DPReview TV: Simple techniques for great macro photography

Chris, Jordan and DPReview are doing a great job with these videos. That third arm contraption looks very helpful for macro. I wonder where you’d get something like that.

Excellent.

These educational videos really take it up a notch.

Thanks for this great video. My other half started watching this whilst it was on and wanted to go and start taking macro images.

A little technique goes a lot further than endless opinion.
Terrific Video, should start a deluge of macro here.
Many thanks for sharing, Don.

This is a very inspirational video. I am a tradesman and work all over my city and to relax at lunchtime I go for a walk and take photos, the problem is many areas are photographic "wastelands"

After watching the video I have decided I will make up a little macro kit that I will take with me on those walks. I'm sure if I put the time in and have a little imagination I will produce some good images where previously I found none.

BTW does anyone know what the apparatus is that Don uses to hold his subjects?

Brilliant video made me go out and shoot some macro in my garden trying different lighting would love to know what crystal you use for the back ground looked up some but could only find amethyst a purple colour must try a water dropper and mist spray bottle also ,good to know that this was also shot a small sensor camera .
Funny how little light is need for macro tried a clip on flash and wow needs to pointed in 90 deg away from subject or heavily diffused .

I've seen Don twice on T&C, and now here. He's astounding. I always think of photography as the union of art and science, but he has a knack for talking about both things at once - fluidly, accessibly and inspiringly. I'm looking forward to upping my macro game with his insights. Thanks, Don, and keep up the good work.

great vid guys

Best video I’ve seen on DP review in a long long time. Awesome photography. Lots of neat little tricks. I’m definitely going to get me a third hand and some sort of a syringe.

I tried the ultra wide angle macro camera of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro a few days ago. My first impression is quite good.

Komarechka's "infrared selfie" at his web page (http://www.donkom.ca/oddly-infrared-portrait/) is really quite astounding photographically, as the photographer well explains in the accompanying text. His idea of IR photography (using false-color, mostly) is highly disappointing, though. Using "modified" equipment turns the camera into a dedicated scientific instrument and evades the actual challenge of acquiring aesthetically worthwhile images using real cameras in real places in real time.

Brilliant stuff. This really stirs up one's thinking and that to me is one of the highest compliments.

It really is the adage of "you don't just take a photo, you make a photo" applied to macro.

Thanks to Don and the DPR crew for this video.

I sincerely doubt that light is 1000 lumens. Sounds more like the "bigger is better" advertising BS.

Coming from Australia and seeing Don in just a shirt, I was thinking if that was me I would have been shaking so much that I wouldn't have been able to shoot the landscape let alone a macro shot. Don you must have built-in IBIS.
Thanks guys for the tips, tricks and inspiration to go out and allow me to create some potentially WOW shots.

The graffiti on the sign is not as artistic as Banksy.

I gave up after a few minutes. This is more about fabrication of a subject rather than shooting macro. I'm not going to prebuy flowers from a grocery store and then pick up ice and stick it into a ground. That has nothing to do with macro and I'd never use such forced methods in my photography.

ive been shooting macro for years ... but seeing another point of view and the out loud thinking of chris and don as they discuss ideas and choices for enlivening macro shots has been a very worthy few minutes and rekindles the fire of shooting creatively

dp review video features like this are a true highlight of your website

I can't believe how most are missing out on the hilarious intro....ROFLOL...

...I would SO have a beer with these guys...

Educational and entertaining
(and the website www.donkom.ca has a lot of stunning pictures)

Wow great video! More like this please!

i learned you have to move the macro subject to unrealistic place and background to get the shot, good to know.

not in this video but... I think some macro photographer kills their subject (insects) pin them down to get some of those great 1x shots.

I want to see more article like this.

DPReview should aim to become more of a learning resource to help us develop skills and vision. And spend less time talking about linear resolution and the latest in iPhone technology.

Great video! I really appreciate the tips... looks fun!

Another GREAT vid. Loved the sign cameo in the beginning. LOL What do you call and get one of those roach clip thingies? I learned a ton through that vid.

Wow - good macro photography requires more patience, creativity, and diligence than I realized!

Excellent video, thank you.

Interesting, but I guess that (again) the header is not that good....

This is about creating artistic images with macro equipment more than it helps any of us with "simple techniques for great macro photography" out in the real world.

Don't get me wrong: There is nothing wrong with artistic photos, and there are some really nice ones. And as such the video is really inspiring.

That was really neat. I need to keep this in mind. I don't have a proper macro, but I have extension tubes and I need to use them for fun stuff like this. I love the lens effect of the water drops with the flowers. I'm going to do this myself.

I'd like more tutorial videos like this - astrophotography with the various light pollution filters? Aurora photography? Babies? Cars? Big family groups and how to light them?

Hmmm. Not really my style. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but just personally I consider the story behind an image to be as important as the image itself, and for me a story of "I found this incredible thing by looking closely at my environment" is more interesting than "I broke up some ice and put some grocery-store flowers behind it and then brought in some artificial lighting to construct this scene." I know it's just a personal preference, but for me macrophotography is about discovery and hidden beauty, rather than creation and manipulation.

Very interesting. Would have been useful for a link to the stand for the torch and the holder for the flowers.

Enjoying and informative video from the team as usual. Very nice techniques! Indeed micro 4/3 cameras can be considered as the idea tool for macro photography. Kit lenses already focus very closely and have good magnification.