Photography News Issue 44

Photography News | Issue 44 | absolutephoto.com

Technique 24

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Get creativewith your macro lenses Four simple close-up projects and exercises to try out today

PART 3

Macro lenses can produce a very shallow depth-of-field, even at small apertures, so backgrounds should be easy to blur. But they can still be distracting in terms of colour, contrast or tone. The simplest way to improve the background to your subject is to reposition the subject, or to remove any interfering objects. But if that’s not possible, try inserting your own background. All you need is a plain piece of paper or card that’s large enough to fill up the backdrop behind the subject (which considering the magnification won’t be very big at all). Alternatively you can use a reflector, as I did here. Slide the background in, making sure that it’s not touching the subject so you avoid moving it, then compose. You’ll find that compositions might need adjusting when using a plain backdrop as you’ll immediately get a plainer and more minimalist look. The method of adding your own background also means you can use smaller apertures and still get a clean, clutter-free backdrop. What’s more, you can try experimenting with colours that contrast with the subject, such as red with a green plant, or blue with a yellow flower. 1. Improvemacro backgrounds

Messy background

Clean background

Contrasting background

When focused at their closest, macro lenses produce only a sliver of sharpness. This could be just a few millimetres, even when using higher f/numbers. To increase the depth-of-field you can push the aperture to its minimum, which might be anything from f/22 to f/40 or beyond, but that reduces sharpness through diffraction. Far better is to shoot several pictures, focused at different points, using middling apertures like f/11 or f/16, and combine them in software to get more depth- of-field while keeping the image sharpness; this technique is called focus stacking. To do it, lock the camera off on a tripod, frame up on the subject, and using one of the methods described in Section 2, focus on the closest part of the subject. Take the shot, and then refocus slightly further into the scene. Repeat this until you’ve focused on the furthest point of the subject that you want to be sharp, making sure no parts have been missed. Now it’s time to load up the pictures for stacking. Photoshop can do an OK job, but dedicated focus-stacking packages are better. In the screenshot, I used Helicon Focus (heliconsoft.com). Therein, it’s a simple job of loading in the sequence of pictures to stack, then choosing the method to combine them. All the rest is done automatically, and you’ll soon have a picture with great depth-of-field. 2. Increase sharpness with focus stacking

Focus stacked image

Single shot at f/11

3. Experiment with your lighting set-ups

Like any subject, the way you light the subject can make a huge difference to the quality of your macro work. Macro lighting differs from the normmainly in that, with the lens so close to the subject, it can be difficult to position the lights without a shadow being cast. For example, the light from a pop-up flash is unlikely to reach the subject unaffected. The most obvious way around this is to use a ring flash which sits around the front element, so that nothing is between it and the subject. However you can also get good results by positioning the light behind the subject, or by moving it during the exposure. Both of these will be relatively easy if you’re shooting with the camera on a tripod, and shooting at small apertures, which will extend the exposure time. In the example image here, I positioned a leaf on a stand, focused on it and then set the camera to manual mode, with an aperture of f/11 at ISO 100. Darkening the room, I set the shutter speed to 10secs, then triggered the exposure, playing the light from a torch over the leaf from behind it. After the first try, the picture was a little overexposed, so I shortened the exposure time to 6secs and repeated.

Focus stacking is a great technique to use when youwant maximum depth-of-field and even the smallest lens aperture is not giving you enough. It is easy to do and you just need a software to stack the differently focused shots for you. Done well, you get loads of sharpness even at modest lens apertures.