Macro photography is a genre where focus is fundamental to a successful image. Macro photography is also the one genre where perfect focus is perhaps hardest to achieve.

This quick photography tutorial will show you how to set your camera’s autofocus in 3 simple steps so you can start taking consistently sharp macro photos.

How to set your autofocus for macro photography

Step 1: Switch to AF-S
To stop your autofocus from ‘hunting ‘ for something to lock onto, set the focusing mode to One Shot AF or Autofocus-Single (AF-S). This enables you to choose a fixed focus point.

Step 2: Select the focus point
Adjust your autofocus point in the viewfinder as you compose the image, and place it directly over the spot you want to focus on – in this case the butterfly’s head. Press the shutter release halfway to focus, then take the picture.

Step 3: Apply sharpening
All digital photos benefit from software sharpening. Open the image in Photoshop Elements, examine it at 100% and click Enhance>Unsharp Mark (in CS, it’s Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask). Boost Amount to 50-100 and Radius to 1-2 for pin-sharp shots.

Final image

To get close-up images of tiny subjects when shooting macro photography, you’d normally reach for a macro lens. But what if you want to shoot subjects so small that even the life-size reproduction provided by a macro lens isn’t enough? Why not try this handy reverse lens technique?

With a simple reversing ring that costs about £10 ($15), you can attach a lens to your camera the wrong way round. However, there are compromises when using a reverse lens method.

The first is that there’s no longer any mechanical or electronic contact between the reverse lens and the camera. This means the two bits of kit can’t ‘talk’ to one another, so you lose autofocus, exposure metering (on most cameras) and any opportunity for the camera to control the lens aperture. That last point means you need to use a lens that has a mechanical aperture ring.

Before image

Reverse lens technique for extreme macro photography

01 Attach the ring
First of all, you need to screw the reversing ring into the filter thread of the lens and then attach this combination onto your camera. We’ve used a manual focus Nikon 28mm lens here, which means we’ll still have complete control over the aperture.

02 Set up the camera
You now need to set the camera’s exposure and use Manual focus. Also, if your camera has the facility, turn on the Mirror Lock-up mode to minimise motion blur. With the camera set up, fix it to a stable tripod and move it into place, close to a table or worktop.

03 Position the subject
Position the subject. When you’re shooting tiny things, you’ll need to juggle the subject, tripod and camera a little in order to get the composition just right, so take your time. Set the lens to its maximum aperture so you can judge the focus accurately.

04 Add some light
To make it easier to position the lighting, use small lights for small subjects. We’re using two small LEDs on moveable arms – you’d normally attach these to a laptop. To get the multi-coloured effect, we’ve covered one light with a blue gel and the other with a red gel.

05 Set the aperture
With everything in place, you can now change the aperture setting. Depth of field will be tiny at such high magnifications so we’ve used an aperture of f/8. Remember that the aperture will close as soon as you move the aperture ring, so the viewfinder will become dark.

06 Finalise the exposure
Working out the exposure can be difficult with this setup. Your camera’s exposure metering will work if you’ve got a Nikon D7000 or above, for instance, but on lower models you’ll be working ‘in the dark’. Take a test exposure, then adjust the shutter speed until the histogram is correct.
Did you like this tutorial? Watch this technique performed by our friends over at N-Photo.

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There’s so much more to macro photography than conventional photos of insects and flowers – and you don’t have to travel far to find something more creative to point your digital camera at If you’ve never tried it before, photographing the surface of soap film is a simple way to create close-up art – all in the comfort of your kitchen. The only problem is, the form and colour of soap film constantly change, which can seem challenging to capture with your camera at first. Follow this easy step-by-step guide, and you’ll be shooting psychedlic soap bubble pictures in no time…

In addition to a DSLR and tripod, you need:

Soap and glycerine

Using standard soap bubbles ?or washing-up liquid without an additive means your medium won’t last very long – in some cases just a few seconds, and this will be further shortened by stretching the soap film over the wire loop. So make your own mix with 6 parts liquid soap and 1 part glycerine. You’ll create a strengthened film with an extended lifespan.

100mm macro lens

A focal length of at least 100mm enables you to get close to the film without running the risk of disturbing it. While this won’t fill the frame completely with colour, it will give you space to manoeuvre the camera around the wire loop.

Black background

Using a black piece of cloth ?as a backdrop is essential to absorb reflections and help to stop light bouncing back at the soap film. It ?also increases the contrast and colour intensity.

Wire loop

The simplest way to create the film is to make a wire loop out of garden wire. Create one loop with ?a diameter of about two inches. Another larger loop underneath that will act as a stand. Your final loop should look like two stacked loops connected by a single piece of wire.

