Discover Digital Photography

While there are a few macro photographers that get great results using the camera's pop-up flash flash, most tend to prefer using a separate flash unit. This allows more for more control over the lighting.

As well as using standard speedlight flashes, there are two types of flash produced specifically for macro and close-up photography - macro ringlights, and macro twin lights.

Just as with standard photography, getting lighting right for macro photography isn't easy. The main issue is often the lack of light, especially when working at magnifications of 1:1 or above. The extension used by a lens to allow it focus closely, plus any additional extension you add means that not as much light reaches the camera's image sensor.

As well as this factor, you often need to get very close to the subject, which can result in yourself blocking some of the light. And many subjects grow or live in shaded areas, just compounding the lack of light even more.

Bruco di Antheraea Mylitta by Herman Rhoids on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

Focusing for macro and close-up photography is usually best done manually. At close-focus distances lenses can sometimes find it hard to lock focus. If a lens racks the focus out to infinity and then back again before it finally focuses on the subject, this can take some time. It may not even be able to find focus on the subject, and leave you with an unfocused image in the viewfinder.

DSC_1355 by Ben Fredericson (xjrlokix) on flickr (licensed CC-BY) - photo taken using manual focus

Something that you might come across when reading camera / lens reviews, or discussions, is talk about equivalent focal length and equivalent aperture. For example, a 50mm f/1.4 lens for a micro four thirds camera might be described as being a 100mm f/2.8 equivalent lens.

But what does this really mean? I have already discussed equivalent focal length in the article Photography Basics – Focal length, though I will cover it again very briefly in this article. But mostly I want to look at the idea of equivalent aperture, and how this relates to depth of field and the amount of light gathered.

Capturing your photos in RAW format allows you more control over the final image. You can bring back detail in areas that would otherwise appear bright white, or lighten up dark areas to reveal detail hidden in the shadows. You can change the white balance and adjust the contrast to suit the image.

While you can make adjustments to a certain extent with a JPEG image, the larger amount of data stored in a RAW image allows you to go further and achieve a better result.

Whether you should use a UV filter on your camera's lens or not is probably one of the most often discussed subjects among keen photographers. Some say that they use them all time as it helps protect the lens. Others say that they never use them as they degrade image quality. The truth actually lies somewhere in between these two conflicting points of view.

If you own an interchangeable lens camera and are looking at purchasing a new lens, you may wonder what all those different numbers and letters that form part of the lens name mean. Or you may just be wondering what they mean on your current lens / camera.

As well as purchasing postcards to post off while on holiday, many people also purchase postcards to take back home as a souvenir. But have you thought about creating postcards from your own photos? The process is enjoyable, and it's fun to see your own photos used on postcards.

Using off camera flash can be a great way to add dynamic lighting to your photos. It is particularly useful for portrait and product photography. But speedlight flashes are quite expensive. And if you have a compact camera with no hot-shoe you might think you can't use off camera flash at all.

DPI and PPI are both terms that people often mistakenly think relate to the image quality of a file. To add further to this confusion, PPI is often wrongly referred to as DPI, even by some imaging software. In this article I want to clear up this confusion.

We'll look at what DPI and PPI actually mean, how they relate to image resolution, and why you shouldn't really worry about either of them.