PROCESS YOUR SHOTS
Improve the creative edge of your macro shots by adjusting light and colour
Macro retouching is an intriguing opportunity for creating artistic effects. Much as with the actual shooting of macro photography, it can be tempting to be highly conservative with the processing we apply to close-up shots, focusing only on retouching blemishes and adjusting contrast. While these aspects certainly form part of any pro workflow, there are many more actions we can take to produce shots with originality and flavour.
The first point of interest is colour. When shooting insects or plants, it can be important to preserve a natural appearance for identification purposes. However, since we are looking at this from a creative standpoint, accuracy is not always best, as is the case in many aspects of artistic photography. Try applying some false colour effects, to see what this does with subject depth and appearance of the natural surroundings in which it is found. If you don’t want to add a physical coloured background, adjusting the colour balance of local areas of the shot with the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom or the Brush Tool in Photoshop is a more subtle alternative.
Next up, lighting suggests itself as a creative muse. Applying lighting effects at the time of shooting is fun and effective, but there are some technical challenges associated with this practical approach. Since your subjects are so small, compared to the size of most flash heads, producing a focused beam of light at the macro level can be unachievable. This is where the gradient tools or brushes in software excel. It can be a simple case of stacking two exposures and brushing in a lighter area over the subject, for a spotlight style. Alternatively we can look at creating artistic glows and beams, similar to those we might expect to see in a forest landscape scene.
Finally, focus is a great element with which to experiment. DOF is probably shallow already, but applying tilt/shift effects for example is a targeted style, with more artistic edge. Conversely focus stacking, for increased depth, combined with additional lighting and colour work, can be used to create amazing macro scenics, offering a whole new view of the hidden macro world.