Camera settings and technique:

1. Find the best location

The colours created by soap film only appear when hit by light from a certain angle, about 45 degrees, so it’s important your location is by a window, out of direct sunlight. If you’re using artificial light, make sure that it’s bounced off a wall rather than used directly.

2. Aperture and shutter speed

Set your camera to manual exposure (M) so you can specify both aperture and shutter speed. As you’ll be shooting at high magnification, depth of field will be minimal – so you need to use a small aperture to extend it as much as possible. Set an aperture of f/10 and a shutter speed of at least 1/60 sec.

3. ISO setting

Now you’ll need to set the ISO. This will vary depending on the light levels and could be anywhere from 100 to 2000. Higher settings mean faster shutter speeds, which are useful when trying to capture a moving, morphing substance like a soap bubble. The trade-off is more digital noise in your pictures. Finally, mount your camera on a tripod, and with manual focus selected, focus on the wire loop (autofocus will struggle with translucent soap film, and hunt for the nearest solid object).

4. Seeing the colours

With the basic set-up covered, now comes the real fun! Dip the wire loop into your soap mixture and place it onto the black cloth. Now, move around the wire loop to find the angle at which the colours appear. You may need to tilt and rotate the wire to find a good position that reveals a nice effect. Once you’ve found the best effect, adjust your SLR on the tripod and focus on the most attractive patterns in the soap film (they tend to be at the edges of the ring). Only around 1/5th of the frame will be sharp, but you can crop into the image in Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements to get the image you want.

After a few seconds, the colours start to expand across the film, creating swirls. Wait for this to settle before starting your sequence of shots. The longer you leave the soap film, the more the patterns and colours break up, giving a lovely marbled effect.

Top tip: use live view

A good tip is to use your DSLR’s live view feature at x5 magnification and carefully focus in on the detail. Now, using a shutter release cable, or your DSLR’s timer delay feature, shoot away. Even if you shoot in burst mode, each frame will look completely different.

Like this creative photography project? Now try these:

Photo ideas: shoot creative light spirals at home

Photo ideas: photographing smoke and smoke photo art

Photo ideas: amazing water drop photography

Photo ideas: photographing water splashes with flash

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Photo Ideas

In Pictures

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Looking for photography ideas to try at home? Ideas that are simple to set up and shoot, but still deliver rewarding, creative pictures? You’ll find them here. From guides to the best way to photograph classic smoke or water drop photos, to simple lighting tricks, there’s sure to be something to inspire you in this collection. We update these photo ideas regularly, so keep coming back for more.

Taking shots of smaller pets enters a whole new world of exciting photography that almost touches on the theme of macro. These small animals need the close-up treatment to gain any real impact when stuck in a frame on the mantelpiece.

These small animals need the close-up treatment to gain any real impact when stuck in a frame on the mantelpiece.

The golden rules are the same as any other style of pet photography; clean natural backgrounds, focusing on the eyes, dynamic poses and above all, capturing their personality.

You can go for the ‘grande fromage’ style, such as capturing a guinea pig peeking out from a plant pot, but small pets work better (and are happier) in their own environment.

A macro lens is the weapon of choice for nailing great small pet pictures, but any long lens above 00mm will enable you to get in close enough for frame-filling impact. You‘ll need to maximise depth of field using small apertures around f/8 and above, so if they live in a cage indoors get it near a window for maximum light levels.

Shooting macro with a compact

Having a compact around is very useful when it comes to macro subjects as they tend to focus close and therefore produce powerful close-up shots. Another benefit is that the live preview in the LCD enables you to compose to perfection, and you can also be sure the focus is locked as you will hear it beep.

For the best results switch your camera to Macro mode, indicated by a flower icon and zoom in until the zoom bar changes colour. This indicates the focal length is at the optimum for the closest macro shots.

Backgrounds

An ugly, unnatural or distracting background will ruin any picture and small pets are no different. In fact, they require a little more thought as cages, tanks and cases are usually full of unsightly distractions, such as reflective glass, bars or bright man-made toys.

A quick tidy-up first to rid the area of clutter will save time in the digital darkroom later and free-up many more composition options while shooting.

Using flash

Taking pictures of small pets with direct flash can cause unsightly shadow halos on the background. Using flash as fill-in rather than the main illumination will help alleviate the problem, however the best solution, especially for pets in enclosed cases, is to use TTL off-camera flash.

Using a wireless system or off-camera cord, place the flashgun in the case and point it upwards. This will fire the flash towards the roof of the case and ‘bounce’ it back down, smoothly spreading it around the enclosure.

You‘ll get more even lighting on the subject, will be able to use larger apertures for greater depth of field and faster shutter speeds for shake-free pictures.