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Introduction to Insect Macro Photography (Part III) – Composition and Focusing

March 4, 2014 by Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

Photo by Huub de Waard / Male marmalade hover fly: Magnification 5, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec
Photo by Huub de Waard / Male marmalade hover fly: Magnification 5, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec
This is the final part (III) of a guest post by Huub de Waard, an exceptional photographer who specializes in close-up shots of insects. After reading his post, be sure to check out more of his awesome photos at his website. And, if you’re also interested in writing a guest post here on PhotoNaturalist, please contact me, thanks! –Steve

Composition is more difficult for microphotography than for other types of nature photography.

Your subject might be an insect or a spider sitting on a difficult-to-reach place. Add the fact that you need to approach very carefully to not disturb your subject and you have a bit of a tricky situation. There are no golden rules to help you solve this one. Play around with composition until you get something that works.

In microphotography, you want to simplify your image as much as you possibly can. Fill up as much of your frame as possible with the subject. Have your focus as sharp as possible and don’t be afraid to experiment with different angles to find the one with the most aesthetic appeal. Photos at high magnification have a corresponding shallow depth of field, so precise control over the location of focus is critical. This requires not only artistic decisions about what part of the subject should be tack sharp, but also technical decisions about how to make the most of this sharpness. [Read more…] about Introduction to Insect Macro Photography (Part III) – Composition and Focusing

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: close, close up, composition, focus, insect, lens, Macro, magnification, micro, photography, up

How to get a closer focus with your lens

June 28, 2009 by Steve Berardi 7 Comments

800px-extensiontube5733Every lens has a minimum focusing distance: the closest point where the lens can get a sharp focus. Generally, the longer the focal length of the lens, the greater the minimum focusing distance.

Most of the time, this distance isn’t too important: with longer lenses you’ll generally be photographing a distant subject, because you just can’t get close to it.

But, sometimes you can get close to your subject and you’ll want to use a long lens to get that great bokeh (a result of the narrower angle of view). Good examples of this include wildflowers and butterflies. In these cases, to fill the frame with your subject, you’ll usually need to focus closer than that minimum focusing distance.

So, how do you make your lens focus closer? [Read more…] about How to get a closer focus with your lens

Filed Under: Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife Tagged With: 25mm, butterflies, camera lens, close focusing, closer focus, extension tube, focus distance, focusing distance, how to focus, lens focus point, macro lens, magnification, minimum focus distance, nature photography, telephoto close focus, wildflowers, Wildlife

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