3 Great Tips for Macro Photography Beginners
Macro photography captures the delightful details that regular photography often misses. If you've ever tried shooting with a macro lens, you already know that they're not particularly easy to use.
Don't let that dissuade, though, from trying this unique form of photography - whether you're shooting flowers, insects, or water drops on a leaf! Sometimes, it's the tiniest things which bring the greatest pleasure to artistic photography.
Find the Detail:
What's the subject? Search with the naked eye and through your macro lens to find the interesting details that add context and beauty to larger things in nature. You'd be surprised what the lens will see that you might otherwise miss. For example, a leaf's surface might surprise you. Water drop, insect, pollen are just a few surprises lurking on a leaf's surface!
Motion:
If your subject is moving, keep in mind that the autofocus is very slow on a macro lens and moving the lens could mean losing the subject out of your frame. You'll have to rely on some practice, experience, and creative solutions to capture the motion. Try pre-focusing on a higher shutter speed on a particular spot just before your subject moves into the frame. Then shoot once they're in the frame.
If it's wind causing the motion, the same trick applies: use faster shutter speed, but you'll still need to adjust aperture and ISO. It's all a balancing game when you're shooting in macro, and there's any slight movement. Don't feel shy or reluctant about using filters to create any special effects!
Editing:
What you can't accomplish in the field, you likely can address during your post-production editing. Even the most skilled photographers know that there will be a few things to tweak back on the computer.
Lightroom presets allow you to add depth and contrast, colorization, and other effects to enhance your work. Where photographers were once utterly reliant on filters and diffusers, today's photo editing software has unleashed a whole new world.
