Macro Photography

• Most camera manufactures sell Macro lens which allow photographers to expand the image to greater than 1:1. these lens’ are quite expensive, alternatively learners can use the camera in macro mode if available (this may not be as effective as a dedicated lens).
• Use point of focus OR manual focus
• Use A TRIPOD to frame the object and background, apply compositional rules where possible.
• Experiment with depth of field, you will be very close to your subject which results in a sudden drop off on focus, to overcome this you might want to maximize your depth of field therefore shoot at f 16 f22. In other circumstances you may like the drop off in focus in which case use a lower f stop e.g. 4.0
• Work with a low/medium ISO from 100 to 400
• Apply manual exposure and the exposure meter to ensure that the subject is adequately exposed.
• In some case you may choose to use flash light

A macro photograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative or image sensor is life size or greater, although most of the time we will end up looking at a large size image of a really small insect or flower, for example

Image bank

My images

In the following images, I have used a macro lens – Tameron 70-300mm. This lens allowed me to get closer to wildlife such as hoverflies, butterflies and bees and capture the finer details like their wings which with a standard lens would not have been possible. All of my images are shot in Raw format and have all been edited in photoshop.

In the photograph above, I like the contrast between the strong yellow and black colouring of the hoverfly and the soft pink of the flower in which it is sat upon. The macro lens allowed me to capture the intricate details of the wings. I edited this image in Photoshop, increasing the contrast and the clarity of the image, which gives a crisp look to the image. I played around with the curves also, in order to really bring out the colourful summer flower.

In this image, I think that less is more. The individual flower, with the pollen in focus shows vulnerability and beauty at the same time. In photoshop, I also used the blur tool to bring focus to the flower and used the sharpen tool.

Personally, I think that the visual outcome of my images are good, I have been playing around with my macro lens for a while and I feel that my images are getting better and better with each shoot which means that these images did come out the way I wanted.

Progression – I would like to continue using this technique within my personal investigation. i would also like to refine my work by reducing the saturation on my images in future.