Macro lighting: A flash can TRANSFORM your images

in today's video i want to show the importance of lighting in macro photography and the difference a flash can make in your images [Music] i headed out on a thoroughly miserable winter day there was little light anywhere with a flat grey sky drizzling rain and an overall feeling i should have stayed at home with a cup of tea but being the trooper i am i persevered and stumbled on these brightly colored leaves the blend of colors really caught my eye with the different yellows oranges and reds really standing out against the greens and the darker background i took my shots at f 5.6 iso 500 with a 100th of a second shutter speed and then did some basic color adjustments in lightroom these tiny leaves with these crystal like water droplets also looked nice and i thought deserved a quick snap as did this fern which stood out nicely against the dark background further along my work i found this interesting feather covered in droplets and hanging onto a small leaf shot using just the natural light it's okay with a sort of dreamy appearance because of that shallow depth of field at f 2.8 working with the flash though i turned the scene into this much more dramatic image i used a faster shutter speed to reduce the ambient light in the scene and use an aperture of f8 positioning my flash off to the left of the frame it makes a huge difference completely transforming the image into something that looks like it was taken in studio of course you might prefer the first version and that's fine but it goes to show just how much difference using your own lighting can make in macro photography i did much the same with this little flower i tried the image using just the natural light and it's a perfectly fine shot if a little boring and predictable but again bringing in my own light allowed me to create a very different mood here by reducing that ambient light with a faster shutter speed what about splitting the difference here i've used a slower shutter speed to capture more ambient light but i've still brought just a pop of that light in to get the extra little bit of emphasis on the flower itself i try and capture a variety of settings combinations so i can choose my favorites later i much prefer the feather shot with flash as it isolates the subject so well much like i did with this shot from a previous video where i used an off-camera light from above to emphasize the web-like texture of these seeds and have them stand out from their background however this other shot from today's shoot has a light and airy style taken with just the ambient light and i don't think it needs any additional lighting for my final image i found this little flower next to these droplets on a spiderweb using the flash here turns those droplets into beautiful little crystals so i set my camera to f8 iso 100 and 125th of a second and held my flash to the left of the frame i took one image focusing on the flower and one on the droplets to focus stack later combining them in post was simple i made some basic tweaks to the lighting and the color in lightroom before opening them as layers in photoshop then it's an easy case of masking in the focused areas of each layer and giving a final few tweaks in camera raw i tried to keep my macro images looking natural and realistic but i like to use the hue saturation and luminance tool to adjust the colors to emphasize the tones in particular shifting the greens from being quite a sickly yellowy green into a deep emerald color i also like to use the brush tool to paint in light and contrast into certain areas and actually i find that painting in some clarity just on those water droplets can really help bring them out from their background as with the flash editing your images is entirely down to taste and what might suit you won't suit someone else so don't worry about trying to emulate someone else's style or be concerned if your shots don't look like another photographers but hopefully you've enjoyed seeing this quick demonstration of how easy it is to use lighting to give your macro images a very very different look if you have enjoyed it please hit that like button consider subscribing if you don't already and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Andrew Lanxon Photography

Views: 1,048

Keywords: Macro, Lighting, Tutorial, Photography, Ideas, Tips, Tricks

Id: 8yze1zKa3fc

Length: 5min 24sec (324 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 19 2021