subjects, as chasing a butterfly with you camera on a tripod is not really going to work that well.

Macro flash is very useful when you need to hand hold your camera or you are shooting at high magnifications and need to freeze movement, e.g. the insect is moving or there is wind movement.

I own both and use of them will be dictated by the situation. I will use a tripod, both for landscape and macro photography, and for the latter this is used a lot when shooting flowers. It allows me to use natural light instead of flash. I also own macro flash gear, and I have used this to in the field for butterfly shoots and also high magnification insect shots.

Another tip is to use a higher speed rated ISO film with a wider aperture on your lens. The higher the speed rating e.g. 400 ISO instead of 50 ISO, the less actual natural light is needed. Plus with your lens stopped wide open, providing more light, you will be able to achieve faster shutter speeds which overcome camera shake.

Part 3 will be posted soon.