Macro Photography Tips with Ryan Morris
Ryan Morris is a photographer and close-up and macro photography enthusiast. Being an admirer of his work, as well as his no-nonsense approach, I asked him a few questions about his technique. Here are some of his close-up and macro photography tips:
EV: How long have you been shooting close-up and macro?
RM: I have dabbled in macro and close-up photography for about four years, but only in the last year have I taken it to the next level in that I have tried to hone my skills with the equipment I have to produce better images.
EV: What equipment are you using for most of your work?
RM: I started with an entry level Nikon D3100, Tamron 70-300 macro lens, and a cheap flash bought second hand from eBay to produce images like this one (see Figure 1). I have since upgraded to a Nikon D7100 and use almost exclusively the 50mm f/1.8 combined with a set of manual extension tubes, with no electrical contacts, bought from eBay for £10.
EV: What do you do for lighting?
RM: I learned very early on that when shooting with extension tubes that you lose a lot of light that would normally be so abundant with just the lens attached to the camera, so I began using the flash on-camera to add the light back in. But it was to harsh, so I made a diffuser from a cereal box lined with tinfoil and covered at the front with a piece of cotton from a t-shirt (see Figure 2). This produces a nice soft light that wraps around the subject and allows you to keep the ISO low, and keeps the images sharp and clear which, for me, is the most important thing about close-up photography. I still use this diffuser today.
EV: I know that you’ve experimented with focus stacking, can you talk a little about that and any special post-processing that you use?
RM: I found a dead fly on the window sill and, having focus stacking in mind, I thought I would try it out seeing as it wasn’t about to fly off. Now, you will hear all sorts of things about focus rails and other gizmos when doing this sort of thing, but I am a cheapskate and try to use what I have to do most things. So, I set up my flash off-camera and took 6 frames of this fly (see Figure 3) hand held, focusing on the back of the fly and moving to the font, focusing on a different part, frame by frame (this takes a steady hand a little patience to get right). I then uploaded to Photoshop CS6 and aligned the frames, blended them using masks to bring out the parts that are in focus on each of the frames. There are programs that do this automatically and I may get one such as Helicon Focus to do this in the future to speed up the process, but I like playing around with what I have just now. I also have a standard process of adjusting exposure and sharpness in Lightroom and spot removal, if required, and high-pass sharpen in Photoshop before saving the final image.
EV: Have you discovered any interesting tricks or techniques since you’ve been doing this?
RM: Like many just starting out, I used to go in all guns blazing shooting this that, and thinking, “this is amazing seeing all this stuff up close,” but you learn to slow down and watch what’s happening before moving in with the camera. This allows you to think about what you want from the end result and how to get it. It may be something as simple as waiting for an insect to move into a better position, or for it to do something you don’t see every day like in this image (see Figure 4) of a fly cleaning itself. Using flash was a bit of a revelation to me as I struggled to get clean sharp shots without it. Flash will freeze everything.
EV: What are the most challenging aspects of shooting macro?
RM: Shooting moving objects is a real challenge when shooting close-up so you have to become the tripod. It’s a complete waste of time setting up a tripod and waiting for something to appear in front of the camera. You will use a few more muscles than what you are used to when trying to get into a suitable position, but it’s worth it. Move slowly and creep up on the subject and try not to make any noise. You wont win most of the time but patience reaps its rewards. When shooting with macro lenses and extension tubes, the depth of field is very tight, millimeters at most, and trying to use auto focus can be very frustrating so it is much easier to switch to manual and use your body to rock back and forth to get the subject in focus. This takes a little practice but when you get it, it becomes second nature.
EV: How do you decide what to photograph?
RM: It’s easy to notice things when you are looking for them but making a good image takes a little more thought. I have seen things that I would have thought to be a great candidate for a nice image, but when you get down to it the background is not right or the subject is not quite in the right position, so you just have to persevere and keep on looking till you get what you want. It always amazes me, the things I see that I hadn’t seen before, but all too often it’s not possible to take a good image without disturbing the subject.
Taking close-up images, I guess, is synonymous with the insect world, but when I’m home or don’t see any suitable insect, I shoot other stuff. This allows you to play around a bit more. You can take creative shots of plants or other inanimate objects that aren’t going to fly off just before you click the shutter button. You can get a little creative and do things on your terms. This image (see Figure 5) is drops of olive oil on the surface of water lit by off-camera flash directed at a pattern underneath the bowl that the water is in. This (Figure 6) is a very small flower shot very close to create an artistic piece.
Other info:
I use extension tubes almost all the time and although you usually get a set of three tubes, I usually use a combination of just 2 tubes as this tends to get me more usable shots than using all three at once. I would use all three only if I was concentrating on minute details such as eyes of a fly. This also gives you room for a little cropping in post processing should you want it (see Figure 7). There are also opportunistic moments like these images (Figures 8, 9, 10) where you see something and have time to go get the gear and take a few shots. My go-to settings are 1/60sec, f/1.8, iso400 and flash set to 1/4 power. This is then tweaked to get the desired results for each shot.
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