Macro photography, or 'micro photography' as it is starting to be known as in recent times, is all about getting intimate with your subject. If you want to capture a close-up of a leaf for instance, it will be necessary 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 really get into macro photography, you would be better off with something a bit more geared towards the task at hand than this. A macro lens will focus down to a tiny distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're photographing. You can often get as close as 5 inches to the subject. This is something you couldn't easily do with a normal 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.
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 breeze. Slight breezes can interfere 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 right opportunity. If you want to do some nature photography on a breezy day you might not have the best conditions to get the best possible photos. But there is an alternative solution which we will come to very shortly.
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 mentioned that I would be sharing a useful tip on how to get around the problem of breezes when doing macro and that tip is simply to move indoors. If you are taking shots of a flower, you can take that flower indoors (as long as it's not someone else's flower!). Indoors is a wonderful location for doing macro work and one of the primary reasons is that there are far less disturbances like breezes and other things. Don't get me wrong - outdoors is brilliant for macro in many ways but if it is raining cats and dogs outside then moving indoors can provide perfect conditions.
Another very important thing is that you spend time to choose the right flower. As you move in close any little 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 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 working indoors, you will usually be working with a slower shutter speed (say 1/8th of a second). That is because there isn't much light indoors normally, but what light there is, is often very good, 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 what is macro photography?
Macro photography comes down to getting close up with things and it opens up a whole new dimension of photography using the plainest of subject matter and letting it be seen in an entirely new way. You just have to start looking around your house and try to find things that could get you some nice results. If you are shooting macro outside, you will have to learn to deal with the wind, which could cause a large number of blurred pictures. So start experimenting and see how it goes! Remember, you don't necessarily have to use 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 really get into macro photography, you would be better off with something a bit more geared towards the task at hand than this. A macro lens will focus down to a tiny distance between the end of the lens and the subject you're photographing. You can often get as close as 5 inches to the subject. This is something you couldn't easily do with a normal 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.
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 breeze. Slight breezes can interfere 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 right opportunity. If you want to do some nature photography on a breezy day you might not have the best conditions to get the best possible photos. But there is an alternative solution which we will come to very shortly.
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 mentioned that I would be sharing a useful tip on how to get around the problem of breezes when doing macro and that tip is simply to move indoors. If you are taking shots of a flower, you can take that flower indoors (as long as it's not someone else's flower!). Indoors is a wonderful location for doing macro work and one of the primary reasons is that there are far less disturbances like breezes and other things. Don't get me wrong - outdoors is brilliant for macro in many ways but if it is raining cats and dogs outside then moving indoors can provide perfect conditions.
Another very important thing is that you spend time to choose the right flower. As you move in close any little 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 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 working indoors, you will usually be working with a slower shutter speed (say 1/8th of a second). That is because there isn't much light indoors normally, but what light there is, is often very good, 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 what is macro photography?
Macro photography comes down to getting close up with things and it opens up a whole new dimension of photography using the plainest of subject matter and letting it be seen in an entirely new way. You just have to start looking around your house and try to find things that could get you some nice results. If you are shooting macro outside, you will have to learn to deal with the wind, which could cause a large number of blurred pictures. So start experimenting and see how it goes! Remember, you don't necessarily have to use 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 main site and blogs here.