Floral Macro 

Raw (advantages) - If your camera has the option to capture your shots in Raw mode, then I recommend that you use it. The benefits of Raw allow you more control over the manipulation of your shot, from exposure to contrast, brightness to saturation etc.,  Higher picture quality to!  You can play around with your image in raw as much as your heart desires, without losing image quality or distroying information.  Even if you save your editted version of your shot, you can re-open the raw file on your computer, and re-adjust if necessary, this is especially beneficial for landscape work, but I'll talk about that on another page.

 Raw (disadvantages) - One of the drawbacks to Raw format is file size, they're larger than Jpeg files due to the fact that their not compressed, so your memory card will hold less shots, but in my opinion, it's a small price to pay!  There's a simple solution, buy more memory!  Also, time is a factor, Raw is a little more labour intensive, it's not just a case of uploading your images onto your computer and viewing your work, so if you just haven't got the time, then perhaps jpeg's are for you.

Rise and shine - The early hours are without doubt the best time to be shooting your floral macro shots, the air is still, there's less chance of your subject moving, (because when your working in such close proximity, the last thing you want is movement!)  The lighting is just  right to. Also, there's the added bonus of morning dew, which will add that little something special.

 Harsh midday sun - This is the worst time to be wanting to shoot floral macro, as pretty and vibrant as the flowers look, your camera will have difficulty in discerning the contrast, this will lead to disappointment when you look back at your efforts and realise all the beautiful, finer detail has been lost because of harsh lighting!   However, if you have some way of sheilding them from the sun, then you may reap some reward.  Make use of those seemingly endless overcast skies to, the lighting will allow those vibrant colours of your subject to really pop, but expect slower shutter speeds due to lack of light.

 Keep the noise down! - Noise on your digital pictures that is, there's nothing worse than bagging a beautiful shot, then, when on closer inspection, you realise it's plagued with noise!  I've got the t-shirt you see.  So to avoid this, make sure your ISO setting on your digital camera is set to around 100, and if at all possible, use a tripod, or bean bag.    

 Get a little closer - There are a few ways you can get closer to your chosen subject, number one being extension tubes, there's no optical elements, they are simply added to the body of your camera, with the lens attached on the end of the tubes, therefore moving the lens further away from the digital sensor, gaining closer focus, with greater magnification.  But, (there's always a but), the closer to your subject you get,  the greater the loss of light, so the need for longer exposures.  There's a few downside's to using the tubes, the cheaper tubes have no electronic contact to the body of your camera, so you will lose the autofocus facitily, and in some cases your unable to control aperture, leaving it wide open.  To be honest, the lack of autofocus shouldn't be an issue, as focus (in my opinion) should be manually controlled for macro work. 

Another cheap and effective way to gain greater magnification is to purchase a set of macro diopters.  They fit on the end of your chosen lens.  They come in a set of strengths, they can be used individually or stacked together to increase magnification.  I achieved some reasonable results with them, but they do take away some of the image quality.  Also, the glass is rather exposed, so they can be easily scratched, so be careful.

Without doubt the best way to obtain those truely magnificant close-ups, is to splash that cash, and buy a macro lens.  You don't have to spend obscene amounts for these either, prices range from about £190 upwards, so there's no need to sell your soul.

 Stability - When I first started shooting macro I didn't use, or want to use for that matter, a tripod.  But you soon come to realise that there's some shots you have to miss out on because of the light, or rather lack of.  However, tripods do prevent freedom of movement at times, I still find them rather cumbersome and awkward to use.  Getting closer to the subject will increase the chance of camera shake, so it's best to use one as and when the need arises.  As well as producing sharper looking pictures, using the tripod will allow you more time to ponder over the compostion of your shot.  I recommend also that the sturdier the tripod the better, especially for the hefty DSLR's, and if they have a central extension piece, avoid extending them, this too leads to possible vibration, resulting in blurred images.  Expect to pay £120 and above for a tripod.

 Don't over-do it - If you feel there's always a need to gain pin sharp focus all over on your images, then stop right there.  It's not always possible, and it isn't always neccessary.  Like any other picture you take, there's a main focal point to a shot, this, in my opinion should be the only part that's sharp.  So before you take a shot, observe your subject and think about what part of it's features really stands out, and aim your main focus on that point alone, and compose around it.  A shallow depth of field will make your focal point pop, and the rest of the background will blur, giving your image a softer look.  Use a large aperture (small number like f5.6) to avoid fussy, distracting backgrounds.

Once you've got your shots and uploaded them to your manipulation software, please don't feel the urge to do an overall sharpen on them, isolate your focal point and sharpen that section only, and don't overdo it on the sharpening.  If your image is heavily out of focus, blurred, etc no amount of sharpening is going to save it.  Bin it. 

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