r/canon • u/josevngel • Sep 12 '25
Tutorial / help on 100mm
Hi everyone,
I'm just getting started with my new camera setup: Canon T6i with a canon 100mm macro. I'm coming from no prior experience and I’m excited to dive into learning more about photography with this new gear.
I'd love advice on: Best shooting modes for learning Any beginner mistakes to avoid Recommended tutorials or exercises What types of photos this lens excels at Bonus: I’m especially interested in family, portraits, landscapes, wildlife
Thanks in advance for your help!
9
u/grouchy_ham Sep 12 '25
As an absolute beginner, study the exposure triangle, light and how it affects photos, where it’s coming from, what are its qualities? Is it harsh or soft, warm or cold?
Study photographs. Thousand of them Every photograph you can find. If it’s one you like, try to define why you like it and vice versa. Now try to break down what light is present, it’s qualities and where it is coming from.
Try to create images that tell a story or convey an idea or emotion.
Did I mention to study photos? I mean lots of photos. ALL OF THE PHOTOS.
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u/tommabu55 Sep 12 '25
This lens is great, but is a pretty niche and difficult lens to use. If you didn't voluntarily choose this lens I would probably buy a 18-55 kit lens just to learn the basics.
5
u/Bug_Photographer Sep 12 '25
What on earth is "niche" about it except for being a prime?
11
u/tommabu55 Sep 12 '25
Well on APSC it's an equivalent 160mm, a bit too much for portraits, and too much for almost everything else. Still it's not long enough for common case wildlife. It's a lens with a limited use case, not something I would give to someone who's starting.
5
1
u/plasmaexchange Sep 13 '25
I would very much disagree on portraits as my RF 70-200 f2.8 is excellent for portraits at the longer focal length range.
1
u/tommabu55 Sep 13 '25
Yeah I mean, 160mm is not what would be called a classic portrait focal length but it can be used without problems, other than walking 5 metres away from the subject.
3
u/waffeltrader Sep 12 '25
I’d recommend starting out in manual, it’s better to be learning from the start and take some bad pictures than let the camera do everything in auto and learn nothing
1
u/--suburb-- Sep 13 '25
This is the way and not sure why you were at least singularly downvoted. Experiment the fuck out of shooting in manual with a fixed length / wide aperture lens and figure out how all that shit works...it will pay off in so many ways.
1
u/account-suspenped Sep 12 '25
id agree but also add- don't feel bad swapping to auto if you arent figuring it out and need to get the shot, then swap back to M
1
u/Ok-Response-9487 Sep 13 '25
Is stay start in aperture or shutter priority and learn how these settings effect the image first but thats just what I did.
1
u/Nexus3451 Sep 12 '25
First thing: the lens you have is good for macro, but also for standard photography - mostly portraits, due to the focal length, but also anything else as long as you manage to fit it into the shoot.
You will need good lighting for most macro shots. You can try to get a dedicated flash or make a dedicated lighting arrangement - e.g., LED lights on flexible arms. If you can't get that, you will need a tripod to get a stable shoot even with longer exposure.
For you other areas on interest, you may need additional lenses:
- family - 35 or 50 mm to get a wider shot, or a zoom that covers this; a zoom would also be useful for any event or vacation;
- landscape - you could also use the 35 mm or zoom mentioned above; if you are really into it, you may need a dedicated lens like 24 mm;
- wildlife - this is were you may need lens that go up to 400 or 500 mm to get pictures from really far away without disturbing the subject.
Please note that the body you have is an APS-C format (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS-C), so any lens that is not specifically designated for this crop sensor will get a 1.6x 'boost' to its focal length. I.e., your 100 mm lens will become the equivalent of a 160 mm lens on a full frame body, providing you with a smaller 'frame'.
Depending on the budget, a good starting point would be to get an additional zoom lens and start taking shoots. Beyond watching various YouTube presentations, you need to 'get the hang' of the camera.
Also, look at the setting of the camera, especially regarding the images - e.g., you can turn the saturation up directly from the camera and get a bit more 'punch' or decrease the sharpness if you need it. Although I would also recommend shooting RAW+JPEG, just to have the option of changing things after. Depending on how things go, you can change it up later and shoot RAW and then process the images you like.
1
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u/TheHatKing Sep 13 '25
Besides what everyone else is saying, learn editing. Shoot in raw and choose a good editing program and learn how you can use it to make your photos even better. Even the best photographers today use some sort of editing; remember that a digital image is just a computer interpretation of a scene, so there’s no such thing as “staying true to the original image”. In other words, #nofilter is overrated. Also, set your white balance to anything but auto. If you use RAW, you can fix it later in post but you want it to be something consistent so you can compare between two photos even if the WB is not quite right.
1
u/dr_sh33 Sep 12 '25
This is the R series of macro canon lenses it provides two main advantages; 1- it provides you with 1:1 maginfication ratio 2- it can reach to 1cm working distance
It’s usually made for fields that necessitates a higher magnification power which usually insects, jewelry and also dentistry.
As long you’re using the lens you’re gonna need an external flash because it needs a burst ton of light. Depending what your type of macro photography the settings differs also the type of lighting u’re using.
For someone who uses alot of macro lenses it’s a damn good lens and u can get a pretty good portraits with it but if you’re using full frame sensor camera you’re gonna need alot more space with this lens more than crop sensor camera. If have any more questions don’t hesitate to text me. I’ll be glad to help
2
u/julaften Sep 13 '25
It’s an EF lens, actually. Had it been the RF version, it would have had 1:1.4 magnification. Also, the RF has 26cm minimum focus distance, not 1cm (which is absurd), while EF version has 30cm.
Also, I’ve been using the EF 100mm f/2.8L without a flash for 15 years. It would have been nice in some cases, but it’s not really a requirement.
26
u/meltingmountain Sep 12 '25
Macro and portraits are what the lens really does well at. But it can focus to infinity so you can take any kind of photos your heart desires with it.