Digital SLR Photography - UK (2020-01)

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FINE-ART MACRO

CAPTURE NATURAL WORLD FINE-ART IMAGES WITH YOUR MACRO LENS. JAMES ABBOTT

SHOWS YOU HOW TO SHAPE, LIGHT AND SHOOT SKELETAL LEAVES FOR ELEGANT RESULTS

B

RING NATURE INDOORS this winter to

capture intricate details in the comfort

of your home. There’s no need to

endure muddy knees and cold hands, this is

one fine-art project you can shoot indoors in

less than 30 minutes.

As skeletal leaves are delicate, their details

lend themselves to macro photography and

look fantastic against all kinds of backdrops.

Finding perfect skeletal leaves ‘in the wild’ is

extremely difficult. And even if you do find

near-perfect specimens it’s common for

them to still have leaf matter attached to the

CAMERA:SONYA LPHA7RMKIII/LENS: SONY E PZ 16- 50 MM F /3.5-5.6 OSS

skeleton. The danger with trying to remove

this is that you’ll damage their delicate

structure leaving unsightly holes in the leaf.

So how do you get around this? The simple

answer is by cheating a little.

Arts and craft shops and eBay are the best

places to purchase small packs of skeletal

leaves for a couple of pounds. A small pack

of around 25 skeletal leaves will give you

plenty of choice; look for ones that are

10-15cm long. The beauty of buying the

leaves is that you’ll likely find at least one or

two to be flawless, which is what you need,

as macro lenses can be unforgiving and show

even the smallest amount of damage.

The kit you’ll need for this technique is

simple. Ideally you’ll want a macro lens, but if

you don’t have one you could use a close-up

filter, extension tubes or, if you have a manual

prime lens, a reversing ring to use with a

standard lens. The quality of these three less

expensive close-up options aren’t as good as

a dedicated macro lens but, overall, they do a

great job. Other kit you’ll find useful is a sheet

of black card, a few clothes pegs, a small LED

torch or LED light panel and a tripod.