3.Macro ideas

Glass panel

Separating the background lighting from the foreground lighting gives many possibilities in composition. Macro photography is no exception. In addition, the short depth of field in macro makes it all the more interesting.

Here is a setup I use with small objects placed on a glass plate and shot from above. The glass plate can be held in place on the edge of a table or in between two coffee tables. I used a white background (sheet of paper or foam core) which I placed on the floor. This allows light painting with a simple flashlight, sometimes using colored gels.

This technique offers limitless creative possibilities with fragile or liquids objects that then seem to float in the air.

In the shot below I used a feather and bubbles (dish-washing detergent mixed with water) on the glass panel. The shutter was set to about 5 second, which gave me the time to light paint the background in orange as well as the foreground in white.