I remember the first time I took a macro photo of a bee on a sunflower and I was amazed at the colors and detail I was able to see from getting up close and personal to something I had previously not even noticed. Over the past five years, I have been learning the techniques and strategies of macro photography and I have slowly been improving my skills. Macro photography is a challenging art form and I have enjoyed the struggles and successes I have experienced while learning this craft. I wanted to share the tips and tricks that I have learned and hopefully help others get into the world of macro photography so that we can see more photos of the small things in the world.

1: You need to get close!

The word “macro” is kind of the opposite word for what you are trying to take a picture of. It should be called micro photography because it involves smaller subjects like insects, jewelry, flowers, or anything else that is not considered macro in size but the point of macro photography and why it is called “macro” is to enlarge small things so that you can see things that would normally escape your gaze. Whether it is the insane detail in the compound eyes of a bee or the small scratches on an old coin, macro photography is the art of discovering what was there the whole time, just under your nose.

One way to get close is to just get closer. Every lens has a minimum focal length and you can find this by checking the specifications of the lens, by looking at the measurement on the lens itself, or by just getting as close as you can, and when it gets blurry just back off a bit. Many wide-angle lenses have a really short minimum focal length and so you can get very close without any additional equipment. I’ve found that the longer the lens the longer the minimum focal length but there are exceptions to this. Sometimes it is easy to think you are as close as you can get but you are just a little too close so make sure to stay slightly under the minimum distance to decrease the amount of out-of-focus photos you take.

Another technique for getting close is to manually set the focus to just around the minimum distance and then rock back and forth slightly and take lots of pictures. If you can stay steady enough and keep your shutter speed up enough to counteract the movement you can chance upon the closest focal distance and get the shot.

Get some extension tubes:

If you are sick of not being able to get close enough with the lens you want and don’t want to buy another lens then I recommend getting extension tubes. I use the Kenko Extension Tubes for Canon because they have autofocus electronics so I can use autofocus while using them. They work by creating space between the sensor of the camera and the lens which reduces the minimum focal length and allows you to focus on subjects that are closer to the end of the lens. This piece of gear can be tricky because for every added tube you lose some light, and light is really important when taking pictures of small things, especially when you do not have a studio or a flash setup, which will be discussed soon.

Get a Macro Lens:

The next step in getting close is to just spend the money and get a dedicated macro lens. I prefer the Canon 100mm Macro 2.8 lens for my Canon 80d. I haven’t experimented with too many macro lenses but once I started using the Canon 100mm macro I couldn’t put it down. It is super versatile with stabilization, two dedicated macro settings to get close, and one normal setting which allows the lens to work for standard photography and even portrait photography. Because it can stay wide open at F2.8 it gets plenty of light when needed and it is a prime lens so there is less glass to get in the way of getting sharp photos. You can even put extension tubes on it to get even closer but getting sharper shots becomes more and more difficult the closer you get and as the light diminishes. There are many macro lenses out there so do your research. That brings us to our next topic, Light!

2. You need plenty of light!

One of the issues you will find when you start taking macro photos is that the depth of field or the area in the photo that is in focus can be super shallow. This in-focus area can be increased by increasing the f-stop number also known as the aperture setting. The Canon Macro lens mentioned earlier has a minimum aperture setting of 2.8, which is pretty shallow even without using the macro setting on the lens. When using extension tubes or macro settings or just getting super close you will benefit by closing down the aperture and increasing the F value but this means that you are getting less light to the sensor. So there are a few ways to get more light.

Use the sun:

Personally, I enjoy when I can use less cumbersome gear and be as adaptive to my environment as possible so if I can get away with using the sun I do it. Pick a sunny day and go around when the sun is high and you will be able to get a deeper depth of field by increasing the f-stop value. What you need to keep in mind is that you can block the sun with your body or camera or with trees or clouds. It can be tricky but if you’re patient and pick subjects that don’t move around too much you can make it work, especially on subjects that aren’t the smallest of options.

Use a flash:

This is what the pros use so if you want to take better macro photos and have more options for settings then getting a flash and a mounted diffuser screen will do the trick. By adding a concentrated amount of light you can increase your f-stop value, use extension tubes, adjust your shutter speed more flexibly shoot in most environments, and get sharper images. The trick here is to get comfortable with the flash and to understand its limits. Most flashes have a maximum shutter speed but with the added light you probably don’t need your shutter to be that high anyway, but if you aren’t steady it may be difficult to stay at a lower shutter speed. Flashes also have power and depth settings so understanding basic settings is important but it isn’t too hard and with some experimentation, you will figure it out. I will add a YouTube video of a guy describing some flash settings for macro below.

