Advanced Macro and Still Life Photography: Part 1
You face special challenges when shooting objects that are close-up, or capturing still life. As with most subjects, many of these challenges have to do with light quality and quantity. With macro photographs, the challenge grows as the subjects get smaller. This article delves into designing for still-life and macro photography, outlines high and low-key techniques, and discusses the importance of depth of field.
Though lighting is often a major challenge, when shooting some small, static subjects, lighting can become simple, because you are able to better control the light. This could mean anything from pulling a drape open or closed, to using a reflector or strobe, to bringing a lamp in from another room. In some cases, still life and macro shots entail putting your camera on a tripod. This can be both to make certain the composition is perfect and because it is often necessary to use long shutter speeds.
Capturing Excellent Light for Everyday Still Life
Take a look around your home, your office, and the places that you go often; great photos and great light are everywhere. In many cases, your familiarity with the subjects can make you overlook very interesting photos. This can happen inside your house or office, or even around the city or town that you live in. That is why traveling is so fun; everything is new and different.
These everyday things are still-life compositions. They don’t have to be totally still, because what they do show is character and, of course, life. Sometimes, a still life is just created by happenstance; someone put something somewhere, and the composition is just right. A still life need be neither large nor small, but it might be interesting to look deeper into the scene and deeper into your life and see just what photographic delights are hidden when you start to look at things very closely.
Looking at the same old things might seem boring, but trying to see them differently can be very interesting. The light is always changing, so keep looking at objects, move them around, change your perspective, and get closer. You can find a vast array of new subjects to shoot right in front of you. Getting low lets the camera see the gradation of the light on the wall, from bright to dark as it gets darker closer to the ceiling. Moving the camera or the chair to capture a little bit of reflection brightens the slats of the chair and darkens the edges, giving those lines more contrast and drama.
No matter the time of day, or what the weather is, light interplaying with color and texture is all around. The nice part of shooting close to home is that you can visit and revisit places easily and see how things change depending on the time of day. On overcast days, the colors may be more muted, and looking closer you might notice that some very nice contrast exists because of the soft light. In 1-1, the post of the stair rail has some very interesting detail, and the lights and darks give this very flat subject a lot of dimension.
Using a 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor lens allows you to crop close to a subject easily. 1/60 second at f/8 at ISO 100.
Take time to consider the colors and textures as you look deeper into your environment. Observing the contrast of the subject can help to determine how to shoot something. Less contrast provided by more indirect light can really be optimal for small details and textures, as in 1-2.
The exposure here is 1/60 second at f/6.3 at ISO 200. This image was captured with a Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, which has excellent close-up capability.
A small, but definite, difference exists between indirect and soft light as this photo was taken in shade, but a hard light source is definitely nearby as evidenced by the dark shadows and the direction and contrast to the light.
Priciples of Design
Using some of the elements of design in photographs is useful to help create interesting and dynamic photographs. These elements are also great building blocks with which to build your artistic sense. Photographs that have good design principles often simply look “right” – or better than ones that do not.
Now that you have worked so hard on finding and creating good-looking light, it is time to look a little deeper into how the composition of a photograph works.
- Emphasis – The focus or subject of the image is the emphasis. It could just be a case of making the main subject larger, but in photography, you can also use depth of field to help define the emphasis.
- Balance – By placing one large item against several small ones, you can create balance; even using negative space (where there is nothing) on the other side of where there is something helps create balance.
- Repetition – By repeating something in the image, you can make the scene more active. Repeating something also can create a pattern.
- Rhythm – When intervals between elements are similar in size or length and then are used to create organized movement within the image.
- Proportion – The image has more unity when the elements appear to have similar proportion. Using different lenses, you can create unreal proportion to create stronger emphasis.
- Movement – Using compositional elements to allow the viewer’s eye to flow freely within the image or to direct the eye toward the emphasis.
- Contrast – Juxtaposing different elements against each other, dark and light, soft and hard, vertical and horizontal, and so on.
This is obviously a very abbreviated directory of these principles. When you are trying to create better photographs, evaluate the principles within your compositions. Look at other people’s photographs as well and see how the elements work within the photographs that you like.
Repetition
Repetition is often used to create dynamic photographs of many different things. Lighting can help create repetition, because the light helps define the shape of the subjects being repeated. In 1-3, the object being repeated is the bodies of the fish, but if you squint your eyes and look at the image, you see the lines of light and black created by the highlights on the belly of the fishes and the shadows as the dark backs of the fish go away from the light. The fish head is there for emphasis.
