If you're an aspiring nature or macro photographer, this video from Micael Widell will be full of informative tips to help you get the most out of your efforts to improve your image captures. Gear, shooting techniques, lighting considerations, and dealing with lens magnification are just some of the topics covered.
To briefly paraphrase a few of the tip subjects covered in the video:
Lens Choice
You can get an actual macro lens, but other options do exist, from using extension tubes to reverse adapters. What's important is to consider the lens magnification and the focal length.
Location and Weather
Picking days that are cloudy are better for getting even, softer light.
Flash
Using a flash can add much needed light to your subject, since you'll often find yourself shooting at a small aperture and fast shutter speed to freeze the subject in macro images.
Using a Diffuser
To smooth out the light and shadows from your flash, a small diffuser will be helpful.
Controlling Shutter Speed
By improving your handheld technique and using a flash, you can use a slower shutter speed, which can bring out your background a bit more. Otherwise, you might only get a very dark background in your images, which may or may not be desirable.
Focus
It's very hard to nail focus when shooting macro, so one technique is to slowly move your body in and out from your subject while shooting a high speed burst of images.
Focal Plane
Looking for moments when your subject is in a consistent angle in relation to the camera, so that they will be in focus. When parts of your subject are just slightly closer or further away, they will be blurry so adjusting your angle may help.
Uncommon Angles
Try looking for unusual angles that might show more interesting compositions or backgrounds.
If you enjoyed this video, Widell has some other videos on his YouTube Channel about macro rigs, lens reviews, and other photography related content.
