Macro Photography

Virtually all digital cameras, from the humblest compacts to the most advanced super-zoom cameras, have a Macro setting, usually denoted by a symbol that looks like a flower.





In this mode, the camera will focus on objects at very close range, often just a few centimetres, enabling extreme close-ups or highly magnified photos of small objects. In this tutorial I'll show you how to take good, well-lit and accurately coloured close-up photographs, ideal for cataloguing collections, natural history projects, or even copying documents, using just a few simple items you've probably got around the house.

If your macro photos all look like this:





And you'd prefer them to look like this:





Then read on…