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.