Tips for shooting macro flowers well

Lead: Chris teaches you how to shoot flowers. Hilary, our reader, likes to take pictures of flowers, but she can't always get the expected results. Can we help her out?

From the beginning, when there was only a card machine, I liked to shoot flowers and plants in macro mode. Later, I bought a Nikon D7000 to improve my shooting level, but the operation was very complicated. I often have no idea about the functions and settings of SLR cameras, especially macro photography. Want to know how to use the aperture and how to operate more lenses. Can you help me solve these problems?

Analyze the problem:

The confusion after the upgrade

Hillary recently upgraded her card machine to Nikon D7000 digital SLR camera. She hopes to improve her photography with the help of a SLR camera. In practice, she met many difficulties. She is not skilled in the operation of SLR cameras and doesn't know the functions and usage of many buttons. These difficulties made her afraid to use a SLR or pick up a camera to create.

The focal length of her lens is 18- 105mm and 70-300mm, and she finds it difficult to shoot plants at close range with these two lenses. She knows how to find the target, but she doesn't know how to set camera parameters such as aperture, shutter speed and focus. So we will meet at Gants Mill Garden in Somerset, and we will teach her how to take macro photos of flowers.

Hillary's previous works

These photos prove that she has a good eye for choosing themes. But on the whole, her photos are messy, the subject is not obvious enough, and the background is vague. And the photos lack outstanding points of interest.

After seeing Hillary's photos, I think she should confidently try different parameter settings.

Chris's shooting suggestion

From the conversation, we know that Hillary knows a little about the basic parameter setting of close-range photography. She uses manual focusing and sets the sensitivity to 200 or lower. But D7000 has many parameters to set, and she always focuses on the card machine. Hillary really wants to learn to shoot, but her own attempts always end in failure. She wants to know how to control the depth of field and learn better composition skills.

Not long ago, she bought an upright tripod, but she hardly used it. She still uses a hand-held camera to shoot at a low shutter speed, and the photos are often blurred.

In the end, Hillary thinks that the two lenses she has now are not suitable for macro shooting, and she is considering buying a macro lens. In today's shoot, I lent her a Nikon 60mm macro lens.

Shooting suggestion: macro essential weapon

Soft light plate or reflector

When taking macro photos of flowers, a small soft light plate or reflector plays a very good role. You can use it to block out strong sunlight or fill in shadows. Sometimes it can be used as a background board.

Stabilizing fixture

Outside, even the breeze can be a headache, because we are shooting very small objects, and there is no room for flowers to shake when shooting. This practical clip can effectively fix plants without hurting flowers.

Cable release device

Even if the camera is mounted on a tripod, pressing the shutter button will cause the camera to shake slightly. Wired release can solve this problem, so you can shoot at the slowest shutter speed.

Diagnosis and treatment methods 1: Keep it simple.

Before telling Hillary those advanced skills, we should teach her some basic operations. The first is to shoot with a tripod. She can slow down, put the camera on, and then start thinking about how to shoot.

According to the shooting procedure, the next step is to consider the composition of the picture. I'll let Hillary shoot it herself first. She habitually puts the flowers in the center of the picture, which is the most common mistake for beginners. This makes the picture look dull, so I fine-tuned the angle of the tripod to make the position of the flower off the center, so I can take pictures? Leave blank? The picture is dense and has a good composition.

Besides, in her photos, flowers didn't fill the lens. I suggested that she get closer, change the angle, remove the interference of flowers in the background, make the subject in the picture bigger, and remove the interference of noise in the background.

Title:

Try to keep the picture simple when composing, and use the method of composition? Eliminate? Disturb the elements and highlight the subject you want to shoot.

Diagnosis and treatment method 2: fuzzy background

Knowing the most basic composition skills, Hillary also needs to learn the knowledge of lens, aperture and depth of field. I let her shoot with a 70-300mm lens first, and she stretched the focal length to the longest, using the compact composition she just learned to make the subject stand out. She opened the aperture to the maximum f/5.6 to blur the surrounding background and wanted to highlight the main body.