3. You need detail!

Crop with care:

One temptation is to crop the photo to enlarge it but unless your photo has a ton of resolution and is already really sharp you run the risk of losing detail. Sometimes it is better to work on getting closer to the subject so that you can get the shot in-camera and by experimenting with different strategies, such as the ones discussed above, you can make this happen. If you find that the photo is sharp but you just want to clean up the composition or get a little closer then I would play around with cropping. I don’t think there is any reason to never crop but it is something that can get you into trouble quickly when the goal is to get as much detail as possible.

Also, keep in mind where the photo will end up. If the photo is only going to be used for social media or on smaller screens the resolution doesn’t have to be as high but if you want to print the photo and make a poster of it then you need to retain as much resolution and detail as possible. Having a camera with a lot of megapixels and shooting in a high res or raw format will give you the most amount of flexibility regarding cropping.

Autofocus:

I try to use auto-focus as much as possible and just take a lot of pictures. It is important to be patient and give yourself the best chances to get something really sharp. I found that if I only take a few shots and then check the camera’s screen and they look sharp they aren’t always actually that sharp so I make sure to take more photos before I leave the subject or area. It is easier to toss bad photos than to go back and find the subject when you’re out and about like I am of the time. If you have a studio that is a different story of course. If auto-focus is being a pain just turn it off and use the rock back and forth method to slowly get the right part of the subject in focus or you can use the live view on the camera to try to move into the correct position. I really only use live view when it is uncomfortable or impossible to look through the viewfinder and it works pretty well.

Editing:

I use Lightroom and I think it is by far the best program for editing photos, especially if you want a lot of control over colors and you don’t need to composite photos like in Photoshop. I don’t shy away from the sharpness, contrast, or saturation settings but I keep the clarity setting fairly low as it seems to be a heavy-handed feature. I also don’t shy away from the noise reduction setting when needed. Keep in mind that the more intensive the editing treatment the more you tend to lose definition and detail so be careful. I would also recommend shooting in a raw format as this gives you maximal information during editing and allows for maximal flexibility for exposure adjustments, cropping, sharpness, and pretty much anything else. You can always export a relatively small photo for storage on your hard drive or website.

4. Additional Considerations!

ISO:

The typical consideration with ISO is that the higher the ISO value the more grain or noise that you will get. Keeping the ISO lower is the key to getting the most clarity in the final photo so getting as much light as possible helps you keep this value lower. If you need to up the ISO then test out how your editing program can reduce the noise digitally to see what setting is too high on the camera. Again, Lightroom does a great job with my raw files in reducing noise. I create a maximum ISO I will allow and it tends to be around 2500 or so and that is still higher than I ever want to go with my camera.
I use auto ISO at first to see what ISO values the camera thinks will expose the subject and go to manual ISO as needed. Sometimes auto ISO goes too high so I have to manually adjust it down and even if it is a little dark I can ad exposure in editing instead of in the camera. It is important to continually be checking exposure as it can change based on the environment and your setting variations. It sucks to think you took a bunch of great photos and then you look and they are all way under or overexposed. I’m not sure which is worse but if you are too overexposed you can lose all information in part of the shot and if you are underexposed you can lose important detail and add noise when increasing exposure to it in editing.

Shutter Speed:

Generally, I keep my shutter speed around 250, give or take a bit, when I am just running around but with a flash or if I make sure to stay steady I can reduce it as needed to get more light. With a flash, this can be reduced and with a flash, it can only go so high anyway. Most of the time I am shooting things that are still or not moving too fast so I don’t need the worry too much but if you want to take a photo of a midflight bug it gets tricky to balance all the settings. You can try to use high-speed sync to increase the shutter speed but this can be tricky. I would usually prioritize the body or eyes of the insect rather than getting the wings to freeze because it requires such a high-speed shutter it isn’t likely to be worth it.

Aperture Setting:

The F-stop value can vary depending on your goals. Sometimes it is fun to have a really shallow depth of field that is focused exactly on the thing you want to highlight but in general macro photos are better with as much in focus as possible. Keeping this value from 8-11 or so is a good rule of thumb but it really depends. Most lenses have an ideal aperture setting for maximum sharpness so you can look that up and try to use that value as much as possible. In reality, I shoot in manual mode always and make adjustments fairly regularly in the field as variables change. With the use of a flash, you can usually control these variables better but if you’re not using a flash you have to make compromises sometimes and getting more light usually is needed.

I hope that you learned something from this article about tips for getting better macro photography shots. If you want to see my photos or send me a DM my Instagram handles are: @g_grins and @fractalfocus.nature

The following video is from a really great macro photography that I follow and learn from named Micael Widell. He has great tutorials and photos. Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mwroll/