This image was exposed at 1/60 second at f/5.6 at ISO 100 with a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. The main light came through the awning into the fishmonger’s booth, and the highlight on the main fish came from a tungsten work light.
Contrast
Using the contrast of subject matter within a photograph brings balance into the composition. Dissimilar subjects together, even when intertwined, can bring excitement and even irony into a photograph. In 1-4, a number of contrasts are evident, hard and soft, dark and light. Both the contrast of the soft shapes of the flower and the hard edge of the jewelry, and the dark edges and shape of the bracelet wrapping around the white glow of the flower create a very interesting image.
A close-up image with a shallow depth of field isolates these subjects from a very blurred background. 1/80 second at f/6.3 at ISO 1600.
The lighting accentuates the contrast, shape, line, and balance. The medium background that gradates into dark sets off both of the subjects. The light is a mix of tungsten spotlights and available window and skylights. The light is generally indirect, but not too soft. It’s hard enough to show definition in the flowers but not enough that there are any black shadows. This mixed light comes from the source, the skylights letting hard light into the room, but not really anywhere close to the subject.
High Key Lighting
Sometimes, not only can a common item become a very interesting abstract, but interesting lighting can also set it apart even further. High-key lighting is generally lighting with a white or light colored subject in front of a white or light-colored background. This type of lighting is often done in a studio setting with studio strobes making the scene very bright.
In 1-5, the scene is simply very overexposed. But the overexposure actually makes the photograph work because if the image was exposed normally, it would look just like any other shower head in any other bathroom. The showerhead has very interesting nozzles, which made for a cool rhythm, and their angle makes the image feel as though it has movement.
Again, the shallow depth of field helps to focus the eyes on just a part of the subject, and the out-of-focus parts give shape to and build on the rhythm.
This exposure was set at 1/40 second at f/4.5 at ISO 100 using a Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens. The camera was exposed in manual mode. The proper exposure with the strobe might have been 1/125 second at f/11.
The light came from a studio strobe that was simply overpowering. This light created a scene so bright that there is no black whatsoever. The light is very hard, but it bounces all over and everywhere creating its own fill light on every side of the shower head.
I did say earlier that overexposure in a photograph would result in trouble. It is nearly impossible to bring back all of the detail in post-processing, and the scene would have too much contrast. You have to know the rules to break the rules! Overexposing by about 5 stops can cause very large problems in a regular scene, but it can accentuate a scene that is already interesting and abstract.
Low Key Lighting
A low-key image happens when more contrast and drama are in the image. Usually, low-key images have a darker subject over a darker background. The light for low-key photography is more of a dramatic side or backlight, although having a bright subject among a dark scene also is considered low-key.
Using an ordinary on-camera flash to light up the lid of an ordinary crock pot creates the unusual photograph in 1-6. The texture of the condensation on the inside of the lid and brightness of the handle against the darkness of the inner wall of the cooker have great contrast and balance. Positioning the lid just above the center of the frame and cutting just into the darkness also makes the handle pop out of the scene, giving it further dimension.
The strobe was on top of the camera but bounced into the ceiling. The light on the ceiling and cabinets creates the bright highlight on the handle. 1/60 second at f/5.6 at ISO 400.
Using the contrast of color, especially when the colors are red, blue, and yellow, brings even more excitement and movement to a photograph. This is one reason that so many photographers are so moved by the American Southwest. The rich red rocks against the cobalt blue skies make for very dramatic images.
Bringing It All Together: Design Study
This image photographed at a focal length of 55mm, which is slightly telephoto and a length that virtually every photographer has. The exposure was 1/100 second at f/11 at ISO 100 with a +2/3 exposure compensation.
Interesting lighting can easily make the most banal of subjects beautiful and dynamic. Find shadows and lines and use them to create tension and contrast in a scene that might otherwise be overlooked. By incorporating the interesting lines of shadows from dramatic backlight with the simplicity brought in by a new snowfall, even an old chain link fence can become an exciting photograph, as in 1-7.
This simple image of a very ordinary subject can be a great design study. Take a minute to digest this image and then take a look at the image dissected into the design principles in the following list:
Using these principles along with the ability to see what the light is doing in any scene can help you to be a better photographer. Look critically at the scene, and then when you bring the camera to your eye begin to look around inside your viewfinder, at the top, bottom and sides and see what is in the background, what is the subject.
