As I am a professional photographer and known mainly for my images with wide angle lenses, here is something new. It's been raining here for weeks already—not the greatest conditions for landscape photography—so I took out my macro lens to photograph some mushrooms in the forest. The great thing about this is that you can do this with any kind of light at any moment of the day.
Capturing creative photos of miniature worlds is definitely not a new idea, but you don't need to be a small-world master like Tatsuya Tanaka to give this kind of photography a shot. As this COOPH tutorial shows you, all you need is some creativity, a few mini figures, and a smartphone.
This morning, Sigma officially unveiled its much-anticipated 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. This is Sigma's first Art-series Macro lens for a mirrorless system, and it's been optically re-designed from the ground up to deliver "exceptional sharpness and pleasing bokeh."
Venus Optics, purveyor of some fan favorite (and sometimes quite strange) ultra macro lenses, has just released its newest creation: the world's first 2x macro lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. Meet the new Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO.
25-year-old toy photographer Benedek Lampert isn't gonna let a pandemic stand between him and Formula 1 this season. Since he can't go to a Grand Prix, he decided to build his own using cardboard, card stock, water, dust, smoke, and some toy cars.
Ever since the beginning of the pandemic (and, really, the beginning of photography), macro photography tutorials have all sort of blended together. The subject matter and techniques are often pretty similar: flowers, bugs, coins, etc. COOPH wanted to change that with their latest "ideas" video.
Photographer and YouTuber Mark Holtze has put together a quick video that offers some advice for beginners or other photographers on a budget. Specifically, he shares his top five reasons why you should go out and buy a vintage macro lens.
Tatsuya Tanaka is a master of turning everyday objects into miniature worlds that seem larger than life. He's been doing it daily for almost a decade, and in the midst of the COVID pandemic, he's started to integrate some all-too-familiar objects into his work.
Cinema lens and filter maker NiSi continues its expansion into strange product categories. This time, the company has released its first macro focusing rail: a competitively-priced addition to the market that gives macro enthusiasts a lot of control and some nice-to-have features for precise focus stacking.
Montreal-based art director Christopher Dormoy has created one of the most hypnotic timelapses we've ever seen. It's called "Black Ice," and it combines ink, ice, flowers, and creative macro photography filming techniques to produce something truly stunning.
Insects and other animals have fascinated me since I was a small child. I remember well how I used to pick them up and simply stare at them in wonder for hours. The concept of photographing insects indoors had been on my mind for years, even when photography and playing with light was a hobby, and long before I considered photography a profession and way of life.
Landscape photographer Lewis Carlyle was recently trying to figure out a photo project to do at home, when he came up with a totally unique, never-before-tried idea: close-up photos of flowers. Okay, fine, it's not exactly revolutionary, but he did manage to put an interesting twist on the concept and create some beautiful images in the process.
Venus Optics has just announced that its ultra-popular Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO lens—one of the best and most affordable macro lenses on the market—is now available for Nikon's Z and Canon's EOS R full-frame mirrorless cameras.
I've been an amateur landscape photographer for some time now. I remember fondly my first years in the field—I loved roaming around and shooting like mad. I even started getting good at it. Year by year, though, I found myself shooting less and less.
Landscape photographer Thomas Heaton is used to shooting epic vistas and vast landscapes, capturing the world in broad strokes. But since he's stuck at home like the rest of us, he thought he'd try macro photography on for size. After all, how hard could it be?
There's no shortage of creative photography ideas that you can try while isolating, but we really like this one from the folks at Adaptalux. Using just some paper and light, they'll show you how you can capture beautiful abstract macro photography without leaving home.
As a professional outdoor photographer, my mind had been in a place of backcountry skiing, snow photography and ramping up for spring commercial projects—the same place it has been every March for years. I like this time of year, it feels like my fitness, my vision and my bandwidth all line up to result in outdoor missions and photography that really feed the soul, and the bank account.
Nature TTL—the online nature photography resource—has revealed the winners of their newly minted "Photographer of the Year" awards, and oh man did the community deliver. From stunning aerial shots to a life-and-death struggle between a Pelican and its prey, there's a lot to love here.
Need a photo project while confined to your home for weeks due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic? Here is a guide on shooting stacked macro photography on a budget!
Two years ago, Venus Optics sent macro photographer Thomas Shahan their Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens for testing. Now, after two continuous years of real-world use and testing, he's finally gotten around to sharing his thoughts in a thoughtful review that will be a huge help to any extreme macro photographers who are considering this lens.
