Wow! What an amazing evening with Dr David Harris who opened our eyes to the world of macro/close-up photography. He showed us his outstanding images of close-up of flowers and insects.Macro PhotogaphyFor out of focus background he uses 10 different prints, A3 in size, as his background. David mentioned that he is not too keen on using flash, instead he prefers daylight. His photo kit consists of

  • Tripods (x2: one for camera and the other to hold a clamp)
  • Focusing rails
  • Dedicated macro lens Nikon 105mm VR lens
  • Remote shutter release
  • Extension tubes
  • Out of focus prints as backgrounds
  • Flash (rarely)
  • Wire (thread it through the stem to position the flowers
  • Clamp

Photo StackingDavid demonstrated using Photoshop how he uses photo-stacking to create a desired depth of field.
He used the following steps:

Step 1: Make adjustments to RAW images and open them in Photoshop

Step 2: Load them in to stack

Step 3: Auto align layers

Step 4: Auto blend the layers

His image of a spider made up of more than 10 images really amazed us all. Thank you David for a very inspiring talk.

Please click here for Macro and Close Up Notes in detail.