Conclusion

My other photography tool is Adobe Photoshop (PS). I've been using PS since the late 80's for a wide variety of tasks. Everything from creating graphics for computer applications to mocking up web sites. There's absolutely no other application I've used for so long or respect as much.

When shooting photographs I use the D70's RAW mode. Photoshop has a RAW plugin which provides control over lighting temperature, exposure, and other aspects. For these photos I tweaked the lighting a little bit to compensate for the tungsten bulbs.

For the small blossoms the background wasn't quite black so I used curves to correct that. I also use PS to sharpen edges, tweak contrast, or fix small blemishes. One blossom had a small lint hair stuck to it which I removed digitally.

This is a learning process and I am still learning daily. If you've recently upgraded from a point-and-shoot to a DSLR like the D70 I urge you to set aside some time to learn the features of your camera and become familiar with the manual modes. As you experiment and spend time making mistakes (and having successes!) it will become second nature: mental and muscle memory, like riding a bike or driving a car.

If you already have a zoom lens then perhaps there's a close-up adaptor (sometimes called a diopter) that will work with it? Some systems can use an adaptor to attach a lens backwards. With my A70 point-and-shoot I was able to hold telescope eyepieces in front of the lens and get almost microscopic images. The depth of field wasn't much deeper than a dog hair, but the views were great.

If you've found this article interesting, be sure to check out the next in the series where we get even closer macro capabilities: Macro Photography II.

«Macro Setup

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