When I’m feeling down or sick I always photograph or do some post-work on flowers. I love flowers and to visualize them up close is my cup of tea and it makes me feel good! I’ve had some crazy weeks lately. I’m sure you’ve been there before. To find what relaxes me is good, and as you can tell from this post, it is flowers. Here are some quick tips on how to photograph flowers close-up. I’m sure they will help you too when you need that extra push for life.
Use a Plexi Glass
Think 3 for a fun Composition.
Multiple focused images combined into one for more depth-of-field.
Use a tent for soft lighting.
I hope that you have a subject to photograph that just makes you smile, even if you don’t try photographing a flower.
I’d like to share my flower book with you all. I talk about what my thought process is while photographing a variety of flowers.
Here is a bit of info for you:
Print book, 88 pages standard landscape, 10 × 8 in. (25 × 20 cm)
Print books have professional-grade paper, superb printing and binding that looks good and feels great.
Durable, acid-free, archival-quality papers from Mohawk®
Deep, rich blacks for superb contrast and image reproduction
A range of premium cotton and linen Hardcovers
Long-lasting library binding, precisely and individually bound by hand
If you have been to my site before, then you know that I LOVE flowers! I’m drawn to them. I had a baby shower for my daughter a couple of weeks ago and you know I had to go all out on the flowers.
One thing that really inspires me are the florists who can make beautiful bouquets. Most of my photography flower shots are close up, but today I just wanted to show you this beautiful bouquet. Our local florist set these gorgeous flowers in a vase that was my grandmother’s. It was special to have this vase since it was the fourth generation that we were celebrating.
This amazing floral artist made me so happy that I had to share one of the pieces with you today.
I have been asked many times how I make my Macro Lens Paintings, so I decided to do a live hangout with some amazing photographers from The Arcanum to share my technique. Now this was my first time ever doing this, so if you watch the video I think you’ll laugh with me. 🙂 I am so inspired by the people I have met in the Arcanum and I find myself gravitating toward them more and more. It’s a great place to be with people who love the craft of photography and who truly appreciate art.
The images below are just a couple that I shot during the live hangout. I Hope you enjoy watching this as much as I did making it.
Dancing Lily
Dancing
Pink Flurry
Live hangout…how to Macro Lens Paint.
Just a quick shout out to, “Adventurers of the F-Stop” for helping me pick the featured image. If you would like mentoring from me you can join the Arcanum for more one-to-one help (read more here) or join our Membership Program to start your Photography Journey (read more here).
I was back lighting fruit macro style a couple of days ago so I figured I’d share it with you to hopefully inspire you to have some fun with your food.
I love texture and when you back light a thin slice of fruit or vegetable, you can really see what I’m talking about.
I used my 100mm macro lens and my Canon extension tube on my camera. I locked my mirror and set up my timer so I wouldn’t have much shake to the camera. If you position your fruit or veggie on a flat surface and make sure your lens is directly over your subject, you won’t have many depth-of-field problems (what’s in focus and what is not in focus). I made a really short video using my iPhone to help you see what I’m talking about. You’ll see that the glass is dirty…no worries you’ll be focusing inside the fruit.
I used a florescent light under the fruit and adjusted my camera to the fluorescentwhite balance. I always photograph in RAW so I have fun with digital dark-rooming techniques after the photo shoot.
See a new world… why you should like and love Macro Photography
I thought I’d write a longer blog post about why I like macro photography and try to inspire you to try this style. If you’re already photographing Macro, I’ll try to help you think about stepping out of the box a bit.
I’m not going to write about technical aspects of this style of photographing, you can read that here Macro photography is a whole new world. A world that we normally don’t see with our eyes!
Let’s give you some examples of the fun!
Basically, you will take an up-close picture of your subject. The best way to do this is to purchase a Macro Lens; this is my favorite Lens. You’ll need to get up close to the subject and as you do this, you will notice that you have shallow depth-of-field (less of the subject will be in focus). You will probably want a tripod or bean bag to help you stay in focus. You will also need to be patient.
When photographing these bubbles I had to play with lighting and mixing up the bubbles until I got what a wanted. The first time you look at your subject where do your eyes go? Start from there. This is what’s important. Next play with your compositions. The rule of thirds is good, but don’t think you have to always follow the rules. Move your camera around and try to put your focal point in a variety of locations within your frame.
Soap Bottle
1/30 @f9 ISO 250 with studio flash
When you begin to photograph up close you’ll see all the dust, scratches and imperfections so patients again will be needed to remove all of that. You can pay for someone to clean up your images. I’ve never paid but I have thought about it from time to time. I use to say, “make sure your subject is always in focus”. I believe that this is true for many photographs but not all Macro shots have to be in focus. If you want the feel of motion go for it. It’s your art!
Cellulite cream – Nope it doesn’t work!
1/13 @ f/10 ISO 250 with strobe lights.
Below is a fun shot of some wild poppies. It’s also fun to play with your new photograph in post-processing. Play with your new creation and share the fun on your social platforms.
Wild Yellow Poppies
Here is a classic Macro shot. A bug on a flower. I love this style of Macro photography that allows you to see what you’re eyes normally wouldn’t. It’s amazing and gratifying. Look at the pollen on this guy, so cool! Again, you will need patience, especially if you plan to photograph outside. The wind can be a problem, so bring a reflector or something you can use to help minimize the wind. I like reflectors and defusers because if the sun is harsh you can calm it down a bit with them.
1/2000 @ f4 ISO 100
You may have seen my Macro Lens paintings. Try taking your Macro lens and doing something different and creative. I have so much fun with color and motion blur with flowers, but it doesn’t have to be flowers. What can you do with your lens?
