Download PDF - The Canadian Nature Photographer

More documents

Recommendations

Info

MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS 2012 Lighting for Macrophotography Good light is essential to all forms of photography. In macrophotography, the two main forms of light are natural and artificial light. Natural light that originates with the sun can vary in color, quality and direction. The colour of the light refers to how warm (yellow) or cool (blue) it is. The camera white balance should be set to match the color of the light falling on the subject if you are capturing your images in .JPG mode. If you set your camera to record RAW files, you can leave it set to auto white balance (AWB), then adjust the white balance later when you process the images in software such as Adobe Photoshop. I almost always shoot RAW files and post process them in Adobe Photoshop. Typical camera white balance settings – for the most accurate colour rendering, you should set the camera white balance to match the type of light you are photographing under if using .jpg files. For most type of flower photography, a soft, even light source often provides the best results. This type of lighting occurs on overcast days, but you can also find even lighting in the shade, which you can create yourself using an umbrella, towel, cardboard or simply have someone stand over the flowers. The problem with direct sunlight is that the dynamic range, or the ability to capture dark and light tones, is often greater than the camera can record resulting in too much contrast. There is usually a loss of detail in the shadows as they block up and the highlights are overexposed and contain no detail. Some macrophotographers use large sheets of translucent plastic to diffuse the light. They cover the flowers and then crawl underneath the plastic to photograph the flowers. The best way to appreciate the importance of soft, diffused light is to take some photos of flowers in bright sunlight and some in the shade, then compare the results as shown below. TIP: Set your digital SLR camera to shoot RAW files and use Auto White Balance for the best quality images. If you don’t own a program to process RAW files set your camera to shoot both RAW and JPG files, just in case you purchase an image editing program in the future and want to be able to use the higher quality RAW files. Robert Berdan | 30
MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS 2012 Left in bright sunlight, the shadows often block up with no detail apparent, and highlights can also burn out due to over exposure. Photographing the same flowers in shade produces more even tones and a much better image. One way to reduce the contrast on a sunny day is to create your own shade using an umbrella or diffuser; anything that creates shade will work. A black or white umbrella is best as it won’t introduce a colour cast. TIP: Photographing on or near the ground can be hard on your knees. I bring along soft knee pads that I purchase from a hardware store sometimes called “Gardner’s kneepads”. I strap the kneepads on so I can comfortably kneel down on rocky surfaces or surfaces with small stones. The knee pads cost only a few dollars, are light weight and easy to fit in my camera pack. Robert Berdan | 31
Page 1 and 2: +- T MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS &
Page 3 and 4: MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS & TECH
Page 29: MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS & TECH
Page 79: MACROPHOTOGRAPHY TOOLS, TIPS & TECH

Download PDF - The Canadian Nature Photographer

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?