Insects, bugs and spiders make great macro photography subjects in that most people have easy accessibility to them, and done properly the resulting images can be quite impressive. Here are a few suggestions for anybody starting in macro insect photography.
Camera Settings:
Switch to manual focus and lock it off at the distance you want. Then move forwards and backwards till you find the sweet spot. Try experimenting with macro rings and tele-convertors as well as your macro lens, and get an understanding of the ways that you can apply both magnification and zoom in a single image. (When using zooms, watch for vignetting).
Switch to Aperture priority and use the smallest aperture for the maximum depth of field. Magnification decreases your depth of field so you generally wish to be using the fastest possible lens at maximum aperture.
Lighting Options:
Pick your days for optimum light. Bright cloudy days are good and allow for quicker shutter speeds. Try experimenting with fill flash and reflectors to light your subject. With fill flash, use only the bare minimum to even things out and store color. If your background isn't ideal, try utilising shades to darken problem areas.
External Flash will give you much better control and better results. Always diffuse the light and/or reflect it. Bracket as much as you can and jot down a note of the settings you use, and get a feel for the best settings for your get at different distances and magnifications.
Play around with adding a Tele-Convertor after your Macro lens as this enables you to get the same amount of magnification from further away, which helps you illuminate your subject more evenly.
Practical Considerations:
Be patient and move slowly. Study your subject and see how it behaves, then work out how best to capture it. Decide on the most significant feature "typically the eyes "that must definitely be in perfect focus for the photo to work.
Get to know your subject prior to starting. When are they most active? What do they do at night? What plants do they eat? What behaviors or traits make them unique?
Be conscious of the background, depth of field and shade areas. Watch that your own shadow does not fall on your subject. Most insects are very sensitive to temperature, so even your breath can cause the insect to take flight. (Inversely, some beetles will freeze if you breathe on them, so make sure you experiment)
In an open environment, give your subject time to become used to you before you move in. Once you are set, move in shooting fast all the way. Get plenty of shots from different distances and angles, bracket your exposures and alter your flash.
Digital Darkroom:
Be super hard on your self and be ready to trash a lot of your photos. This can be simpler if you're absolutely clear on what you were trying to capture before you began, especially with regards the key feature of your subject.
After you've deleted the images that missed the mark, you can do a lot of digital editing to strengthen the images. Most will benefit by some adjustment to the curves, contrast and color saturation.
Stronger photographs can be improved further with easy cropping and rotating. On borderline photographs you can apply selective sharpening to your subject and blur the background as needed.
Commercial Considerations:
If you are intending to sell your macro insect photography, then it's worth taking some time to research both the market and your main competition.
It should come as no great surprise that competition is steep. Virtually everybody with a macro lens will go searching for bugs to photograph at some time or other, and with some practice and patience, most will do a reasonable job of it.
You just have to look through one or two photography sharing web sites to see that there's just as many great images there as you'll find on most professional photo libraries. In short , buyers are spoilt for choice when it comes to stunning insect close-ups. You can stand proud of the masses though.
Usually it boils down to shooting 'behavioural ' shots as well as the 'portraits'.
Most macro insect photographers focus on the portrait type shot, so any time you can capture an image that demonstrates a behaviour or characteristic that make a species unique, you're getting something that the majority miss and photo-buyers can use.
The other thing most photographers do not do well is, identify their subject. At best they could give their image a generic name like 'caterpillar ' or 'stick insect ' which is no use at all to a photo researcher requiring a particular species.
So. always make sure you identify the species with it's full scientific name, plus any common names, and if you can add some engaging behavioural info too , even better!
Camera Settings:
Switch to manual focus and lock it off at the distance you want. Then move forwards and backwards till you find the sweet spot. Try experimenting with macro rings and tele-convertors as well as your macro lens, and get an understanding of the ways that you can apply both magnification and zoom in a single image. (When using zooms, watch for vignetting).
Switch to Aperture priority and use the smallest aperture for the maximum depth of field. Magnification decreases your depth of field so you generally wish to be using the fastest possible lens at maximum aperture.
Lighting Options:
Pick your days for optimum light. Bright cloudy days are good and allow for quicker shutter speeds. Try experimenting with fill flash and reflectors to light your subject. With fill flash, use only the bare minimum to even things out and store color. If your background isn't ideal, try utilising shades to darken problem areas.
External Flash will give you much better control and better results. Always diffuse the light and/or reflect it. Bracket as much as you can and jot down a note of the settings you use, and get a feel for the best settings for your get at different distances and magnifications.
Play around with adding a Tele-Convertor after your Macro lens as this enables you to get the same amount of magnification from further away, which helps you illuminate your subject more evenly.
Practical Considerations:
Be patient and move slowly. Study your subject and see how it behaves, then work out how best to capture it. Decide on the most significant feature "typically the eyes "that must definitely be in perfect focus for the photo to work.
Get to know your subject prior to starting. When are they most active? What do they do at night? What plants do they eat? What behaviors or traits make them unique?
Be conscious of the background, depth of field and shade areas. Watch that your own shadow does not fall on your subject. Most insects are very sensitive to temperature, so even your breath can cause the insect to take flight. (Inversely, some beetles will freeze if you breathe on them, so make sure you experiment)
In an open environment, give your subject time to become used to you before you move in. Once you are set, move in shooting fast all the way. Get plenty of shots from different distances and angles, bracket your exposures and alter your flash.
Digital Darkroom:
Be super hard on your self and be ready to trash a lot of your photos. This can be simpler if you're absolutely clear on what you were trying to capture before you began, especially with regards the key feature of your subject.
After you've deleted the images that missed the mark, you can do a lot of digital editing to strengthen the images. Most will benefit by some adjustment to the curves, contrast and color saturation.
Stronger photographs can be improved further with easy cropping and rotating. On borderline photographs you can apply selective sharpening to your subject and blur the background as needed.
Commercial Considerations:
If you are intending to sell your macro insect photography, then it's worth taking some time to research both the market and your main competition.
It should come as no great surprise that competition is steep. Virtually everybody with a macro lens will go searching for bugs to photograph at some time or other, and with some practice and patience, most will do a reasonable job of it.
You just have to look through one or two photography sharing web sites to see that there's just as many great images there as you'll find on most professional photo libraries. In short , buyers are spoilt for choice when it comes to stunning insect close-ups. You can stand proud of the masses though.
Usually it boils down to shooting 'behavioural ' shots as well as the 'portraits'.
Most macro insect photographers focus on the portrait type shot, so any time you can capture an image that demonstrates a behaviour or characteristic that make a species unique, you're getting something that the majority miss and photo-buyers can use.
The other thing most photographers do not do well is, identify their subject. At best they could give their image a generic name like 'caterpillar ' or 'stick insect ' which is no use at all to a photo researcher requiring a particular species.
So. always make sure you identify the species with it's full scientific name, plus any common names, and if you can add some engaging behavioural info too , even better!
About the Author:
Matt BradingVisit GlobalEye Stock Photo Agency to view superb examples of macro insect photography. If you have great macro insect photography to sell, please review our Photographer Information (and download your free stock photography business kit) you will find out more about selling photographs online here.
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