Macro Photography

By Kaden Stephens

This week, I am posting some of the macro images I was able to shoot. I haven’t had any experience with this type of photography before, but I thought that it was pretty fun to try out. The biggest trick was learning to balance the lighting to get all of the miniature details to pop.

WATER DROPLETS

FEATHER

This first image is a closeup I was able to capture of a peacock feather. To get the lighting to work, I had to set up a continuous light right above the feather. It was little awkward positioning myself around the light, but I was able to capture this image where all the colors stood out really well. Through editing, I was able to enhance the colors and contrasts.

FULL BLOOM

This next photograph was of a pink rose that was lightly covered in water droplets. The color of the flower was beautiful, so I did all that I could to capture the vibrant pinks. Again, I captured this image with an indoor studio continuous light. As I went into editing, I slightly darkened some of the shadows and deepened the colors around the edges of the petals.

BLUEBERRY 

This next image is a closeup of a blueberry surrounded by some pink flower buds. To get the blueberry as clear as I could, I had to take several images until I could finally get a clear shot. In editing, I darkened the shadows and raised the saturation. I also lightened the center of the blueberry to create a stronger focal point.

NO WATER DROPLETS

SPIKEY

I found this interesting ball that was covered in spikes along its surface. I don’t really know what it is, but it made an interesting subject in this next image. In editing, I darkened the background to create a higher contrast for the subject.

COUNT DOWN

This next image was of a watch that was set up in some pretty interesting lighting. I prepared to capture this image by getting a colored LED light and setting it to a cyan color. This made the copper tones in the watch face really stand out. In editing, I enhanced the colors and lighting to put more focus on the watch’s hands.

SPARE CHANGE

This final image is of some old Chinese coins. Again, I used an LED studio light to color everything cyan. In editing, I desaturated some of the blues to make some of the orange tones stand out. I increased the texture and lightened the closest coin to make it a stronger focal point.