featured Connect Photography Photography tips Techniques/ tips
Spring is a season of renewal for plants, animals and humans alike. As flowers blossom, insects begin to buzz. The days get longer and warmer, inspiring many people to spend their leisure time outdoors.
A few weeks ago, we talked about capturing life in spring photography. Now it’s time to magnify life with macro photography. Put simply, macro photography is taking really close-up pictures of small specimens so the size of the subject appears greater than life size - like this:
caption id="attachment_10387" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Courtesy of Mehmet Karaca"/caption
Isn’t that a great spring-themed image?
Macro photography is generally best achieved with a macro lens attached to a single-lens reflex camera. Pro macro gear can be quite expensive, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t quite spring for it yet. With the emergence of digital photography, macro photography became more accessible to more people. Most point-and-shoot digital cameras have a “Macro” mode (the flower icon) that will do just fine for exploring spring’s vibrant nature up-close.
Here are a few macro photography tips that apply to all levels of expertise:
– Invest in a tripod – Any camera shake whatsoever will throw your macro subject out of focus. It’s best to have a tripod for stabilized shooting, and a remote release is very helpful as well.
– Be ready – When photographing moving subjects, it’s especially important to set yourself up and pre-focus so you don’t miss your chance at a great shot. This also applies to non-moving subjects that sway with the wind.
– Think abstract – The macro world is filled with extreme detail. While full flowers and face-to-face insect shots tend to get the glory, the intricacies of the world around you make for unique abstract photos.
– Try different lighting – Natural light is always best, but it isn’t always adequate. Your camera’s built-in flash is flat-out brutal, so try introducing varying degrees of light from different angles or filtering your flash.
– Aperture and depth of field – Remember this: For macro photography you want a small aperture (a large F-number) to achieve the widest depth of field, which will allow you to capture a clear image of your subject.
– Explore accessories – If you enjoy macro photography, there are tons of cool accessories that will help take your imagery to the next level.
Much like spring, macro photography offers a refreshing new perspective on life – Isn’t that what art is supposed to do?
caption id="attachment_10388" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Courtesy of creativeoverflow.net"/caption