Then I suggested that she shoot the same scene with a 60mm macro lens for comparison. This lens can make the user closer to the object, and she can understand the rule that the closer to the object, the higher the background blur. We chose the subject first, and then Hillary set up a tripod. The distance between the camera and the subject is about 30 cm, so this little flower can fill the whole picture. Then Hillary switched the focus mode to manual, turned the focus ring and focused carefully.

I asked her to use the aperture priority mode, adjust the aperture value in the range of f/5.6-32, and compare the depth of field changes under different apertures. We need to keep the foreground flowers clear and blur the background. When the aperture is f/5.6, the background blur is good, but the tiny depth of field can't guarantee the clarity of the foreground flowers. In f/22 and f/32, the clarity of flowers can be guaranteed, but the messy background can also be clearly seen. We tried various aperture values repeatedly and found that f/8 was the most suitable. At this aperture value, the details of flowers are clear and the background is blurred satisfactorily.

Title:

F/22 aperture was used, and the messy background distracted the flowers.

The aperture value of the photo is f/5.6, and the background is blurred well, but some flowers are also located in Jiao Wai.

When the aperture is set to f/8, the clarity of the subject and the blurring degree of the background are satisfactory.

Diagnosis and treatment method 3: consider the weather.

When Hillary is more confident in her composition and depth of field control, I will teach her to consider more shooting details.

Many people like to shoot flowers on sunny days, when there is enough light, which is conducive to improving the shutter speed. However, we usually choose to shoot in cloudy and cloudy weather, because the light is soft at this time, and the clouds are like a big soft light board, which can eliminate the hard shadow caused by direct sunlight on sunny days. If you want to show the soft curves of petals, you'd better avoid these shadows.

Besides clouds, you should also consider the influence of wind on macro photography. A little breeze may make the picture completely empty. In order to keep out the wind, Hillary first blocked the flowers with a reflector. It was windy that day, and this method didn't work, so Plamp stabilizer was used, and the effect was good.

In order to create soft light on sunny days, I asked Hillary to block the soft light board between the flowers and the sun. The photos taken at this time are soft and light, and there will be no obvious shadows and highlights. The reflection of flowers is also effectively removed.

We used different methods, and after taking some photos, Hillary was more confident to shoot in complex lighting conditions and changeable weather.

When you shoot flowers, you should spread them according to the atmosphere you need. Although the outdoor light is single, we can reasonably convert natural light through reflectors, flashlights and even dark clothes.

Title:

On sunny days, the contrast of flowers is high, and the appearance of highlights and shadows weakens the softness of flowers. Shade can be effectively eliminated by blocking the sun with a soft light plate.

Shooting summary: photography, sailing.

Title:

The composition of this photo is good, the main body is located on the left side of the picture, and the insects on the flowers have undoubtedly become the visual center. The flowers are clear and the background is blurred moderately.

Coach Chris:? In fact, mastering the functions of the new camera is far less difficult than Hillary imagined. She needs some theoretical guidance and comparative pictures to intuitively understand the effects achieved by these functions. I also taught her some common sense necessary for macro photography, such as using a tripod. Setting up a tripod can not only stabilize your camera, but also give you more time to scrutinize the composition and think about the picture. We can change the settings in one seat, take multiple photos, and then observe the differences between these photos. She will soon be able to choose the appropriate parameters for her own shooting, and then Hillary will start thinking about more advanced issues such as how to arrange the light. These advances have also made her confident, and she has more opinions and ideas when choosing flowers and taking flowers.

? In terms of equipment, Hillary feels that it is more convenient to shoot flowers with a macro lens. Now she needs to accumulate experience and practice more. She only knows that aperture and composition are not enough and must be integrated into every photo. ?

Hillary:? I really want to thank Chris for teaching me. My ability to shoot flowers has obviously improved. Chris was patient and explained in detail. He taught me a lot of practical theoretical knowledge and tips. The macro lens he lent me surprised me, but I can only use my own 70-300 lens for the time being. It is more important to know the camera settings first than to buy lenses.

? We spent a long time shooting the contrast map of depth of field, which made me fully understand the relationship among aperture, shooting distance and depth of field. In terms of composition, my concept has also changed. Chris also told me about the influence of sensitivity, aperture and shutter on exposure, which benefited me a lot. ?