Continuing on with our series of photography challenges you can do while you stay home – it’s time to do some macro!
Macro photography is great because you can take ordinary things and make them look unusual, create abstracts and find things around the house to photograph you may not have considered.
Find some subjects for macro photography
First look around your home and see what you can use for a subject. Household items look totally different close-up. Here are a few ideas:
- Cutlery
- Food items (cut pieces of fruit, seeds, bread, wine cork)
- Fabric or yarn
- Wood or textured items
- Bugs (in your backyard maybe)
- Flowers (if they’re blooming in your yard)
- A person’s eyeball
- Pets or pet parts like noses, paws, etc. (if they will sit still for you)
- Lego people or figurines
- Feathers
- Tools from the garage
- Shoes or parts of them
You get the idea. What other ideas can you come up with or find around your home? If you think of something unique and fun please share with everyone in the comments below.
Details for this challenge
Next, if you aren’t familiar with macro photography, the first thing you’ll want to do is read up on it and decide which tools you’re going to use for the job.
I’ve written a few articles on the topic previously. Start here:
- The Ultimate Guide Macro Photography
- How to use Macro Extension Tubes
- Using a Macro Lens
- How to turn your 50mm into a Macro lens for under $20
- Macro Photography – an Interview with Don Komarechka
So once you’ve read the articles you need to pick your gear. If you currently don’t own a macro lens see what other options are available to you. Perhaps you can order something that’s fairly inexpensive to give it a try.
You can use or do:
- Reverse lens macro (you need a special adapter ring to mount your lens to the camera backward, they usually cost less than $20). Make sure you get the right kind that matches your camera brand and model and lens mount. Choose a 50mm or longer lens (wide-angle will be trickier to use).
- Close-up filters (they screw on to the front of your lens, the cost will depend on the quality of the glass and brand but they can range from about $10 to $100 or so).
- Extension tubes (these mount between your camera body and the lens – read the article on these before you buy, quality varies greatly and a cheap one could damage your lens or camera – choose wisely)
- A macro lens – obviously this is a bigger ticket item and comes with a bigger price tag. But the price is worth it if you plan to do a lot of macro photography and want the best image quality. If you aren’t sure yet see if you can rent one from a camera store in your area or a company like Borrow Lenses.
I’ve made a handy list of macro items on Amazon for you if you want to see some of the options just CLICK HERE.
Cheers,
