TOP TEN CONSISTENT RESULTS TIPS

1 hunt around... ...for a nice specimen. Macro obviously enlarges every detail of the subject, so try to find the most aesthetically pleasing insect or plant you can.

2 Composition tools Think about the direction your subject is travelling in through the frame, or whether you can use stems and blades of grass as leading lines.

3 Consistent lighting if you want to create composites of several subjects at the editing stage (see page 18) make sure your lighting of each subject is as similar as possible.

4 Fire off quickly don’t be too picky about the framing – you can always crop out white space later on.

5 Check screen brightness Turn off auto screen brightness, otherwise your results might become misleadingly bright or dark.

6 get even shoot subjects at eye level or straight on. This ensures you get more of the subject in focus.

7 set lights separately whether you’re using flash or continuous units, set the power of both lights up separately first.

8 safe species Make sure you have permission to handle subjects. some are protected or (more rarely) dangerous.

9 Content crawlies Handle subjects with care and respect. You’ll find that calm subjects are a lot easier to photograph.

10 shun the sun avoid shooting in the direct sun. Harsh light can sometimes overpower the flash.