Macro Photography

In our biggest FAQ about product photography yet, we discuss some of the most common questions a photographer at any skill level might have, from simple ones about settings to complex ones about the type of reflection a leather surface produces under hard light. This article was created to help you create better product images.

Once upon a time, Sigma was a brand thought of by many as the compromise lens if you couldn't afford the household names. Times have changed, though, and Sigma has gone beyond offering competitive lenses to making remarkable lenses and even some notable industry firsts. Being a photographer who works heavily in product work, I decided to put the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 DG Macro Art lens in a shoot-off against the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro, and the results were... well, read on and find out for yourself!

The beauty of macro photography is that you do not have to travel, book a model, or do anything involved to produce fantastic and compelling work. We are literally surrounded by potential subjects everywhere we go, and with a little bit of knowledge and patience, you can capture an entirely different world hidden in plain sight. If you are new to macro photography, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you everything you need to get started.

In this informative video, "The Outsiders," Rob Cottle and Geraint Radford head out into the wilds of South Wales to photograph deer. Along the way, they talk about wildlife photography techniques, the kit they use to get the photos, and dabbling in close-up and macro photography.

Many of us are mired in the cold and snow of winter, but that does not mean our creative juices should stop flowing. In fact, winter offers a vast range of unique photo opportunities, some requiring long trips and some only needing you to step outside your back door. Macro snowflake photography falls into the latter category, and this excellent video tutorial features an experienced photographer giving five tips to help you come away with the best possible images.

It's a mystery how this little one-inch wonder remained unknown to me for so long. I finally discovered it when — bemoaning my fate to spend over two thousand on a Canon tilt-shift macro — a colleague suggested trying an extension tube.

The past few years, Venus Optics has been making great strides in affordable, niche lenses. In this video, photographer Markus Hofstätter shares his experience with the Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens.

Did your university lecturer radiate an aura of excitement while crawling through a damp forest, seeking subjects that most of us would not notice? Every school and college should have a Geraint Radford. His skill and enthusiasm have just made me want to buy a macro lens and try the techniques I learned while interviewing him.

With shorter daylight hours and longer dark, cold, and wet nights, it's time to think about what to shoot indoors: something new perhaps? For myself, it's going to be trying something new, and that's macro with the Astrhori 85mm f/2.8 Macro Tilt lens.

Geraint and Rob are old friends out to have fun with their photography. They are both accomplished photographers and, most importantly, have a lot of fun taking pictures. The genuine joy they find in the creative process is evident and makes this video is worth watching.

If you are not getting absolute joy out of photography, you are doing it all wrong. Rob Cottle and Geraint Radford show you how nature photography should be done.

I am a sucker for gadgets, but I am also a skeptic, so when I took the plunge on an inexpensive handheld digital microscope I found for macro photography, I didn’t have high expectations.

When it comes to landscape photography, a wide angle lens is usually the tool of choice and for good reason. Nonetheless, you do not have to use wide focal lengths exclusively. In fact, a telephoto lens can be a powerful tool that enables new creative opportunities. This awesome video will show you just what you can accomplish with a telephoto lens, particularly when you use one with macro capabilities.

Flowers are some of the best subjects for macro photography, offering an almost endless range of looks and opportunities to expand your portfolio. If you are interested in your improving your flower macro imagery, check out this excellent video tutorial that will show you seven useful tips sure to put you on the track to better photos.

Although sharpness is important in just about every genre, it is a particularly strong priority in macro photography. However, it is particularly challenging in macro work, especially when you are not working in a studio where you have complete control over the placement or stabilization of your subject. If you want to shoot on the go without setting up a tripod every time, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you some helpful tips for getting sharp images even when shooting handheld.

There are so many budget lens manufacturers that I've begun losing count. What I haven't lost track of, however, is how strong the quality has become.

Macro photography is a genre that just about anyone can try, and it can open up an entirely new world of subjects and opportunities all hiding in plain sight. This great video features an experienced macro photographer discussing four reasons why the genre is addictive fun.

