How to take macro flower photos with SLR

If you want to shoot flowers in the wild and avoid the messy background, you can try using a tripod and a reflector. Now is the best time to shoot flowers. It's perfect to go outdoors and feel nature and take close-ups of flowers with a macro lens. I sorted out how to take macro photos with SLR and share them with you!

Pay attention to the direction of light and shadow, and find the position that can reflect the beauty of flowers.

Whoever picks up the camera wants to make the flowers more beautiful. But it is actually very difficult to shoot flowers, such as focusing and blurring, and selecting light, all of which should be carried out at the same time. The first thing to decide when shooting flowers is the position of the light source. In most shooting scenes, it is common to shoot along the light, that is, the sun is behind the photographer. However, for flower photography that needs close-up, such a positional relationship will cause flowers to be completely shrouded by the photographer's own shadow. Therefore, when shooting flowers, it is best to choose' light, backlight or semi-backlight' that is shot vertically at noon. It is very important to determine the position of light when shooting flowers, and then determine the shooting position and angle according to the position of shadow. You can choose the shooting mode according to your personal preference. If you want to use background blur flexibly, it will be more convenient to use Av (Aperture Priority Auto Exposure) mode. It should be noted that when shooting at macro, the shooting distance should be close and not too blurred. If it is too vague, the subject itself will become unclear. It is necessary to narrow the aperture to maintain a certain depth of field, make the overall shape of the flower clear, and only use blur to filter out the messy background. In addition, manual focusing is more suitable for this kind of shooting than automatic focusing. Focusing needs to be accurate to millimeter level, which is safer to confirm with human eyes. And sometimes the autofocus point and the position that the photographer wants to focus on are not necessarily the same. However, if autofocus locking is used in macro shooting, the possibility of inaccurate focusing is very high, which is not recommended here. It is suggested to adopt the methods of real-time display shooting and manual focusing introduced in the middle chapter. It is often windy when shooting outdoors, which will bring some difficulties to manual focusing, but shooting beautiful flowers with precise focus in this way will bring more special touches to the photographer.

Point 1: Use of macro lens

(left) EF 100mm f/2.8L is a USM macro.

(right) EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM macro

The focal length of macro lens can be divided into 100mm and 60mm, that is, the shooting distance is different. Generally speaking, it is more convenient to choose 60mm when shooting flowers nearby and use a lens with a focal length of 100mm when shooting flowers in the distant sea of flowers.

Point 2: Understand the characteristics of foreground blurring and background blurring and use them flexibly.

The degree of blur is determined by factors such as focal length and aperture. The blur of the subject's foreground is often worse than the blur of the background. If we can use foreground blur flexibly, we can better show the charm of the subject.

The third point: Flexible use of tripod and spherical tripod.

The tripod is very conducive to precise focusing, and the tripod head on which the camera is fixed is actually very particular. When taking macro photography, it will be more convenient to choose a spherical pan/tilt that can adjust the angle freely, and this pan/tilt is generally portable and easy to carry.

The fifth point: the trick to decide composition.

In the composition of flower photography, if you shoot large flowers, you usually take the stamen as the center, because the focus position will also have a great impact on the picture effect, so you need to focus properly and correctly.

Pharmacy 6: Other auxiliary equipment

Macro shooting has many different accessories, and different experts also have their own unique methods. The following is a brief list of accessories introduced by many books or predecessors:

Black card: It can be used as a windshield when there is wind, and it is also used as a "background board" for the scene by film friends to simplify the background.

Flash bracket: Because the top of the machine is not an ideal flash position, you need to set another flash position. There are many different flash brackets on the market, and some movie friends made them themselves.

Focus track: Fix the focus track on the tripod, and then fix the camera on the track. The focus base provides a mechanical structure to move the whole camera back and forth. This accessory is very useful because macro photography often moves the camera back and forth. However, pay attention to the weight and firmness of the focus base: an unstable focus base may increase camera vibration.

Reflective plate: Reflective umbrella is used to diffuse light, which can supplement light for insects in dark places in a more natural way. Some reflectors are specially designed for macro, and there is a space for the lens to stand out. This is very easy to use when shooting large objects. I used a reflective umbrella in this design. Once the main body is set, you must ensure that the lighting is balanced, which helps to show the details. Check for multiple shadows for the second time. Once you are sure that there is nothing wrong with the placement of lighting equipment, start reading objects with a photometer.

Umbrella: creates a scattering light source for the scene under strong sunlight.

Large plastic bowl: there is an opening at the bottom of the bowl, which extends into the lens to cover the object and make a scattering light source.

Cable release: necessary.