Macro photography, or 'micro photography' as it is becoming called these days, is all about getting close to your subject. If you want to shoot a macro photo of a leaf for instance, you'll have to have to get very close. For this you will ideally be using a macro lens.
If you're lucky, you'll already have a zoom lens which has macro functionality. You may find a section on the lens which is coloured orange with an 'M'. Now it is best to remember that this isn't a dedicated macro lens, it just means that it can focus very close.
If you want to properly get into macro photography, you will need something a bit more suited to the job than this. A macro lens will focus down to an incredibly small distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're shooting. It is often possible to get as close as 10 or 12 cm to your subject. This is something you couldn't easily do with a regular lens.
When you get in close to a subject, your depth of field starts to get smaller and becomes shallower. This is a universal feature of all lenses. We human beings tend to move around a lot even if we try to stay still. Our small movements backwards and forwards will cause the focal point to move back and forth so it can be extremely challenging to focus on something when doing macro photography. One way to overcome this problem is to use your elbows as a miniature tripod to try and keep the camera steady. Unfortunately, as you get closer and closer to your subject, it becomes more and more challenging for you to remain motionless because you are breathing and moving without intention. Every time you adjust the focus and then adjust your position, your photo becomes blurry.
That is where tripods come in handy. The tripod is a brilliantly simple invention because it enables you to get shots that you otherwise wouldn't be able to take by eliminating your own human movements.
Another enemy of the macro photographer is breeze. Slight breezes can come by just when you least expect them to and typically at the most inconvenient times for you to get that perfect shot. We have to pick the perfect conditions whenever we have the opportunity. If you want to do some nature photography on a breezy day you're probably not going to enjoy the best conditions to get the best possible photos. But there is an alternative method which we will come to in just a minute.
Another factor to consider with macro photography is lighting. If you are outdoors with an overcast sky and you want to photograph something delicate like a flower, a slightly overcast sky will often be the best light for this type of photography. The light is still directional although it is very soft and subtle.
Another great tool for macro is the reflector. The beauty of using reflectors for macro is that the reflectors themselves can be pretty small. One example of a reflector that you probably have already is a notepad made of white paper inside. Just open it up and move it alongside the object you're about to capture. You will notice that the light on the object changes slightly when you use the notepad.
Now I wrote earlier that I would be giving you a useful tip on how to get around the problem of breezes when doing macro and that tip is to move indoors. If you are taking a picture of a flower, you can bring that flower indoors (as long as it's not someone else's flower!). Indoors is an excellent place for doing macro photography and one of the top reasons is that there are far less disturbances like sudden breezes and other factors. Don't get me wrong - outdoors is excellent for macro in many ways but if it is raining cats and dogs outside then practicing macro indoors can provide perfect conditions.
It is also very important that you spend time to choose the right flower. As you move in close any tiny blemishes will become obvious, such as pollen stains on the petals.
Until now I've written a lot about flowers in this article but there are plenty of other objects including objects commonly found in the home that make wonderful pictures for macro. Have a quick check around your house. Objects made of glass such as jam jars, vases, bottles and so on can produce some interesting results because of the interesting ways light reflects off their surfaces. The background doesn't matter too much when you're doing macro, because when you have that short depth of field, especially when you have a wide aperture, it doesn't matter so much what's in the background because it will be blurred into a mix of tones. You only need to think about what those tones are.
You will usually use single point auto focus. What this means is you will be telling the camera which little dots in the viewfinder to focus on. Depending on the make and model of your equipment, how to use the single point auto focus feature will vary, so it is best to read your camera's manual to find out. You will be able to choose which part of the view finder you want to focus on. If you're on auto the camera might not understand exactly where to focus and it might choose the wrong part of the picture, which will make you feel quite frustrated because you won't be able to get the photograph you want.
When shooting inside, you will usually be working with a slower shutter speed (around 1/8th of a second). That is because there isn't a huge amount of light indoors usually, but what light there is, is often really nice, desirable light.
Another thing to take into consideration is the aperture. Imagine you're taking a close up picture of two different objects with one in the foreground of the photo and the other towards the background. Suppose you want to make the object in the background appear to be more blurred, while the object in the foreground is well defined and in focus. You may be typically using an F8 which is a middle of the road kind of aperture, but by making use of a wider aperture you will be able to put the emphasis much more strongly onto the object in the foreground and make the background subject become much more out of focus. One example of an aperture you could use for this is around F3.3, which will make the shutter speed faster and decrease the depth of field.
Abstracts also make excellent images. You can use metal objects around your home such as your toaster, tool box, and so on. They tend to have lots of reflective surfaces with unique shapes and lines. Use a relatively shallow depth of field, so that it will give you a place to look in the photo, rather than just viewing the entire frame as a whole. Shiny objects made of stainless steel for example may confuse your auto focus, in which case you may need to switch to manual.
You can get great results by taking photos of objects close to a window which does not have any direct sunlight coming in through it. The side of the object nearest to the window will look brighter than the other darker side. Try playing around with a reflector to get some different effects using light on this darker side to wrap it around the object. This works well with fruit that has a shiny surface, such as limes, lemons, oranges and so on.
So how would you describe macro photography?
Macro photography is concerned with zooming in on things and it opens up a whole new dimension of photography using the plainest of subject matter and showing it in a totally new and different way. You just have to look around your home and try to find things that could work well. If you are doing macro outdoors, you will have to learn to deal with sudden breezes, which could cause a large number of blurry photos. So start experimenting and enjoy it! Remember, you don't necessarily need to have the dedicated macro lens.
