Claire Gillo reveals how to capture close-up shots to produce stunning results in this easy DIY project
(Image credit: Claire Gillo)
Macro photography and flowers are like two peas in a pod – the two together simply make sense. Flowers are incredibly intricate and detailed when you view them from a close perspective, and the variety of bold bright colors they provide makes them a popular subject.
When it came to setting up this macro flower shot, we used a CD as our background and set up an external flashgun to light it. (See the steps below for more information.)
We put the camera into manual mode and dialed the aperture down to f/11. To sync the shutter speed with the flash, we set the shutter speed to 1/200 sec and kept the sensitivity low at ISO100. As we had the flash positioned close to the flower, we balanced the flashgun strength at 1/8 power.
After you take a test shot, it’s important to check your histogram to ensure that your exposure is reading correctly. For this shot, we wanted to be sure that the highlights in the flower didn’t overexpose, as it would wash out the rich orange color.
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(Image credit: Claire Gillo)
We did a few test shots to check that the highlights in the flower didn’t overexpose…
(Image credit: Claire Gillo)
Another test shot to check the highlights didn't blow out
You know that pile of redundant CDs you still have stored away, and keep thinking you must get rid of? Hang on to them! They make a fantastic backdrop for close-up shots. If you angle your light source carefully, you can create a rainbow effect from the reflective surface. It’s a trial and error approach to get it right, but it’s well worth the effort.
To light this flower and create the rainbow effect from the CD, we used one external flashgun pointing directly at the flower. We used a remote trigger to fire the flash and set the flash strength to 1/8 power in manual mode. When you shoot with flash yourself, using manual is by far the easiest method and gives you the most control.
It helps to use a macro lens with a 1:1 aspect ratio to get super close-up shots – but if you don’t have one of these, you could use a reversing ring and switch your standard lens around the other way. Set your camera up on a tripod, and focus manually. If your flower is positioned at an angle to the camera, consider focus stacking for sharper results.
This article was first published in Digital Camera magazine.
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Claire is a professional photographer and writer, and lives by the the sea with her two young children, husband and cat in the southwest of the UK.
After graduating from The Bournemouth Arts Institute with a first-class degree in photography, Claire worked for a number of years in the publishing industry, including as Technique Editor for Digital Camera magazine.
She loves anything and everything to do with photography, from creating magazine articles to photographing ballerinas on the beach and newborn babies (but not at the same time). She mainly shoots with digital DSLRs, but does dust off her beloved Hasselblad medium-format film camera once in a while…
