< Go Back Small Is Beautiful Posted: Aug 13, 2020Macro Photography is the study of close-up photography objects larger than life-size. The most popular subjects are insects, flowers and also still life.
You can either shoot in the outdoors or in a studio environment, but you have various methods of achieving this. In the past a dedicated macro lens for your camera could be incredibly expensive , but nowadays a decent macro lens can be purchased for £250-350.00 GBP. Other cheaper equipment you can use include Reversing Rings, Bellows, Extension Tubes & Close Up Lenses.
When shooting Macro there are benefits but there are also problems that can crop up, these include Aliasing, where the pixels can have a jagged look, Noise which are unrelated, coloured pixels which can give the images a grainy appearance, Moire where the image can have a wavelike pattern and false colours and Chromatic aberration where a lens has difficulty focusing on red, green and blue wavelengths of light at a single point.
It is important to experiment when looking for suitable subjects, if you feel that shooting flowers and insects is getting predictable, then why not try different textures like wood, rust, glass, water droplets and peeling paint. Indoor items such as cutlery, pencils, fruit, vegetables, paperclips and jewellery.
When taking you pictures there are a number of file formats you can use, but your decision is determined by what use the image will be utilised for once it has been completed. There are either lossless or compressed formats, the most popular format is Jpeg which is a compressed format, but that is pre-defined in your camera before the image has been taken if chosen. If you are looking for a lossless format it would be advisable to shoot in RAW where you have the essential underdeveloped digital data, from there you have a list of parameters to edit the image, once edited you have the option to save it as a Tiff file or as a Jpeg.
There are a number of lenses that can be used when shooting Macro, whether you have a DSLR or Mirrorless camera including a number which you would not normally consider, these include Wideangle, Standard, Telephoto and Teleconverters. Wideangle have a short focusing distance and this can be used for photographing flowers, Standard can be used in combination with extension tubes, to take straight close-ups, Telephoto are very useful for taking close up images from a distance of 3-6ft away and Teleconverters while not a lens, can be used to magnify the focal length, when combined with a standard lens, which is particularly useful when taking images of flies, grasshoppers and dragonflies.
When doing macro in a studio set up there are a number of things you need to do, firstly, set up your studio platform, then arrange your lighting, after that pre focus your camera and finally check to see if the layout is too your liking and if necessary move things around until you are happy. There are a number of mobile studios that can be purchased and they have integrated LED lighting, and are well worth a try.
If you really want to push the boat out and have a wet suit handy, why not try underwater there you can find innumerable things to shoot including some amazing creatures, plants, reefs and corals.