7 March 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Technique SHOOTING TIPS
Manual for macro
For 90% of the time when taking
macro shots of dragonfl ies and
butterfl ies I will use manual. Pretty
much everything I do with a tripod, I will
manually focus. If I am stalking a
dragonfl y or butterfl y or a larger
subject, I am more likely to use AF. But
a lot of my insect work is taken early in
the morning or late in the evening when
the creatures are roosting. So I set up
to my tripod and focus via live view,
manually adjusting my focus for extra
precision by zooming in.ROSS has been capturing great macro shots of
insects, particularly butterfl ies and dragonfl ies,
since he started taking pictures aged only ten.
Within a few months he had won the fi rst BBC
Countryfi le photography competition with a
dragonfl y close-up, kickstarting a career that is still
going strong today. ‘I don’t think there’s any subject
more accessible than close-up wildlife
photography,’ he says. ‘You don’t have to go out
hiking into a big landscape, you don’t have to bait
subjects or sit in a hide for weeks on end waiting for
them to show. With macro you can fi nd subjects in
your garden, in the park, anywhere, and this
accessibility is one of the things that makes macro
so popular.’
Pick your day
It sounds like common sense, but for insect macro
work, pick a day when the wind speed is no more than
12mph – anything much more and you’ll have your
work cut out as the subject will be blown around. Pick a
day when it’s still and you’ll fi nd life a lot easier. Or at the
very least shoot from a sheltered spot and make sure
your tripod is as stable as possible.Customise the zoom button
Macro insect photography is pretty unforgiving, so your
images must be pin-sharp. You need to be able to check
this as you shoot, so you can make adjustments to your
focusing as necessary. The normal image preview is
unlikely to reveal whether the image is critically sharp. So
I set up the zoom function on my Nikon DSLR to enable
me to check images on the screen at 100% or even
higher magnifi cation, at the press of a single button.
Check your camera manual to fi nd out how to do this, or
online forums if you get really stuck.
Depth of fi eld decoded
With macro, depth of fi eld is very shallow, but rather
than seeing this as a problem, go for wide apertures
so you can manipulate it. A lens has one plane of
focus, so it’s vital to get your camera parallel to the
subject, so as much of the subject falls within that
plane to keep the critical areas sharp. Most DSLRs
have depth of fi eld preview, which is really handy for
checking subject focus. I tend to shoot in aperture
priority for control over depth of fi eld.‘For insect
macro workpick a day
when the wind
speed is no
more than
12mph’
Ross Hoddinott
Ross Hoddinott is one of the UK’s leading
outdoor photographers. He is multi-award
winning, and the author of eight books. Ross
is recognised as a close-up specialist, and
enjoys photographing insects and wild
plants. Visit http://www.rosshoddinott.co.uk.Insects
ALL PICTURES © ROSS HODDINOTT