Are you enjoying your macro photography but need that extra something to make it pop? Check out these simple lighting tricks to improve your macro shots!
Photographer and videographer Mark Holtze who previously shared his tips for finding and buying vintage lenses, is now sharing his ideas to put these lenses to a good use. Macro photography is ideal for anyone, whether it's someone on a budget looking for cheap vintage macro lenses to experiment, or someone who doesn't want to travel anywhere beyond their home to pursue photography, and it's also something you can do in the smallest of spaces.
And even if macro photography isn't your forte, it's something you can add to your skill set, for example, if you're a wedding photographer taking shots of couple's rings, or if you're a lifestyle photographer capturing the fine details of your client's products. Even if photography is something you don't want to go anywhere near and favor videography instead, these tips will also be beneficial.
In this video, Holtze details three types of lighting set ups he uses for his macro work utilizing continuous light sources. As macro work is something you would put together with plenty of care and attention to detail, continuous light is a perfect addition to your set up. You can carefully move it around your subject to achieve exactly the right intensity of light that you want for your photograph or video work. Going from one light source to three, Holtze shows the different effects you can create using a variety of neutral and colored lights.
What kind of light sources do you use for your macro work? Do you prefer continuous light or a flash set up?
Lead image used with the permission of Wasim Ahmad.
This is more about lighting for macro video work than photography. It could be used for stills but was hoping for different speed-lite techniques for macro.
Speed lights are cool, I light my photography the same way as I display in this video , I just thought using the video medium would be more dynamic given youtube is a video based platform.
Also so many different techniques, with both lighting and using natural light.
You could do an entire series on this, but even then, the variables for an interesting setup are almost infinite.