Mastering the Art of Macro Photography

From broken glass to small twigs, professional macro photographer Monica Royal uses a lot of creativity to capture beautiful images of small subjects. Macro photography, often considered a fine art, is a creative way to broaden your portfolio and practice new skills.

Macro photography is more than just zooming in on a subject – it takes a certain type of “seeing” to find those awesome images in everyday objects. By bending or shaking objects, by adding movement or water, or by simply photographing from a weird angle, there are lots of ways to add interest and excitement to seemingly insignificant still-life subjects.

Besides creativity, another important factor in macro photography is equipment. Monica uses 3 very important pieces of equipment (plus her camera) when capturing her fine art images. The first necessary piece of gear is a solid tripod. When shooting at very shallow depths of field, any small movement can throw your subject out of focus. It is nearly impossible to handhold a camera when shooting macro, so it’s key to invest in a quality tripod.

The second necessary piece of gear is a dedicated macro lens. Monica’s preferred lens is Tamron’s SP 90MM F/2.8 Di VC. This lens gives Monica an ideal distance between her camera and her subjects.

The third must-have piece of equipment for professional macro photography is lighting. Without professional lighting, it can become very difficult to capture pristine fine art images at a shallow depth of field. For the macro photograph below, Monica used 2 Westcott daylight Flex LED mats. These lights are powerful and extremely compact, which is ideal when needing to get in close to your subject.

And that’s it! With minimal gear and a whole lot of creativity, you can create beautiful, eye-catching imagery too. So give it a try!

This video is courtesy of professional fine art photographer Monica Royal.

To see more of her fine art photography, please visit her website.

Westcott Lighting Gear in Action