TECHNIQUES
Control your lighting
Learn to work with tight lighting angles and complex environments for beautiful illumination of miniature scenes
Pictured Tunnel vision Introducing focused light effects brings ‘normal’ scale illumination to the macro world. Since light gradients are often shallower on small subjects, this increases the sense of being in the scene
© Saleheh Soleimani
Some aspects of macro photography require quite a bit of adaptation to the usual techniques applied in other genres. Focusing and depth of field is one, but another less thought about aspect to many beginners is lighting. This presents some major challenges. The issue is not with overall exposure – the same rules apply in macro as any other area – rather it regards space to work. The common working distances in macro imaging are mere centimetres from the subject, making it tricky to place a flash to evenly light the whole scene.