The wonderful thing about macro photography is that there are always compelling subjects within arm's reach, but on the other hand, it generally requires a dedicated macro lens. If you are interested in macro photography but not ready to invest a lot of money in it, a potentially viable intermediate option is extension tubes. This great video will show you how extension tubes work as well as the pros and cons of using them for macro work.

Voigtlander is known for making lenses with rugged build quality and great image quality, and the MACRO APO-LANTHAR 65mm f/2 Aspherical lens is no different. This fantastic image review takes a look at this interesting lens and the sort of image quality and performance you can expect from it in practice.

Frank Döring is an architectural photographer based in Kentucky, USA by way of Frankfurt, Germany. He also focuses on personal documentary projects with a focus on the Anthropocene.

The beauty of macro photography is that you do not need to travel anywhere to do it; we are literally surrounded by potential subjects wherever we are. If you are looking for a fun creative project or to expand your portfolio, this great video will show you 21 ideas for macro photography you can find around your home.

GuruShots is the host of "The World’s Greatest Photo Game” and has released yet another fantastic challenge. Participants submited their best macro photos. The challenge received thousands of entries and millions of votes. Check out the three winners of the challenge as well as hundreds of top rated images below.

Winter is upon us, and if you are anything like me, you will try to avoid going out in the cold whenever possible. The beauty of macro photography is that there are fantastic subjects all around you, meaning you do not necessarily have to trek miles away to get great shots! This excellent video tutorial will show you five fun winter macro photography ideas and offer some tips to help you get the best shots.

If you’re into macro photography, you might be wondering why so many macro lenses emphasize a wide aperture; f/2.8 is nice to have, but when focused down to 1:1, it’ll leave you with no depth of field. From my point of view, Venus Optics seems to have had the same thought. They built a macro lens with a spec sheet that’s focused on delivering macro results. Is this the new best option for macro photographers?

The wonderful thing about macro photography is that unlike other landscape photography, you can do it just about anywhere and find compelling subjects. If you are ready to head out and try it out for yourself, check out this helpful video tutorial that will show you a few tips and techniques for taking good macro photos.

Whether you’re shooting macro subjects like jewelry and flowers or landscapes on the latest high-resolution bodies, controlling depth of field can be essential. Focus stacking, where you combine multiple exposures at different focus points, can completely change the game when it comes to tricky depth of field situations. When you don’t have to worry about stopping down or picking what’s in focus, you can be even more creative. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to properly focus stack. Check out this guide to the best field and post-production practices.

Announced back in June, Nikon’s first macro lenses for the Z mount appeared to be typical successors to their F mount predecessors, covering 50mm and 100mm focal lengths. The Z 105mm, as before, is a more premium choice, offering a few more features and a more choice designation. I’ve finally gotten my hands on one, and after some thorough testing, I’m ready to share my thoughts on this recent entry to the Z lineup. Whether you’re a macro specialist or Z photographer, you’ll want to check out this review.

During autumn, mushrooms are appearing everywhere. These fungi are welcome subjects for the nature photographer and it can be a challenging task to photograph mushrooms in an interesting way. I have gathered some tips that can help and for some inspiration.

Fujifilm’s X100 line has been one of the most popular compact camera choices over the last decade. Even diehard shooters of other brands buy one for their everyday carrying. Starting with the X100 in 2010, the series is now in its fifth iteration with the X100V.

It was only a matter of time before Canon would release a true macro lens for the RF mount. Instead of an RF version of the ever-so-popular EF 100mm macro lens, Canon had a little surprise up its sleeve. I got a chance to review this amazing lens.

Buying a macro lens is useful for a lot of photographers in a number of different genres, however, it's a difficult purchase to justify if you do not do much macro photography specifically. If it had some other purposes it would be a more palatable purchase, and if you take any portraits, it does have.

