Macro Photography Tips: Popping Up the Beauty of the Tiny

Macro photography is exciting because it shows pictures of the the subjects that are often not visible with with the naked eyes.

It could show the details of microscopic things like the tiny eyes of a fly, the legs of an ant, and the pores of your skin.

Macro photography also plays an important role in jewelry industry because it showcases the elegance of precious little stones and sparkling luxury cut lead crystals.

Below are few things to remember when you are planning to get started in this field.

1. Use the right lens and setting

Choosing the right gadget is the most important point of taking the brilliant macro images. Make sure that your camera had enough “Mega Pixels” and lens specially designed to take the macro images.

To get better result, it is advisable to use macro lenses. They are little bit expensive but your money worth it.

In case you are using the point-to shoot camera, know what is the minimum focusing range of the camera and the macro setting.

The thing that matters the most while capturing the macro images, is that how well you have focused the object, and dealt with its details.

Photo By Pierredargent (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

2. Find your subject and focus it correctly

The object for the macro photography can be anything including a flower petal or a coffee bean. The thing that matters while capturing a macro image is the vision by which the photographer looks the object.

You should choose a subject that is different in order to get the most unusual macro image, and focus it correctly.

Be careful with your focusing because macro lenses produce very shallow depth of field. Meaning, there is more blurry than sharp area that you can capture.

Remember that different focus give the viewer a different story.

3. Get close to the subject with caution

In spite of completely relying on the lens, try to get close to the subject as much as possible. Move as slow as you can when your subject is an insect.

Also make sure that the lens you are using perfectly balances the images of the object at smaller distances. Intelligently focused subject drastically improves the image quality and beauty.

Photo By Rakeshkdogra (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

4. Rely on natural lighting as much as possible

The macro images look great on the natural light. So, if you are about to take the macro image from your camera, it is advised to turn off the flash, and feel the natural beauty of the object.

There is a specialize flash for macro shooting, but it can also add the additional lighting and brightness to the image which may be not appropriate for image.

5. Hold the camera steady or use a tripod

A shake can ruin your photo. Holding the camera still, is another important aspect of the macro photography.

As the object is closer in these images, you can lose all the details by a single shake of your hands.  And this will ruin all your efforts taken to capture a macro image.

It is not always possible to use the tripod to provide the stability to the images, especially while dealing with the macro images. So practice to make your hand steady while taking images.

However, if you have shivering hand like me, you have no choice but to use a tripod and a lens with image stabilizer. You can also use time or remote shutter release to avoid blurred shots.

Thanks you for reading and have with macro photography. Godspeed!