It's Valentine's Day and a good opportunity to grab some flowers and celebrate our love for photography with another creative project. I didn’t want to miss my chance, so I grabbed some red roses and in today’s post I will share my set-up for a Valentine's Day 'Refracted Rose' photo.
Today we are going to use skeleton leaves and glycerin for a creative macro project. Skeleton leaves are fascinating and intricate structures that make great subjects for macro photography and creative projects.
Using an 8K RED camera and two macro lenses, video artist Thomas Blanchard recently captured an entire solar system's worth of "mini planets" made of paint, oil, ink and soap in excruciating detail. The resulting footage is absolutely stunning.
As we know, wide angle lenses show a larger field of view and therefore make things appear smaller and further away than they are. Which contradicts the concept of macro photography, where we want our subject to be projected onto the sensor at a magnification ratio of at least 1.0x. So how can we combine a wide angle perspective and macro macro-capabilities?
After "announcing" the lens some time ago, Venus Optics has officially released the Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO: a surprisingly affordable 2X macro lens made specifically for crop-sensor mirrorless cameras made by Fuji, Sony and Canon.
It's often said that the best camera is the one you have with you. A young Indian photographer is impressing the Web with his beautiful macro photos of insects, and all of his work is shot using a smartphone.
If you ever visited some industrial surplus shops, very often you would see some cameras and lenses used in industrial automation. What you probably do not know is that these lenses can have very high optical performance and features we want: high resolving power, large image circle, low distortion, and often very long working distance compared to some of other lenses we use.
Extreme macro photographer Chris Perani specializes in capturing the natural world in extreme detail. His latest series "Minerals" gives us a peek at the intricate structure of minerals, fossils, shells, and gems like never before, with each photograph created by stacking over 25,000 photos together.
If you've ever taken a walk in the woods, especially after a rain storm, you've definitely walked by one of photographer Alison Pollack's subjects. You may have even stepped on one. But unless you had a magnifying glass handy, you never even knew they were there.
ZY Optics has unveiled the new Mitakon 85mm f/2.8 1-5x Super Macro Lens, a new option that wants to make it easier to get into extreme macro photography by providing "one of the longest working distance for ANY super macro lens."
Photographer Nicholas Sherlock is back at it with his 3D printed creations. After creating a huge 5x macro setup using a 3D printed 300mm extension tube earlier this year, he decided to design and build a special 'rifle-style grip' that would allow him to more easily use that monstrous rig.
Following hot on the heels of yesterday's leak, Tokina has officially revealed its redesigned full-frame 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for the Canon EF and Nikon F mounts: the Tokina ATX-i 100mm f/2.8 Macro FF.
The glorious colors of summer are fading away, and the windy weather makes outdoor macro photography difficult. In other words, it’s the perfect time to take photography inside and stage creative photos with things around the house.
Light macro photographs can be tricky. If you are a beginning macro photographer and do not know where to start when it comes to using a speedlight to illuminate your subjects, here is a complete guide to different flash diffusers you can use for macro photos.
Handheld focus stacking is a brilliant solution for many scenarios. It saves you all the troubles of using a focusing rail in the field and provides a maximum of flexibility. Whenever you need more depth of field than you can get with trading off image quality, this is the way to work around it.
Did you know that Photoshop has a built-in focus stacking function? This article explains about how it works and how to make the most of it.
One of the greatest challenges in macro photography is the depth of field, or DOF for short. Not only does the zone of sharpness drastically fall off as we get closer to our subjects, other factors such as the lack of light and diffraction softening make it tricky to use narrow apertures on top of that.
Refraction photography is an exciting subject that has been enjoying increasing popularity amongst photographers. You've probably seen refraction photos before: where an out-of-focus background appears sharply defined inside a crystal ball or a dew drop for example. In today’s post, we will examine this phenomenon and learn how to take beautiful photos by taking advantage of this effect.
Want to get started in macro photography but don't have much to spend? There are ways to jump into the niche using mostly the gear you already have (assuming you don't have a dedicated macro lens). Here's an 8-minute video by NatureTTL that'll point you in the right direction.
Photographer Nicholas Sherlock—whose impressive 3D-printed DIY creations have appeared on PetaPixel before—is at it again. This time, he's created a fully-functional 300mm extension tube, complete with contacts for aperture control and autofocus, so that he can go out and shoot insane 5x macro photos.