So why choose the back garden as my location of choice? Well, following the theme of doing things on the cheap, it seems sensible to make the assumption that the person wants to just dabble in macro photography, and "have a go", so to speak, and there's plenty of amazing photos in your back garden, especially when you've got a macro lens, so why not try it? It's easy to do and you can get some stunning results.
So now on how to do it, I'll first start with bag packing for your grand adventure into your garden, just bare in mind that all the techniques I talk about here can be applied outside the garden, the garden is just an ideal location for the reasons states above. Note that if you're going outside the garden I suggest you take spare cards, batteries and whatever you'd take with you on a normal photography trip.
So for all intents and purposes for the rest of this post I'll be gearing all my advice as if I were going into the back garden to shoot, so adapt if you're not! So first of all:
Equipment
Take one of your bodies, preferably full frame if you have the choice (I understand most of you won't), and take either your dedicated macro lens or your extension tube/coupling ring/reversing ring/close up filter and the lens you want to use them with. Either put these in your bag or just carry them in your hands outside assuming you don't have too much stuff. Depending on the light conditions, I'd say taking a tripod is a definite bonus, and possibly a necessity in some cases depending on what your focal length will be and if you're losing light say, through extension tubes. You're probably going to be choosing a relatively small aperture for around f11 onwards to keep the depth of field workable, this also reduces the light intake. Because of this it'd be beneficial but by no means essential to have a mirror lock up function on your camera especially for really long exposures. But I'd say to avoid using the 10 second countdown feature (you can also knock the camera when pressing the shutter button) a remote shutter release is definitely a big plus here.
Finding a Subject
So you're going to want to find something interesting to photograph, to start with, I'd say start with still life as its going to much easier, for obvious reasons, primarily the fact that you wont have your subject running away from you. At this time of year, autumnal leaves make a great subject, their rich colours really pop out of the photo, especially with a bit of editing in Photoshop. If something else catches your eye then go for it! But just as a starting point, autumnal leaves are a good starting place. One vibrant leaf (perhaps a yellow or orange) against a plain leaf or background will normally work best.
Try and work on a cloudy day where the lighting is soft, harsh shadows never look good, especially very close up, and try and make sure you position your camera so it is not casting a shadow on the subject (this can be a little trick when your lens is almost on top of the subject). But in a worst case scenario, make sure the camera is casting a shadow completely over the subject, you'll lose some light, but the worst thing is half your photo in subject, and half in highlight, especially for this kind of photography.
Executing the Shot
Put your camera on your tripod and position the camera into an angle you think will work best for your subject. As a starting point I'd say look down on the subject if you're using a leaf (see the video for a diagram and how it all looks when actually set up).
I can't really give advice on focusing and exposure here, its entirely up to you and you're judgement on composition, and as far as exposure goes, that depends on your aperture, how many (if any) extension rings you're using, the available light, as well as if you've got the option to sit your camera on a tripod, so I'll leave you to judge your exposure. This isn't a tutorial on exposure.
Assessing and Editing the Shot
Decide if you're happy with the shot, if not, go shoot something else, or adapt your technique, composition or whatever may be lacking. If you are happy with the photo, it's time to get editing.
There's no real specific way to edit a macro shot, just do what you'd normally do, some shoot RAW, some shoot jpeg, its up to you! I shot jpeg just because I didn't want the hassle more than anything, and I was only making basic colour correction, exposure and contrast adjustments, so the ultimately tune-ability isn't paramount here, I'll put a couple of test shots below.
Pre-Edit
Post Edit
I think you'll agree the second Post-Edit image is superior, just showing that 5 minutes work can really improve your photos.
Last of all, check out the video that accompanies this post.
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