Zoom in, zoom out, tilt the camera, get lower, and get on your toes — each of these things changes the photograph. Do these things until you have the image that you want, and then keep shooting.
Lighting for Macro and Close-Up Photography
True macro photography happens when the image on the sensor is the same size or bigger than the subject being photographed. This is determined by the ratio of 1:1, meaning that image size on the sensor is equal to the subject size. Getting even closer would make the ratio of image to subject 2:1, meaning the image is twice as big as the subject. Getting to 1:1 requires either a special lens — a macro or micro lens — or some sort of additional accessory to the lens or camera that allows these extreme close-ups.
Most zoom lenses have a macro setting or some sort of macro capability. This allows the photographer to get very close to the subject, but probably not actually to the macro level. Macro zooms usually allow a photographer to get close enough for a 1:4 image size-to-subject size ratio. This means that the image on the sensor is about 1/4 the size of the actual subject. This is actually excellent for good close-up photography.
The challenge of lighting such close subjects is often that the camera becomes part of, or a distraction to, the lighting. It may cast a shadow, and certainly moving in too close totally changes the strobe situation. The angle does not allow for any light to get there, and the light generally overexposes the scene.
The other issue with close-up photography is that the depth of field becomes extremely small. In most cases when the camera is at its minimum focus distance, it is virtually impossible to hold the camera still and keep the focus where you want it. When the subject is at an angle to the camera as opposed to being square or flat to the camera, it is even easier to see the shallow depth of field, as in 1-8.
This image was taken with a Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens at an exposure of 1/45 second at f/4.5 at ISO 200. Notice how the plane of focus cuts through the image, showing exactly how shallow the depth of field is.
To show just how hard it is to even compose at the minimum focus distance, try this: set the camera to manual focus and turn the focusing ring to the closest focus setting. If you have a zoom lens, zoom the lens to its longest focal length.
Find a simple subject and move the camera in and out until the subject becomes in focus. Don’t turn the focusing ring, just move in and out, so that you can see how shallow the depth of field is and at that focus distance, how jumpy the image looks in the viewfinder.
Depth of Field
To get enough light on the subject in most basic macro settings, the best way is to get your camera on a tripod and use some longer shutter speeds than normal. At the very least, the speeds are going to be longer than it is reasonable to handhold the camera.
The closer that a lens is focused, the more shallow the depth of field is, so at very close focus there is minimal depth of field. Additionally, at the close focus distances when shooting in macro, the ability to hold the camera steady is drastically reduced.
When you are shooting any type of wide scene, with more of a wide-angle lens, often you are focusing the lens at its furthest focus distance, usually called infinity. Infinity focus is the distance where everything beyond that distance is totally in focus. This is how disposable cameras work: The little plastic lens is created to have an infinity focus of about 4 feet, so that most things you would shoot are already in focus. The farther away the subject, the more depth of field you have.
Close focus is the opposite. The closer you get, the less depth of field you have. So when you focus close, even with a very small aperture, the depth of field stays very small.
The stop watch in 1-9, 1-10, and 1-11 is shown with increasingly small apertures and increasing depth of fields. Notice in the first image that the depth of field is really limited to just the crown of the watch, and even the bezel is soft. The depth of field here is probably 5 millimeters with an aperture of f/8. When the f-stop is set to f/22, the depth of field gets substantially greater, probably as much as 10mm. Even at f/51, in 1-11, the depth of field is less that 1 inch.
This image was photographed at 1/40 second at f/8 at ISO 100 with a Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens. The lens was set to its closest focus setting, and then the camera was moved into focus using a tripod.
Increasing the aperture of the exposure to 1/6 second at f/22 at ISO 100 increases the depth of field by a factor of 2, but it took almost three f-stops to do it.
Even at near the maximum aperture of f/51, with a shutter speed of 1 second at ISO 100, the depth of field increases by about 50 percent, and it took 2 1/3 f-stops more to get there.
In many cases, the lack of depth of field actually helps the image. It helps in a similar way to how shallow depth of field works with portraits. The main parts of the image are sharp and well defined giving them importance, and some of the less important things fall away and become soft as in 1-12.
This image was exposed at 1/100 second at f/6.3 at ISO 100. The shallow depth of field keeps the toes and parts of the body in focus, while parts of the legs go soft.
Coming Up
The next article in this two part series will be looking at how we can create light for macro situations, find the perfect lighting for flowers, use the macro mode on compact and SLR cameras, and how to take compelling product photos. Stay tuned!