Digital macro photography - flowers

Flowers and insects have a beauty all their own when you get really close to them.

Point and shoot digital cameras often have a special macro setting that allows you to focus closer than normal, however, if have a digital SLR camera, and can forsee yourself taking many macro shots, you may wish to purchase a dedicated macro lens for the purpose.

You may also find a digital camera tripod to be a useful part of your equipment along with other items that I will mention later in this article.

One of the advantages of digital photography is that you can take as many shots as you like without wasting film, a feature that is very useful when it comes to macro photographs!

The closer you get, the less depth of field you will have. This term relates to how much of the photograph, from front to back, will be in focus. When you are really close to the subject of your photograph the depth of field can be measured in millimetres! A slight movement of the camera, or the flower itself in a gentle breeze, can be enough to spoil the shot.

Expect to take many shots to get one that is technically perfect.

Of course there is more to photographing flowers than just the technical aspect. You will need to develop an eye for a good photograph and the best way to do that is by practising.

After that first shot, try moving your viewpoint slightly or focus on a different part of the flower.

Keep the rule of thirds in mind when composing your picture, placing the centre of interest at one of the four intersections.

You may even be lucky enough to find something else taking an interest in the same bloom, like the tiny hover fly in my bindweed photograph, right.

Insects can add to the challenge of taking great digital photographs of flowers as they tend to dart in and out of view amazingly quickly! You will find yourself torn between using a fast shutter speed, to prevent the insects wings becoming a blur, and a small aperture, to get as much depth of field as possible so that both insect and flower are in focus. Generally, these two do not tend to go together!

I find that when undertaking macro photography, flowers and tiny insects are easier to capture when you hand hold the camera rather than attaching it to your tripod. You then have the ability to move the camera fractionally rather to adjust the focus, rather than fiddling with the settings. You may feel a bit silly, bobbing backwards and forwards but don't worry. When the subject comes into focus snap quickly before you lose it again.

Other photographic accessories for macro photography

With your camera anchored in one spot you need to be aware that the flower itself can move! Taking macro photographs on a breezy day needs a lot of patience. Waiting for the breeze to drop and the plant to stay still can be frustrating to say the least.

It is possible to fashion a sort of windbreak with your body or from a piece of card kept with your photographic equipment. A photographers tool kit which includes sticky tape or clips, to attach the card to anything handy in the vicinity, will prove useful.

Something else that I like to pop into a corner of my camera bag is a translucent white, plastic carrier bag. Small, light and easy to carry, these bags can have many uses. Turned upside down and placed over nearby foliage they can act as either a reflector, directing the light into the shadow areas of a scene, or a diffuser, by way of being positioned between the sun and the flower you are photographing. In a similar manner, they can also be useful for hiding distracting greenery or twigs. And of course after you have eaten your lunch you can use them for a more common purpose of collecting your rubbish!

Macro photography lighting

Gentle side lighting, as in the photo of the dahlia left, can help to separate petals from each other and show the form of the flower to advantage. This portrait was actually taken in my kitchen, by the light of a window. With white tiles on the wall behind and the white refrigerator on the other side a hand held shot was possible at 1/30 sec at f3.5 using an ISO of 125 (if these numbers mean absolutely nothing to you, you may like to read my page about shutter speed and aperture).

Flowers lit from behind can create appealing photographs, especially if the light catches any tiny hairs on the stems making them glow with a halo like effect. However, photographs taken in this way can cause exposure problems if you are not careful. Most digital cameras have either a backlight (or shadow adjusment) feature or else you can adjust the exposure compensation. Often there will be a button showing a plus and a minus sign, that will allow you to tell the camera to expose the image for a little longer than normal, to avoid the flower appearing too dark in the photograph.

Wherever you take your macro photographs, flowers are a great subject to tackle. Why not have a go and share your results with other visitors to the site? You can even ask for a critique to help improve your results in the future. Submit your photo and tell us about how you took it and then take a look at other people's images and comment on their work. Constructive critiscm will help us all take better digital photos of flowers.

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