About Me
Hey everyone! My name is Lora. I’m so happy to be here! I’m a stay at home mom to three girls. My hubby and I live in Murrieta, Ca and have been married for 29 years. I am a hobbyist photographer, sometimes doing paid shoots but they are not my thing. I love the beach and all things nature! I hope you learn a little something from this lesson!
Took this with the internal timer with camera sitting on a log last November in Nevada while visiting my college girl.
My Macro Journey
It all started with a snail about two years ago. I posted it on Instagram and someone commented, “Holy mother of macro!” I said to myself, “Hey, that’s not a macro shot, I don’t have a macro lens, I don’t shoot macro.” Well, I learned that macro just isn’t a microscopic picture of a bug’s eye. From then on, a love of macro entailed. There is something so relaxing about sitting and taking shot after shot, changing my perspective of a willing subject with no whining. Exploring closer all the details that I would normally miss. Hoping I can get at least one shot that I like! Whenever I can, I try to sit or kneel instead of standing or worse yet, bent over to get a shot. For one, it gives me more stability and two, I’m sitting! My shots are all hand held so it helps me to brace my elbows either on my lap or tucked into my sides.
Settings: f/3.5 1/160 ISO 320 55mm
Lenses
Once I got the hang of shooting in manual, I was ready to move on to lenses other than my kit lenses. My first purchase was the nifty fifty. Next was an inexpensive macro set up: Yongnuo EF 35 1.2 with the Opteka High Definition 10x diopter, the set was around $125. on Amazon. I worked with that for a year or so. Now I like to shoot with the Canon 100mm macro 2.8L. I shoot with manual focus. For macro photography auto focus just can’t keep up and causes minute camera shake. It took a little getting used to. I have found it easier to get the my focus pretty close with the focus ring, change it to manual then fine tune it by physically moving my camera instead of using the focus ring. It’s the same as idea as zooming with your feet.
f/4 1/250 ISO 100 shot with my 50mm
Tip: I shoot a lot of my nature pictures at nurseries and garden shops. Not only have I not had any problems but I’ve been shown some plants I’ve overlooked. And my favorite was when I was shown hummingbird twins in their nest!
True Macro
Macro photography was originally used for science. True macro photography is when your subject is life size in the photo, photographed at 1:1 magnification. I consider my version of macro shows details that you might not have seen or noticed before, rarely 1:1. Some of my macros are larger images cropped to show details which really isn’t macro at all but just a tightly cropped image.
Shhh, don’t tell the macro police!
f/2.8 1/500 ISO 160 75mm I used my 70-200. This is the crop of below.
Before
Depth of Field
Depth of field plays a big role in macro photography. Small apertures (f/stop is a bigger number) generally work better. You are usually pretty close to your subject so you will have a small field which is in focus. Some macro styles have very little in focus and achieve a soft focus on all the rest. When I use my 35mm set up, I need to get super close to my subject and often all of my subject won’t fit in the frame and it is hard to get the entire subject in focus. The 100mm has a better working distance. The working distance is the distance between the end of the lens and your subject.
I got lucky here when the ladybug bug moved to the same field of focus as the center of the daisy. f/5.6 1/500 ISO 1000 100mm
Shutter Speed
Your shutter speed should be at least 2x your focal length when hand held, especially outside with a breeze. The wind or even a slight breeze is not your friend. I try to keep mine no slower than 1/250 on my 100mm. Since you are so close to your subject the tiniest bit of camera shake will affect your image. The faster the shutter speed (bigger the number) the better. If you use a tripod your shutter speed doesn’t have to be as fast.
f/8 1/320 ISO 640 70mm with my 24-70
ISO
I don’t often shoot with a low ISO. I like my shutter speed fast and my aperture small so ISO has to give. My camera can tolerate some pretty high ISO so I’m ok to raise it. I shoot with a Canon 5d mk iv. Shots will come out better with a higher ISO as to one under exposed.
f/5.6 1/250 ISO 10000 100mm
Background and Composition
While considering your background, take some shots and then move around take some more shots and look on your display screen for distractions or extreme changes in color or light. In the poppy picture above, I draped a cloth behind the poppy to create a simple background. The original background was too busy and distracting. Another tool I use is a small diffuser which basically shades my subject when I shoot in full sun. It is a small white pop out soft light diffuser which allows some light to shine through. (Neewer brand $10 Amazon)
This is a natural background. I moved so that the majority of the flower and stem were on an even field of focus and I used the diffuser. f/4 1/400 ISO 100 100mm
Choose your focal point and go from there knowing that your focus will fall off unless all of your subject is on the same plane. I like to photograph flowers many of which have lots of petals. Using creative cropping can help your image be more pleasing to the eye.
f/9 1/250 ISO 1250 50mm
More to Macro...
There is more to macro than nature. Macro can be used to document the small details of weddings, a newborn, your child’s eyelashes, & food to name a few. All macro subjects don’t have to be small.
f/3.5 1/400 ISO 800 100mm
There are hidden textures all over your home just begging for a photo shoot over by the window with the good light or on the patio with some open shade. Macro photography will have you looking at everything close up. When you are in a rut and don’t think you have anything to shoot, have a look in your junk drawer, kitchen or office.
f/8 1/250 ISO 800 35mm
Tip: I like to use a white foam board to put my subjects on. I also use a white note book opened up for a couple reasons- it stands up on its own and provides a white back drop. I can also position it to bounce light onto my subject.
f/8 1/400 ISO 1250 35mm
Last tip: A spray bottle makes wonderful water drops when nature is not cooperating.
To wrap up, for my macro photography, ISO is the last of the triangle to figure into the equation. Your shutter speed should be at least double of your focal length. I kissed shooting wide open goodbye when I shoot macro. Move around to take many different perspectives, then move again. Lots and lots of patient practice. Probably less than 1% of my clicks are winners. But with each fail I learn a little something for next time.