Although macro photography is very accessible – no exotic destinations or expensive gear required – it is often tricky to choose the best camera settings for macro work. If you want sharp, well-exposed photos, you’ll have to push your camera system to its limits. Luckily, this guide covers everything you need to know about camera settings for macro photography, including camera mode, aperture, flash, shutter speed, ISO, and focusing, plus two detailed checklists at the end.
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Nikon 45mm f/2.8D PC-E Review
This is an in-depth review of the Nikon 45mm f/2.8D PC-E, also known as PC-E Micro Nikkor 45mm f/2.8D ED, a special purpose normal-angle lens designed for architecture, commercial, macro, and nature photography. “PC” stands for “Perspective Control”, but I will refer to this type of lens as “tilt-shift” in this article.
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Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Review
Frequently overshadowed by their more versatile brethren, macro lenses rarely receive much fanfare upon their release. Nonetheless, it is their function as close-up-photography specialists that makes them essential for a range of photographic pursuits like product photography, print reduction and close-up photography of living subjects. This role has made macro lenses a vital element of a camera manufacture’s lens catalog. Their niche design means that that new macro lenses are released rather infrequently, but all major manufactures have at least…
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How to Use a Teleconverter
When using telephoto and macro lenses, it is often desirable to get tighter framing on a subject that is being photographed. One of the main reasons is to magnify the subject and improve its detail in order to show it best to the viewer, but another reason could be related to improved framing and composition – by focusing tightly on the subject, it is often possible to remove the visual clutter surrounding the subject, which ultimately simplifies and enhances composition.…
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Everything You Need to Know About Macro Photography
Many photographers today want to know how to take macro pictures, thanks to a growing number of beautiful images online of small plants, animals, and insects. Macro photography is not always easy, especially for beginners, but it is one of the most rewarding genres of photography you can do. With the right skills, you will be able to capture amazing images even in your own backyard. To learn macro photography from start to finish, you should begin by reading the tips…
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Sigma Announces Two New Art Lenses
The CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show starts Thursday, which means it is announcement time across the photography world. Next on the list of new products is Sigma, and they’re debuting some very interesting gear – chief among them, two new lenses for Canon, Nikon, and now Sony mounts (more on that in another article). Introducing the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 Macro Art and the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art! The macro lens is Sigma’s first Art macro lens, going up to 1:1 (life-size)…
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How to Focus in Macro Photography
If you’re trying to photograph the small world of plants and bugs, you’ll face plenty of challenges along the way. Macro photography is a difficult genre — you’re pushing up against the physical limits of depth of field, diffraction, and motion blur. Naturally, focusing in macro photography isn’t an easy task, but it’s a crucial one. How do you optimize your focusing technique for capturing small subjects? The answer depends upon exactly what you’re photographing.
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How to Photograph Dragonflies
In this article, I would like to give you some tips on photographing dragonflies with minimal gear. I’m an amateur landscape and wildlife photographer from France. I graduated in ecology (biodiversity management and biology of conservation) last year before I decided to leave to New Zealand for a one-year trip. I discovered landscape and astrophotography in this beautiful country, but I feel like I sometimes need to get back to wildlife photography which is what I was first interested in.…
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Hand-held Close-Up Photography
Many photographers enjoy exploring the world around them with macro and close-up photography. The basic difference between these similar genres of photography is the amount of magnification achieved, with a 1:1 magnification generally accepted as an example of macro photography. Images at this level of magnification also have more details than are achieved with close-up photography. The camera gear used for macro photography can be quite specialized and costly which can be a barrier for many photographers. This article features a small…
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Aquarium Macro Photography of Ornamental Shrimp
“There’s such a thing as ornamental shrimp?” This is the typical response of family and friends when I speak to them about my recent hobby of keeping ornamental shrimp. Believe it or not, there is growing interest around the world about breeding and keeping these little freshwater critters as pets. In some countries, their popularity even rival traditional fish keeping! What once used to be considered another algae eater in tanks has quickly become an object of interest for aquarium…
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Focal Length in Reverse Lens Macro Technique
Macro, Landscapes and Seascapes are my favorite genres in photography, but as I don’t travel much, I tend to shoot more macro in my backyard. Last time, I wrote an article on high magnification macro photography on a budget, where I pointed out the fact that I use the reverse lens technique in order to achieve high magnification macro shots. The technique really works great if you give it a try and the good news is that you do not…
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Macro Photography Lighting Tutorial
For our readers in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of year again — days are hotter, nights are shorter, and the air is stuffier. With the changes in weather, two different creatures are beginning to emerge from their deep winter slumbers: the insect and the macro photographer. As macro photography grows more popular, a key question arises: what is the best way to light a bug’s picture?
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Venus Optics KX800 Macro Flash Review
Macro photographers tend to struggle with two crucial variables when lighting their subjects. First, high-magnification macro photography usually involves apertures between f/16 and f/32. To use an aperture this small, you need a high-powered flash — especially if you want to use a diffuser. The second major issue is that many macro photographers work with just one on-camera flash, meaning that the lighting can appear flat and dull, even when diffused. So, when Venus Optics announced their alien-looking KX800 dual…
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High Magnification Macro Photography on a Budget
Hey folks, my name is Siddhant Sahu, I am a 16 years old aspiring photographer from India. I have been shooting macro photographs for about a year now and I would try to encapsulate all I have learnt along my way in this short article. I believe that macro photography has the power of entering in a whole new world of tiny creatures. In fact with only modest piece of equipment you can shoot high magnification macro photographs. It’s good…
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DX to FX – Upgrading from D7000 to D800E
I’ll admit it — I was a bit late to the party. While everyone else has been enjoying the brand new D750 and D810, I have been happily stuck with my aging D7000.
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Shooting Flowers and Foliage with Telephoto Lenses
My wife is an avid gardener and for more years than I can remember, I have accompanied her on a wide range of garden tours and other such outings. While gardening is of little interest to me per se, I do find some enjoyment in capturing images of flowers and foliage. And, on the odd occasion I have shot videos of private and public gardens.
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What is an Extension Tube?
Our readers frequently ask us about extension tubes for macro photography. Since I am not much into macro myself, I have not explored this area of photography enough to qualify to write about it. While I have done some macro photography for product shots and ring shots in weddings with my Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR lens (a very sharp lens that I absolutely love), I have not explored its full capabilities and I have not tried to use extension tubes…
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Nikon Wireless Close-up Speedlight Commander Kit R1C1 Review
This is a quick review of the Nikon Wireless Close-up Speedlight Commander Kit R1C1, which has been kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that we use more than any other to buy our photography gear.
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Nikon 40mm f/2.8G DX Review
This is an in-depth review of the new Nikon 40mm f/2.8G DX macro / micro prime lens that was announced in July of 2011. The Nikon 40mm f/2.8G DX, also known as “AF-S DX Micro-NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G” is a consumer-grade lens for photo enthusiasts that need an affordable macro lens with good performance characteristics. In the current line of macro lens offerings from Nikon, this lens comes at the lowest price point and shortest focal length. With the former being…
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