Macro photography
Macro photography is one of the easiest ways to get at your subject, but one of the hardest forms of photography to perform. You don’t need super expensive lenses for it (of course you can, the closer you can focus on your subject the more expensive the lens becomes). You can do it in your own garden if you have an interesting subject there and it can produce very surprising results.
Officially, you speak of macro photography only when the subject is depicted at full size on the image sensor. This ratio of 1:1 is called the image size. The subject is then neither enlarged nor reduced. With a ratio of 1:2, the sensor image is only half the size of the original and we speak rather of a close-up. Making it larger than in reality is also possible. With a ratio like 2:1 or higher, you can really blow up minute details enormously.
View imagesAn overview of my best macro photos:
My equipment
These are the things I use
The 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro has a large aperture over the entire range and SIGMA’s Optical Stabilizer function (OS) with which 4 stops of gain can be achieved.
Furthermore, this lens has the latest optical technologies such as the SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass element, which ensures excellent correction of chromatic aberration. The lens focuses by means of moving the rear lens group (Rear Focus) which prevents deviations during focus and ensures optimal optical performance over the entire focus and zoom range.
Pay attention to the background
Macro photography is a fun activity because you often see things that you normally wouldn’t see. Macro photography, on the other hand, is not the easiest branch of photography. If you go out with a real macro lens, you will notice that you have a limited depth of field. The part of the photo that really becomes sharp is therefore minimal. The rest of the photo gets a nice blur. This gives you the option of putting only your subject in focus in the photo, so that your subject stands out well. Because the background in macro photos is usually out of focus, little attention is paid.
Composition tips for macro photography
Composition is very important in insect macro photography. In the beginning you are happy with a well-turned and sharp photo, but with some experience you can start looking at the composition of the photo. In macro photography it is a golden rule to use the rule of thirds in terms of composition. You divide the photo into nine planes and you can place the subject exactly in the middle of those four intersections. In many post-processing programs such as Lightroom you can enable the ‘golden ratio’ to make this easier.
It’s also nice when the background is slightly darker than the subject. In that case, attention is automatically directed to your subject. This way you create depth and get a foreground and background. Sometimes the background of your subject can have a completely different color, giving you a nice contrast in your photo compared to the subject.
It can also be very nice to make a small detail from your photo fill the screen by means of a crop. Consider, for example, the faceted eye of a fly or the wing of a dragonfly. In addition to this, symmetry can also work very well. It is not always possible to apply this, but if it is successful, it gives the photo peace and ensures that the photo does not look messy.
Creative macro photography
One of the great advantages of macro photography is that you don’t have to go far from home to take beautiful images. Even at home there are plenty of options, because your subject doesn’t have to be big. For example, think of flowers or small insects in the garden. It is a misconception that a photo must be razor-sharp or of a recognizable typical macro subject. You can also go in the abstract direction, placing more emphasis on shapes, colors and proportions. Maybe that is even more interesting and you are less likely to have a cliché photo of the perfect flower.
Macro photography tips
Good preparation is very important to take good macro photos. It is often simple things that significantly improve the quality of your macro photography. A mistake that is often made is that people set a very wide aperture on their camera. The result is that there is only a few millimeters of depth of field in the photo. Sometimes that can be nice, but if, for example, your subject is a butterfly with beautiful wings, it is often nice if the wings are completely sharp. Then choose a smaller aperture such as f/11. Because you are close to your subject, you will still have a quiet blurred background, but your subject will be completely sharp. Read more macro photography tips here.
