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Daisy In Dew Drop

To accomplish this shot find a field of tall grass, find a dew drop, position your flower of choice behind the drop and adjust the flower closer or farther away to get the size you what it in the dew. Once you have everything in place, set your cameras f/stop in the f.2.8 to f/5.6 range, and press the shutter. Shot with Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Shooting Blurred Backgrounds

Subject: Turk’s cap Lily When shooting flowers or any freestanding subject, always view from all angles for the least distracting background. Find an angle where the background that you will be shooting towards is the farthest away, as this will make it easier for the camera to blur the background. Use a smaller f/stop in the f3.5 to f/8 range to help soften the background into a solid color. Shot with Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Everything In Focus

Subject: Bristle Cone Pine When you find a subject that has a lot of interesting details or textures like this Bristle Cone Pine trunk, you want to show it off by having everything in focus. By choosing an f/stop in the higher ranges, (f/22 and up) it will allow you to get the whole image in focus. Shot with Tamron SP90mm F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Contrast

Subject: Leaves Look for subjects that have strong contrast, light and dark, soft and rough, smooth and textured, as this will create impact for your viewer. The front side of these leaves was red, and the back side was white, so I combined the light and dark for this strong contrast. Shot with Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 Di-II 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Live View Focusing

Subject: Luna Moth Focusing with macro can be hard to accomplish looking through the cameras little viewfinder, and can be very difficult for people wearing glasses. The newer generation of digital SLRs has live view on the LCD. You can frame your subject in the live view mode on the LCD, zoom in on the subject, and focus till the area you are viewing looks sharp. Shot with Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 Di-II 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Shooting Live Subjects

Subject: Bee on Goldenrod Shooting live subjects can be a challenge getting close without chasing them away. For more working distance between you and your subject choose a longer focal length lens like the Tamron 180mm macro. One trick I use is to go out at daybreak on cold mornings, as the bugs are unable to move normally during these cold temperatures, which allows you to move in close with your shorter focal length macro lenses. Shot with Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 Di-II 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Nautilus Shell

Subject: Shooting Indoor Macros I live in a northern region where we have about five month of cold weather and not much to shoot this time of year. When winter comes I shoot indoors, and I have lots of subjects to shoot. I do searches online for subjects like feathers, sea shells, agates, butterfly mounts, etc. Flowers from the local florist are probably my main subject during these times when subjects outdoors are limited. Shot with Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

Soft Focus Flowers

Subject: Purple Coneflower I like shooting flowers with a nice soft abstract look. These are done using the smallest f/stop number of your lens. Place the point of focus on the main subject (in this image it is the Purple Coneflower) and by using the smallest f/stop the areas outside of the focus point will have a nice soft artistic feel. Shot with Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro ©Mike Moats

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For truly professional macro photographs, try to visualize an unusual aspect of your subject before releasing the shutter. Visualization will come naturally with practice as you experiment with a variety of photographic techniques. Enjoy yourself examining the unique shapes and intersecting lines in the subject. Photograph the most interesting and unique.

Daisy In Dew Drop
Shooting Blurred Backgrounds
Everything In Focus
Contrast
Live View Focusing
Shooting Live Subjects
Nautilus Shell
Soft Focus Flowers

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Guestbook for “Macro How-To”

Name/Note Date

01/23/13

miller

thanks for the macro mini-tips, love the dew drop photos!

07/26/12

Sballard775

Beautiful work and wonderful advice! Thanks for sharing! :)

06/07/12

dot

Thanks for sharing the pics and the tidbits of advice. Will incorporate them in my shooting Dot Mainhart

03/14/12

bosley

d.e. bosley, jr.

01/02/12

Hao Ly

Breathtaking pictures Mike!

12/07/11

Kim Lac

Thank you for sharing...

05/18/11

Ryan Krippendorf

This is a great collection with wonderful explanations.

05/01/11

Clifton Jones

Lovely images....great work.....

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