4.0 @ f32 ISO 160
In the image below I used my Macro Ring Light. Once you have the concept down on how to photograph Macro it’s fun to push your limits. Try a flash strobe it opens new doors for you to create work.
Shot this with Macro strobe flash added left flat for marketing purposes.
Not only does Macro Photography show you a new world outside but it also can show you a new world inside your home! So why should you like Macro Photography? Because there are endless subjects to play with! For YOU to tell your story of your close-up vision! The hubby collects coins. What do you collect? I don’t share this much but it’s fun to photograph his coins. Now we can really see them! This coin is silver with 24K gold in it. It’s special for him and was so much fun for me to photograph!
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So why should you like Macro Photography? It’s a unique world of photography and I hope I showed you how cool it is. Taking the time to photograph using a Macro lens to see that up-close view of your world is exciting! Not everyone does it because you do need patience, but you can do it!
It’s hard to really see beautiful macro photographs on a blog site, but when you know you have a great amazing beautiful image, print it. I promise it will make you smile every time you view it. Most of my images are printed as 24″ x 36″ and you really can feel what I was going for when I created the image. It’s an awesome feeling to see and hold you macro photograph up close.
Happy Macro photographing!
Janice Sullivan
Sullivan J PhotographyMacro Photographing Mini-CourseOnce completed, you will be able to see and learn how to photograph Macro Style.
Janice shares how she takes on Macro Photography.
This mini-course is a large download and UPDATES ON COURSES ARE FREE FOREVER. FOR SJP MEMBER SUBSCRIBERS: $0
Member content is worth $3300 for just $290YR (TWO MONTHS FREE) or $29MO
This Mini-Course is FREE for members of our SJP Membership Program. Members also get access to Janice's Live Workshops, Q&A, Monthly Challenge and her best Photography Tutorials, Presets and Textures, plus exclusive access to her Photography Roadmap.
FOR THE HOLIDAYS DOWNLOAD INCLUDES A JPG AND PDF OF THIS HOLIDAY CARD
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
You have 6 available downloads in this Course via a Zip File. Videos are high resolution and may take time to download 448.3 MB so please click once and be patient. 🙂 112 minutes of detailed information including bonus videos. PDF details of the course. Course Organizer PDF to help you stay focused and follow through with your tasks. General Information PDF to help you with your course
Pre – Shoot | Live – Shoot | Post – Production
This course is part of a live workshop with SJP Members. We have pulled all the important parts of the workshop so you can learn how Janice photographs her Macro Photography.
You'll have 3 video download of detailed information. 1hr 52 minutes of detailed information including bonus videos
PDF details of the course.
Course Organizer PDF to help you stay focused and follow through with your tasks.
General Information PDF to help you with your course.
Feel free to email Janice with questions.
Once completed, you will have seen the way Janice works on her Macro and Closeup Images from beginning to end.
In this live shoot, Janice will photograph several subjects Macro Style. Photographing up close can be difficult when choosing your composition. Janice will go over, in detail, her thought process and explain how she approaches this style of photographing.
Course Materials Preferred
Equipment and accessories that will help you. Bold is needed.
Camera (Manual Mode Capability)
Macro Lens
Tripod + Ballhead
Plamp
Reflector + Reflector with Wind
Macro Flash
Cable Release or Timer on Camera
Focusing Rack
Camranger
Software to Merge Images – Photoshop/Zerene Stacker/HeliconFocus
A subject of your choice
All links to Course Materials are in Pre-shoot Lesson.
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Today I’d like to share my latest Macro Lens Paintings. I was honored to have Popular Photography publish my fine art tips in their magazine. If you would like to read more about this style of photographing click here.
Yellow Pop
With Yellow Pop I focused on the yellow daisy for 1 second and then did a bit of motion blur on the rest of the flowers.
Daisy Swirl
With Daisy Swirl I focused on the back of the Gerber daisy and then did a motion blur with a bit of a swirl focus on the stem. I just love making these images. They are one of a kind and so much fun to process.
Guess where we went last weekend? Yep, Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve! We had so much fun enjoying the poppies and desert flowers. Yes, they were definitely not as abundant as in the past, so Landscape photographers wouldn’t be happy. On the other hand us Macro photographers definitely enjoy the cluster of flowers. The wind was blowing, but if you find a couple of hills next to each other, you’ll find spots where the wind isn’t as bad as the rest of the valley. I have some really fun images that I plan to share later, but I wanted to show you this particular photo today. As many of you know, I am a fine art photographer, so I really like getting into my post processing. This image was shot RAW – ISO 100 f4 @ 1/180. I had an umbrella to help deflect the wind. The picture below was processed in Lightroom with a couple of tweaks. I like this image so don’t get me wrong, it’s nice just to add a bit of tweaks and leave it at that, sometimes. 🙂
Here is my fun image. I had a blast processing this photo! I used Lightroom for basic adjustments and then took it into Photoshop. I used a variety of Nik’s Color Efex Pro filters to make it dramatic.
As you can see there wasn’t an abundance of flowers. This was taken on the dirt road in one of our favorite places between some hills. If you click on the Antelope Valley link above, you can see what the reserve looks like when California has plenty of water to feed the flowers.
I was debating about whether or not to go this year. I’m so glad Kevin encouraged me to get out and photograph. I always feel so revitalized when we hike and I photograph.
A short behind the scene video. 🙂
Inspiration for the day…get out and take a hike with your camera even if you feel the photo op may not be what you expect. You may have a happy surprise like I did!
