Eraserfish
New member
I've had my D7000 for about 6 months now, and while I know quite a bit about it, I stumbled on a quick way to make macros turn out great while shooting yesterday. Many of you will know this, but some may not. I almost never use live view mode, due to the fact that focus is derived from contrast (like video uses) rather than the great phase detection it usually uses. This makes it slower to focus and to snap pictures, so I've only used it for framing shots on a tripod or when I physically can't get my eye to the viewfinder for some reason. Here's the TIP: While using your camera on a tripod to take a macro shot- switch to live mode and press the + button a couple of times to zoom in on the focus point (single point focus works best for macro obviously). While seeing this exploded view of your subject, you can manually focus your shot to perfection. I Kept coming home after a shoot to find out that many of my macros/ stills/ or even portraits were just slightly out of focus while using very large apertures, and this method has virutally cured that for stills and macros. People move around so most of us reach for the AF lenses at this point. If I really want to use manual focus for a head shot of a person or animal, I set my secondary ring to shoot continuous slow and focus as I snap a few shots (guarantees that you get the eyes in focus instead of the ear or nose).
Good shooting!
Good shooting!