Macro digital photography has to be one of the most underrated and under-practiced aspects of digital photography. The fact is that it's just not "close-ups". Macro digital photography is o much more. Taking digital photography of macro, particularly abstract, is an incredibly stimulating art form. One of the reasons why macro digital photography is so good because the objective is to get as much detail as you can. And the subject is not often distinguishable. You can turn a basic household item into a brightly colored world filled with shapes, lines and form. It allows the mind to take a break from categorizing everything and lets the imagination just enjoy the art form.
In macro digital photography, it's very important to understand that you will be working with less light. What tends to happen is that you have less light on a smaller surface than you do a larger surface. This can lead to the need, in your digital macro photography, to adjust our F Stop to compensate for less light. And not only that, but in digital photography macro but your lens so you can get the important sections of your macro subject and focus on a shallow depth of field.
Composition is everything in Macro digital photography. Due to the fact that you are working with an absence of defining elements you find yourself working with the tone, texture, shape and light of the subject. To capture your lines, shapes, tones and texture well, make sure you have the right exposure. This means that in all aspects of your digital macro photography you'll need to get the right macro lenses. If you don't have macro lenses and you wish to practice, I suggest grabbing a magnifying glass and seeing what things look like up close. Keep in mind that this is not an effective long term photographic tool, but it does open your mind when you first start macro digital photography.
One tip I can give you for successful macro digital photography is to take "portions" of subjects up close. Find a point in your macro digital photography that shows flowing lines, symmetry and a loving gentleness that you normally would not find at normal distance. For example take the centre of a flower, such as a daisy. You will notice that the centre of the daisy comes alive with a softness and fascination that can only be obtained by macro digital photography.
To practice your digital macro photography, take your magnifying glass and really look up close at sections of subjects that have lots of detail up close. You can choose the grain of wood, clothing material, flowers and even colored objects such as semi precious stones. You'll find that subjects with very, very small fine detail are the best digital photography macro subjects. So get practicing!
By Amy Renfrey
