Macro Photography

A macro photograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative or image sensor is life size or greater, although most of the time we will end up looking at a large size image of a really small insect or flower, for example.

Technique

•       Most camera manufactures sell Macro lens which allow photographers to expand the image to greater than 1:1… these lens’ are quite expensive, alternatively learners can use the camera in macro mode if available (this may not be as effective as a dedicated lens).
•         Use point of focus OR manual focus
•        Use A TRIPOD to frame the object and background, apply compositional rules where possible.
•         Experiment with depth of field, you will be very close to your subject which results in a sudden drop off on focus, to overcome this you might want to maximize your depth of field therefore shoot at f 16 f22.b In other circumstances you may like the drop off in focus in which case use a lower f stop e.g. 4.0
•         Work with a low/medium ISO from 100 to 400
•          Apply manual exposure and the exposure meter to ensure that the subject is adequately exposed.
•          In some case you may choose to use flash light

Task:

·         In the studio I used the Nikon camera with Macro lens to shoot the image below. The setting were 1/125, f/16 and ISO 200. With a focal length of 105.00 mm

     Contact sheet:

    Edit:

     To edit this picture i Burn and dodged with curves on the Iris. I also did this on the corner of the eye to add a highlight. I found that there was a loose eyelash on her cheek when editing so i used the clone stamp to copy her skin over it, to make the image look more appealing as shown below.

      Final Image:

    Evaluation:

   I liked this technique cause i found that the opportunity to edit the details in the eye his something I've never been able to achieve before. If i had my own Macro lens i would try to do this more often. If i was to do this again i would make sure I got more varied photos and would take more appealing photos of the necklace etc.