Learn Photography by Shooting Macro

Perhaps you don't have the room, or the money, to set up any type of a studio to really learn about photography. Well, you can do that, using a macro studio and doing macro photography.

Photography is all about the manipulation of light. Using a macro studio can help you move things around, duplicating a full size studio, and learn about how to manipulate light to improve your photos.

Steps

 * 1)  Create a very small studio. You can create desktop, tabletop, or even box studios.[[Image:Learn Photography by Shooting Macro Step 1.jpg|center]]
 * 2)  Have the appropriate sized reflectors. White cardboard cut to the appropriate size for what you are shooting. Be sure to have some aluminum foil also. This is great for a different type of reflector. You will also want something black for when shooting glass.[[Image:Learn Photography by Shooting Macro Step 2.jpg|center]]
 * 3)  Have a closeup lens. If you are going very small, you might want to use a macro setup, but otherwise, just use something like a 50mm lens or something that will allow you to shoot in a small space. A telephoto lens wouldn't work very well for this.[[Image:Learn Photography by Shooting Macro Step 3.jpg|center]]
 * 4)  Have light diffusers. Again, they don't need to be that big, but big enough to diffuse light for your small subject. This image was shot with and without diffused light and nothing else.[[Image:Learn Photography by Shooting Macro Step 4.jpg|center]]
 * 5)  Start experimenting. These images both have used a reflector (aluminum) on the left. The bottle on the left had a light through a diffuser and the one on the right had the LED light pointed straight onto it.[[Image:Learn Photography by Shooting Macro Step 5.jpg|center]]
 * 6) * This is shot using the LED light pointed at the reflector. You can see that the image is a bit too far away. Also, do to the lack of another reflector on the other side of the bird, his back is unlit.

Things You'll Need

 * Items to support your light modifiers: diffusers, reflectors, etc.
 * Table top lamp, or an LED type light source.
 * Know what the 'temperature' is for what you are shooting with.

Related wikiHows

 * Use Extension Tubes to Shoot Macro
 * Set Aperture With Macro Extension Tubes
 * Shoot Macro With a Compact Digital Camera
 * Create a DIY Extreme Macro Tube
 * Shoot Macro Shots Without a Macro Lens
 * Determine Your Macro Magnification