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 . 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.
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