Macro tastic

flower
Originally uploaded by Nevoir.

After reading Scott Kelbys excellent "Digital Photography" book I felt inspired to apply some of the stuff that I had picked up and spent a great few hours last weekend getting some new macro shots.

The approach of the book is to offer advice as if the author was there to ask directly how to get the shot. What this turns into is the equivalent of recipes for photos, which if you follow you cant help but get something like the picture that they show in the book.

This isn't to say that this photo lark is formulaic but you can't get away from the fact that there's a fair bit of technique going on here that anyone can follow to get some great results.

So following suit I thought i'd pass on the love and follow a similar format here. So in a true recipe format here goes, this is the recipe I followed to get this shot.

What I used:

• window with some diffused light coming through it
• tripod
• flower (go and get some cheap blooms from the supermarket)
• camera and a remote release
• macro lens
• water sprayer (the shower works well if you haven't got one of these)
• black background (I used a suitcase!)

How I got the shot:

• sit next to a window and position the flower so that its getting a good amount of light
• if it's a bright sunny day diffuse the light that hits the flower by putting some tissue paper or a shower curtain between the window and the flower. If your neighbours asks you why you are putting a shower curtain up in your bedroom lie to them!
• set your background a few feet behind the flower so it goes nice and black when you take your shots
• set your white balance on the camera, check you are using the lowest ISO and set the shot up so its all level
• use raw if you can as it gives you much more flexibility later on
• get your camera at the same height as the flower, this nails the depth of field effect if you are shooting at f5.6 or a similar wide aperture
• spray the flower to get some good beads of water
• set the camera to aperture priority and choose what aperture you want (this shot was at f 5.6)
• take a shot (using a remote release or your self timer) and see what you get
• check your histogram and re-shoot until you get some info in the graph up to just off the end of the far right hand side
• take loads of shots at different apertures, you are bound to prefer some more than others once you check them over on the computer

Tips

• keep everything as still as possible, if you can lock your mirror up then do it. If you get comfortable you wont shift about and ruin the shot
• try and get the white balance and exposure as good as you can in the camera, it minimises the time you'll spend behind the computer

I hope this is useful, let me know if it helps you nail any beauties

Three fishermen

fishermen
Originally uploaded by Nevoir.

Up by the lighthouse on the beach at Burnham on sea I came across these guys fishing in the Bristol channel. It was absolutely freezing and pretty bleak, the first guy wasn't using a tripod so was just stood there waiting for a knock. They had a gas lamp with them so god knows how long they were staying out for, good on em.

The pile of sand in the foreground is from where these guys had been digging for bait, lugworm I guess. Its either that or where some poor bugger has sunk into the killer quick sand that seem to be all over this beach, I nearly lost my boots at one point.

New years day was pretty bleak and there was so little colour in the image that it was definitely one to be converted into black and white. I like the result, it conveys the mood of the day.

A good recent discovery is that the guy who presents many of the fishing programmes on discovery is also a photo journalist. His name is Henry Gilbey, check out Henrys site.

Details:

f5.6
1/60 sec
iso 200
nikon d70
50 mm 1.8 lens
handheld

Lily macro

lily_soft
Originally uploaded by Nevoir.

For the sake of a couple of quid a bunch of lilies provide a great macro subject. They have now all fully flowered and have stunk the flat out but have lasted ages and are still bloomin after a week indoors.

I set up a macro studio, using my strobist budget jobbie and lit it from either side using some desklamps. These flowers give you so many shot choices from the stamens to more abstract shots using colour and limited depth of field.

After playing round with various compositions I settled on this shot, varying the depth of focus on the funny little bobbly bits that come from the petals. I preferred this on at f2.8, not only to satisfy my obsession with limited focus but also to try and take something a bit more original that the classic shots.

Details:

f2.8
1/15th second
tripod
105 mm macro
iso 200
remote release
raw
nikon d70

Flood deposits

shells
Originally uploaded by Nevoir.

I spent 10 minutes or so fishing alonside a pile of debris that had been dumped by the flooded river avon. I had a poke about in it as the barbel weren't playing ball and found all sorts of things.

The most surprising find were loads of snail shells amongst the broken bits of wood and seeds. I thought they'd make an interesting shot and once i got the tripod level I got some nice macros to record the details in the deposits.

A pretty straighford shot really but just shows how much stuff our rivers transport around the place and then dump elsewhere to germinate. It also makes me think how many snails get washed into the sea......gutted!

f22
1/2 sec
iso 200
nikon d70
macro 105mm
tripod
raw

Macro mania

fungi
Originally uploaded by Nevoir.

After toying with the idea for what seems like months I finaly took the plunge and invested in a macro lens. I justified it on the basis that (a) it was christmas and more importantly (b) i wanted one.

I plumped for a Sigma 105mm 2.8 as I have read various good reviews of them and after trying one put the other week it was simply a matter of time.

Overall its an impressive lens and i've been really pleased with the results given that i've no real idea how to use it yet. It's so much easier than playing round with extension tubes and metering through the lens saves loads of messing around.

My last day before work started again was spent at Lacock Abbey. After failing to catch a barbel from the swollen river Avon I resorted to a macro mission and found a few interesting things to shoot. It's amazing with these lenses how many shots you can get in a small area of land. I need to learn to look again, these lenses make you think in a very different way, its great as there wil be thousands of shots to take on my doorstep that i've never thought of before.

This was taken at pretty close to lifesize. I played around with a few versions with different depths of field but plumped for this one at 5.6.

Details:

sigma 105 macro
nikon d70
f 5.6
iso 200
1/10 sec
tripod
raw