If you're lucky, you'll already have a zoom lens which has macro functionality. You may find a section on the lens which is coloured orange with an 'M'. Now it is best to remember that this isn't a dedicated macro lens, it just means that it can focus very close.
If you want to properly get into macro photography, you will need something a bit more suited to the job than this. A macro lens will focus down to an incredibly small distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're shooting. It is often possible to get as close as 10 or 12 cm to your subject. This is something you couldn't easily do with a regular lens.
When you get in close to a subject, your depth of field starts to get smaller and becomes shallower. This is a universal feature of all lenses. We human beings tend to move around a lot even if we try to stay still. Our small movements backwards and forwards will cause the focal point to move back and forth so it can be extremely challenging to focus on something when doing macro photography. One way to overcome this problem is to use your elbows as a miniature tripod to try and keep the camera steady. Unfortunately, as you get closer and closer to your subject, it becomes more and more challenging for you to remain motionless because you are breathing and moving without intention. Every time you adjust the focus and then adjust your position, your photo becomes blurry.
That is where tripods come in handy. The tripod is a brilliantly simple invention because it enables you to get shots that you otherwise wouldn't be able to take by eliminating your own human movements.
Another enemy of the macro photographer is breeze. Slight breezes can come by just when you least expect them to and typically at the most inconvenient times for you to get that perfect shot. We have to pick the perfect conditions whenever we have the opportunity. If you want to do some nature photography on a breezy day you're probably not going to enjoy the best conditions to get the best possible photos. But there is an alternative method which we will come to in just a minute.
Another factor to consider with macro photography is lighting. If you are outdoors with an overcast sky and you want to photograph something delicate like a flower, a slightly overcast sky will often be the best light for this type of photography. The light is still directional although it is very soft and subtle.
Another great tool for macro is the reflector. The beauty of using reflectors for macro is that the reflectors themselves can be pretty small. One example of a reflector that you probably have already is a notepad made of white paper inside. Just open it up and move it alongside the object you're about to capture. You will notice that the light on the object changes slightly when you use the notepad.
Now I wrote earlier that I would be giving you a useful tip on how to get around the problem of breezes when doing macro and that tip is to move indoors. If you are taking a picture of a flower, you can bring that flower indoors (as long as it's not someone else's flower!). Indoors is an excellent place for doing macro photography and one of the top reasons is that there are far less disturbances like sudden breezes and other factors. Don't get me wrong - outdoors is excellent for macro in many ways but if it is raining cats and dogs outside then practicing macro indoors can provide perfect conditions.
It is also very important that you spend time to choose the right flower. As you move in close any tiny blemishes will become obvious, such as pollen stains on the petals.
Until now I've written a lot about flowers in this article but there are plenty of other objects including objects commonly found in the home that make wonderful pictures for macro. Have a quick check around your house. Objects made of glass such as jam jars, vases, bottles and so on can produce some interesting results because of the interesting ways light reflects off their surfaces. The background doesn't matter too much when you're doing macro, because when you have that short depth of field, especially when you have a wide aperture, it doesn't matter so much what's in the background because it will be blurred into a mix of tones. You only need to think about what those tones are.
You will usually use single point auto focus. What this means is you will be telling the camera which little dots in the viewfinder to focus on. Depending on the make and model of your equipment, how to use the single point auto focus feature will vary, so it is best to read your camera's manual to find out. You will be able to choose which part of the view finder you want to focus on. If you're on auto the camera might not understand exactly where to focus and it might choose the wrong part of the picture, which will make you feel quite frustrated because you won't be able to get the photograph you want.
When shooting inside, you will usually be working with a slower shutter speed (around 1/8th of a second). That is because there isn't a huge amount of light indoors usually, but what light there is, is often really nice, desirable light.
Another thing to take into consideration is the aperture. Imagine you're taking a close up picture of two different objects with one in the foreground of the photo and the other towards the background. Suppose you want to make the object in the background appear to be more blurred, while the object in the foreground is well defined and in focus. You may be typically using an F8 which is a middle of the road kind of aperture, but by making use of a wider aperture you will be able to put the emphasis much more strongly onto the object in the foreground and make the background subject become much more out of focus. One example of an aperture you could use for this is around F3.3, which will make the shutter speed faster and decrease the depth of field.
Abstracts also make excellent images. You can use metal objects around your home such as your toaster, tool box, and so on. They tend to have lots of reflective surfaces with unique shapes and lines. Use a relatively shallow depth of field, so that it will give you a place to look in the photo, rather than just viewing the entire frame as a whole. Shiny objects made of stainless steel for example may confuse your auto focus, in which case you may need to switch to manual.
You can get great results by taking photos of objects close to a window which does not have any direct sunlight coming in through it. The side of the object nearest to the window will look brighter than the other darker side. Try playing around with a reflector to get some different effects using light on this darker side to wrap it around the object. This works well with fruit that has a shiny surface, such as limes, lemons, oranges and so on.
So how would you describe macro photography?
Macro photography is concerned with zooming in on things and it opens up a whole new dimension of photography using the plainest of subject matter and showing it in a totally new and different way. You just have to look around your home and try to find things that could work well. If you are doing macro outdoors, you will have to learn to deal with sudden breezes, which could cause a large number of blurry photos. So start experimenting and enjoy it! Remember, you don't necessarily need to have the dedicated macro lens.
About the Author:
If you want to learn many more in-depth photography tips and tricks, beyond answering the question what is macro photography, be sure to check out Luke Walker's other website and blogs here.
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