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.
You might have a zoom lens which has a macro facility. You may find a section on the lens which is orange with an 'M'. Now it is important to note that this isn't a macro lens, it just means that your lens can focus fairly close.
If you want to get properly into macro photography, you will want something a bit more suitable than this. A macro lens will focus down to an insanely small distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're photographing. It is often possible to get as close as 10 or 12 cm to the subject. That is something you wouldn't be able to do with a normal lens.
When you get in close to a subject, your depth of field starts to get smaller and appears shallower. This is a universal feature of all lenses. As humans we tend to move around a lot even if we try to stay still. Our small movements back and forth will cause the point of focus to move backwards and forwards so it can be very challenging to focus on something when doing macro photography. One way to overcome this problem is to use your elbows as a little tripod to try and keep the camera steady. You'll still find that as you get closer and closer to the subject, it becomes more and more challenging for you to remain still because you are breathing and moving without intending to do so. Every time you adjust the focus and then move, your shot becomes blurred.
This is where tripods become extremely useful. The tripod is a fantastically simple invention because it enables you to get shots that you normally wouldn't be able to take by eliminating your own human movements.
Another noteworthy foe of the macro photographer is wind. Small winds can come by just when you least expect them to and typically at the worst possible 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 windy day you probably won't get the best conditions to get the best possible pictures. But there is a way to deal with it which we will come to very shortly.
Another influencing factor with macro photography is light. If you are outdoors with an overcast sky and you want to photograph something delicate such as flowers, a slightly overcast sky can often provide the best conditions for this type of work. 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.
So far there's been a lot of talk of flowers in this post but there are many other objects including objects usually found in the home which make excellent photos for macro. Just look around your house. Objects made of glass such as jam jars, vases, bottles and so on can work very well because of the interesting ways they reflect light. The background isn't as important with macro, because when you have that short depth of field, particularly with a wide aperture, it doesn't really matter what's in the background because it will be blurred into a mix of tones. All you have to consider is what those tones are.
You will typically use single point auto focus. What this means is you will be telling the camera which dots in the viewfinder to use to focus. Depending on the make and model of your equipment, how to use the single point auto focus feature will vary, so it is recommended to read your camera's manual to find out. You will be able to decide which part of the view finder you're focusing on. If you're in auto mode the camera might not know where to focus and it might decide on the wrong part of the picture, which will make you feel incredibly frustrated because you won't be able to get the image 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 are something else that produces excellent shots. You can use objects made of metal around your home such as your toaster, tool box, and other things. They tend to have lots of reflective surfaces with unique shapes and contours. Use a relatively shallow depth of field, so that it will give you a place to focus on within the photo, rather than just looking at the whole frame. Highly reflective objects made of stainless steel for example may confuse your auto focus, in which case you would be better off switching to manual.
You can get great results by taking photos of objects near a window that doesn't have any direct sunlight coming in through it. The side of the object closest to the window will be brighter than the other darker side. You can play around with a reflector to get some different effects lighting up this darker side to wrap it around the object. This works well with fruit that has a shiny surface, like apples, lemons, oranges and so on.
So what is 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.
You might have a zoom lens which has a macro facility. You may find a section on the lens which is orange with an 'M'. Now it is important to note that this isn't a macro lens, it just means that your lens can focus fairly close.
If you want to get properly into macro photography, you will want something a bit more suitable than this. A macro lens will focus down to an insanely small distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're photographing. It is often possible to get as close as 10 or 12 cm to the subject. That is something you wouldn't be able to do with a normal lens.
When you get in close to a subject, your depth of field starts to get smaller and appears shallower. This is a universal feature of all lenses. As humans we tend to move around a lot even if we try to stay still. Our small movements back and forth will cause the point of focus to move backwards and forwards so it can be very challenging to focus on something when doing macro photography. One way to overcome this problem is to use your elbows as a little tripod to try and keep the camera steady. You'll still find that as you get closer and closer to the subject, it becomes more and more challenging for you to remain still because you are breathing and moving without intending to do so. Every time you adjust the focus and then move, your shot becomes blurred.
This is where tripods become extremely useful. The tripod is a fantastically simple invention because it enables you to get shots that you normally wouldn't be able to take by eliminating your own human movements.
Another noteworthy foe of the macro photographer is wind. Small winds can come by just when you least expect them to and typically at the worst possible 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 windy day you probably won't get the best conditions to get the best possible pictures. But there is a way to deal with it which we will come to very shortly.
Another influencing factor with macro photography is light. If you are outdoors with an overcast sky and you want to photograph something delicate such as flowers, a slightly overcast sky can often provide the best conditions for this type of work. 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.
So far there's been a lot of talk of flowers in this post but there are many other objects including objects usually found in the home which make excellent photos for macro. Just look around your house. Objects made of glass such as jam jars, vases, bottles and so on can work very well because of the interesting ways they reflect light. The background isn't as important with macro, because when you have that short depth of field, particularly with a wide aperture, it doesn't really matter what's in the background because it will be blurred into a mix of tones. All you have to consider is what those tones are.
You will typically use single point auto focus. What this means is you will be telling the camera which dots in the viewfinder to use to focus. Depending on the make and model of your equipment, how to use the single point auto focus feature will vary, so it is recommended to read your camera's manual to find out. You will be able to decide which part of the view finder you're focusing on. If you're in auto mode the camera might not know where to focus and it might decide on the wrong part of the picture, which will make you feel incredibly frustrated because you won't be able to get the image 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 are something else that produces excellent shots. You can use objects made of metal around your home such as your toaster, tool box, and other things. They tend to have lots of reflective surfaces with unique shapes and contours. Use a relatively shallow depth of field, so that it will give you a place to focus on within the photo, rather than just looking at the whole frame. Highly reflective objects made of stainless steel for example may confuse your auto focus, in which case you would be better off switching to manual.
You can get great results by taking photos of objects near a window that doesn't have any direct sunlight coming in through it. The side of the object closest to the window will be brighter than the other darker side. You can play around with a reflector to get some different effects lighting up this darker side to wrap it around the object. This works well with fruit that has a shiny surface, like apples, lemons, oranges and so on.
So what is 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 our other website and blogs here.
No comments:
Post a Comment