Take your first steps in garden macro

Go the extra mile when you’re shooting close to home, and explore the world of creative close-up photography

While many of us may have been forced to keep our photography a bit more local this year, that’s not such a bad thing. Even a small garden or back yard can throw a feast of close-up photo opportunities your way, and you’ll be perfectly placed to make the most of changing seasons.

Although you need some specialist equipment to explore the world in close-up, you don’t need a lot of it. It’s possible to get excellent results using a good-quality and relatively cheap close-up diopter, for example. This is an attachment that looks like an optical filter, and screws onto the front of a lens in the same way. It is essentially a magnifying glass, which reduces the minimum focusing distance of the lens. The drawback is that the image quality of a diopter doesn’t always match that of a dedicated close-up lens, and you lose the flexibility of being able to focus on objects that are farther away while the diopter is attached to your lens.

Extension tubes are another relatively affordable option. These simple metal tubes don’t contain any glass and fit between the camera and the lens. Like close-up dipoters, they allow the lens to be focused closer than normal, and they take away the opportunity to focus on more distant subjects. Unlike close-up diopters, they reduce the amount of light available for an exposure, which means you may have to increase the ISO setting to avoid blurred shots. Extension tubes

can also be unwieldy, as the longer the focal length of the lens is, the more extension you need.

For the ultimate combination of image quality and convenience, a dedicated macro lens is the way to go. These allow you to achieve lifesize or half-lifesize images that are dripping with detail. They can also be focused at any distance, making them incredibly versatile, razor-sharp options for everything from portraits to landscapes. In fact, the only thing they’re not particularly great for is sport, as they aren’t always the fastest focusing lenses. Many regular lenses also have a built-in macro function.

Although this won’t allow you to achieve the frame-filling life-size reproduction that a true macro lens delivers, it can still get you close enough to capture detailed shots that you can crop into later.

When it comes to additional gear on top of the close-up optic, a tripod should be top of the list. Working at close distances in soft light and using small apertures can lead to relatively long exposures, plus the risk of camera shake if you’re shooting handheld. Some macro lenses have a built-in image stabiliser, and you can also take advantage of camera bodies that offers this function, although the effectiveness is

reduced at close focusing distances. We’d also recommend waterproof trousers – or at least a black bin bag that you can kneel or lie on to take low-level shots.

The majority of cameras have a macro or close-up scene mode, usually indicated by a flower symbol on the mode dial. Rather than enabling you to focus a lens closer than normal, it simply sets the camera to a point-and-shoot configuration for close-ups. This typically means the drive mode is set to single shooting, the pop-up flash (where present) fires automatically, and the exposure is controlled by the camera. For more control of your macro photography, set the camera to Aperture Priority or Manual exposure mode. These options allow you to select the aperture for more control over the depth of field, which is an important component for close-ups. Use a wide aperture to isolate a subject or detail, and a narrow aperture to pull more of the frame into sharp focus.

One of the best things about shooting in your own back yard is that you’ll know when and where the best light falls, and how it changes through the year. An overcast or hazy sky acts like a giant softbox, reducing contrast and softening the light in a way that enables delicate details in flowers and plants to be captured. The directional light of a sunny day can be great for backlighting translucent petals, or adding a rim light glow to subjects shot against a dark background, while the low-level beam of a setting sun can be perfect for bringing out the texture of side-lit leaves and tree bark.

One of the best things about shooting in your own back yard is that you’ll know when and where the best light falls

Being on the spot to record seasonal changes is another bonus. From spring buds to frozen spider webs, there’s always something to shoot, even if you only have a small garden.

It pays to seize the moment, though. The flush of autumn colour might last for several weeks, for instance, but the leaves may only look pristine for a handful of days during that period. Leave it too late, and foliage that looks great from a distance may look damaged and ‘crispy’ around the edges under the unforgiving magnification of a macro lens.

The quality of the background is just as important as the subject itself. The narrow angle of view offered by macro lenses that have longer focal lengths makes it easier to frame a ‘clean’ shot, with an uncluttered background. but any bright objects or patches of pale sky can still be distracting. Hot colours such as reds, oranges and yellows within a scene always draw the viewer’s eye, even if they are out of focus, so try to look beyond the subject before you take the picture – it may only require a micro movement of the camera to improve the framing.

Hot colours, such as reds, oranges and yellows, will draw the eye – even if they are out of focus