macro
Happy Valentine's Day to you. The month of, or the day of Love. For lovers we go out to eat with the one we love. But what does a photographer love? Shooting pictures is what I love to do. I wanted to take some time and do some macro photography along with the product. What better than my wedding band? The setup was easy; I used constant light. I use my Canon R5 with a 90mm macro lens on a tripod. I decided to do focus stacking, and here is what I came up with.
Wedding Band
Everything has a beginning, and everything will have an end. Nature has away with this. I bought my wife back in December a Poinsettia Plant. The plant is doing great today, but leaves are starting to fall off and thus the end. I looked at the light shining on this leaf that fell and thought, “I wonder what this would look like as a closeup.” The light shining on the backside showed me the life of this leaf. I know, crazy, but sometimes I think this way.
I made a choice to make it black and white because the color did not help or add to the picture. I wanted to show the life of this leaf at one time. Using a macro lens, I set up using window light and then took the picture. It's incredible how we walk past this beauty, or in some cases, it's a dead leaf, throw it away to a photographer, and its documentation ends with a memory.
As my business continues to change, so does my learning. This time I wanted to learn more about being better with macro photography. I use this a lot for product and food shooting. I recently attended a workshop put on by Roberts Camera in Indianapolis, In. If you never went to a workshop and you are a photographer who wants to take it to the next level, you should. Not only the learning but other photographers that you will be interacting with. At this workshop, we had a 2-hour talk about idea settings and sharpness.
Next, we got a chance to work for 6 hours in about 20 different setups to practice what we learned. We learned about stack focusing, stack focusing software, using a tripod, which is a must for sharpness.
I took a lot of pictures this day, practicing what we learned. I filled up two cards of photos. I took pictures and retook pictures of a different composition of the subject. It was a day of fun. Oh yes, being a Midwestern, of course, I talked with other photographers that were there that day—so much fun to see and talk about once again. I am a big fan of education. Even when you think you know it, you can always learn. Who knows, you may make a new friend that does what you love.
It’s that time of the year. Football season is over, and rerun’s on the TV. The weather is not pleasant. It’s that weekend, and for me, time to work with the camera indoors. Last week, I took products from our home and began practicing and taking pictures to update my profile and update my skills.
Product Photography
I played with high key, gels, jewelry, dishes, and so on. Using a two-light setup, I used a softbox to make the white background for the hi-key, and another softbox as the key light slightly camera left. I brought in some more diffusion by using a 5 light right reflector using the diffusion. When all was said, I like the picture of my Bose the best, not as a hi-key but as the above. I took the high key in Photoshop and cut out the headphones. Then I added my background that I liked. The Final is what you see.
I had questions about what I use for my photography. I mostly use my Canon EOS R. Lens; in this case, it was a Tameron 90mm macro on a stand. Lights are Godox.
I can’t wait for it to warm up. I have some new plans for my photography.