The entire genre of time-lapse photography is a game of patience and preparation, but creating short films involving the life cycle of a mushroom is on an entirely different level. When 24hrs worth of frames can equate to only a few seconds of footage there is not a lot of room for mistakes.

This month, I’ve gotten a chance to spend some time shooting with one of Nikon’s two new macro lenses, the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 Macro.

As a photojournalist, I often have subconscious blocks against excessive editing that seep even into other genres of photography. That’s why I often try my hand at toy photography when I want to flex my editing muscles.

If you’re looking to get into macro photography, the first party lens options can seem too expensive for a lens with a more niche use, particularly on the latest Z and R mounts. Laowa, however, has a very promising 100mm lens that even exceeds those other 100mm options in one notable way. hould it be the lens you choose when shooting up close?

Nikon mirrorless shooters have two new lenses at their disposal, the NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro and the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S Macro. While both offer the 1:1 magnification of a true macro lens, there are some major differences between the two. This helpful video review compares both options to show you which is the proper one for your work.

Macro photography has many challenges that are unique to it, but when you can overcome them, you can produce entrancing photos of seemingly mundane things right around you. The learning curve can be a bit steep, though, so if you are new to macro work, be sure to check out this fantastic video tutorial that shows eight mistakes beginners commonly make and how to fix them or avoid them altogether.

Original, innovative photography is hard to find. However, Ethan Beckler has excelled. He leads the way in macro photography, pushing camera and lens technology beyond normal limits and creating astounding art at the same time. With great generosity, he shares his techniques with us.

There’s no shortage of lenses to choose from when it comes to the Micro Four Thirds mount, and so, for one to stand out, it’s got to offer something special. The Venus Optics Laowa 50mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro APO is a lens that just happens to have a few tricks up its sleeve to make a case for itself, namely 2:1 magnification for macro photography and the computer chips to make it play nice with Micro Four Thirds cameras.

Water droplets are a lot of fun to capture, but it can be tricky to time the shot and light the scene. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get started and create your own version of this classic shot.

Being a creative professional, in my experience, is about harnessing this constant need to create. It’s almost as if there’s a little creature inside which comes up with little ideas and if I don’t act on at least some of them, they’ll bubble over and die — leaving behind awful regret and emptiness.

No matter the genre, few things matter more to the majority of photographers than the sharpness of their photos. For macro photographers, sharpness is one of the top challenges, and this great video tutorial will show you four of the most important aspects of creating a sharp macro photo and give you a variety of helpful tips for ensuring you do so.

If you want to photograph small things, you need to get close. For that, you can choose a macro lens. But there is an alternative that is much cheaper. Extension tubes transform any lens into a macro lens. But what is the better choice?

Venus Laowa, a lens manufacturer known for their off-beat collection of manual focus lenses has launched a series of free live stream events on its Facebook page called "Meeting Masters." For the rest of the year, the company will be hosting photographers from all over the world to cover various topics related to photography using Laowa's collection of lenses.

Even if you aren’t the type of photographer to be interested in a cicada, let me tell you why this summer’s event will be an amazing photo opportunity. It might just not be what you expect.

Today I am interviewing my great friend and accomplished macro photographer Andres Moline. With an eye for design and a love of arthropods, Moline's work is truly captivating. He specializes in shooting sharp handheld focus stacks that leave you in awe looking at all of the little details.

Photographer Don Komarechka is renowned for his macro work, particularly his images of snowflakes. In this short video, he runs you through how he goes about capturing these tiny ice crystals and their always unique six-fold symmetry.

Enter the world of high magnification bug photography without breaking the bank. Learn how to turn kit you probably already have into a close-up winner and take macro masterpieces at home in no time.

It's difficult when a pet dies, but as photographers, we can choose to honor our loved ones with photos that will last forever. Here's what I chose to photograph when my pet died.

Macro photography is a more specialized genre than most, and as such, if you specialize in it, it can be tricky knowing how to turn your skills into actual income. This fantastic video discusses eight different ways you can create income using macro photography.