Macro & Why?

Good Morning,

Now that spring has sprung I’m seeing tons of flower images being posted to various blogs and social networks. One thing you don’t see often is the how and why to use certain setting. Every Spring I used to teach a six week macro class helping people jump start their flower photography. The least understood aspect of macro / flower photography is when should I use a wide open aperture and when do I want more depth of field? It’s certainly a valid question and one that I am going to touch on in this blog post.

First off you need to evaluate your subject and what’s around it (backgrounds). And when I say this you have to determine how “you as the photographer” want to present this as a final image. There are many factor that will help you to determine this. Will I fill the frame or should I isolated it against a soft blurry background.  Once you determine your presentation you need to work on your execution.

Let’s use these two images as an example!  First of all, many orchids grow in clusters or groups making it tough to get a clean single orchid against a nice soft background. So I have decided to fill the frame with just one orchid. Now that I have my composition in mind, I need to determine what aperture or depth of field that I want.  Here I wanted as much DOF as I could possibly pull off with a single frame. (I’m not going to jump into using multiple focal point and then using Helicon Focus to stitch in this post, I’ll save that for another time).

So, by filling the frame I’ve eliminated any distracting backgrounds therefore allowing me to shoot at a very high aperture, f/38.  This will give me the maximum DOF for my subject. Keep in mind that with landscape photography, DOF is measured in feet and with Macro/Close-up it’s measured in inches and even fractions of an inch.  F/38 maybe overkill in the landscape world but in the macro realm it still may not be enough!

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,

Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Colorful Pallet

Hello Everyone,
With spring upon us it’s funny how our photographic vision changes. We are in the “in-between” phase from a winter to spring transition. Not enough spring buds or greens to capture in the trees so we are drawn to the colorful  pallet of early blooming flowers.  It’s the cycle of the seasons that draws us to continually create something different.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Loop Road

Hello Everyone,
Here are a few images I made while chillin around our camp in Canaan Valley, WV.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Port Clinton

Hello Everyone,
Wanted to share an image from Port Clinton. I wasn’t happy with the weather conditions (white sky) so I added the Simplify filter from Topaz Labs to take the edge off.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Amish Girls

Hello Everyone,
Here’s the last of my Mud Sale images from Gordonville. I met Michael Lawrence, Francie Schwabenland and her friend (sorry her name escapes me) for breakfast and then we headed over to do a little photojournalism at the sale.  It was a good time and one of the more popular sales in the circuit.

CLICK HERE for a small gallery of images from the shoot!

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Seneca Rocks

Hello Everyone,
Here’s an image for my friend Scott Grimes. He’s an avid climber and every time I tell him I was in West Virginia he tells me to check out the Seneca Rocks area.  On my last visit to Seneca Rocks it was very overcast and moody only showing glimpses of the peak. But this visit was beautiful and the temps touched the 70 degree mark.  I know it’s hard from this small image but when expanded to full size you can see several climbers making their way to the peak.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Mud Sale

Hello Everyone,
In a more light hearted view on the Amish Mud Sales :~)  This poor guy lost his boot and his buddies helped him keep his foot out of the mud…  well almost <grin>

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Working the Lines

Happy Friday Everyone,
I’m a huge promoter of fundamentals and a solid foundation for photography. And I truly believe without the two it’s hard for a photographer to grow and expand their craft. So when I’m out looking for things to photograph I look for Elements of Design and try to incorporate them into my image.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Ed Heaton Photography Creative Composition Workshops & Tours

Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

Hello Everyone,
Last Saturday I had the extreme pleasure of experiencing a portion of the Snow Geese migration.  Each year they make a stop at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Kleinfeltersville, PA. This year they had reported over 60K birds…

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Ed Heaton Photography Creative Composition Workshops & Tours

Golden Light

Hello Everyone,
One from my Childs Park trip back on New Years Day. I love how the light temperature changes in the shadow area.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Ed Heaton Photography Creative Composition Workshops & Tours

First Light

Hello Everyone,

Position and timing always makes for fun images! This one is from Rock Run in Maryland.

As with all of my images I used Nik’s Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on any of Nik’s products feel free to use my discount code “EHEATON”.

Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my “Image of the Week” newsletter to see what inspires me!

Ed Heaton Photography Creative Composition Workshops & Tours

Anglo-Nubian

Happy Friday,
Here’s another image from Springton Manor. These floppy eared goats are always fun to shoot.
 

As with all of my images I used Nik's Software to process this image! If you are interested in saving yourself a few $$$ on Nik's Software please make sure you use my discount code: "EHEATON"

Thanks for checking in, and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my "Image of the Week" and see what inspires me!www.edheaton.com

Check out my 2011 Workshops and Tours! 
· 2011 Creative Composition Workshops & Tours

Colonial Charm

Hello Everyone,
The week is winding down and here lately I’ve been going through my image library looking at the images that didn’t make the blog list. Over the next few day’s I’ll be adding some of the on the border images.

As most of you know I use Nik (the complete line of their filters) for all of my image processing but on occasion I like to add a little creative spin on things with Topaz’s Simplify. I ‘m going to guess I’m one of the original “BUZZ” user from way back.  When I say this I mean I was using the BUZZ or Simplify filter back when it was first introduced by Fo2pix which has since went out of business.

Thanks for checking in, and stay tuned for many more images and notes from the field.

Best of Light,
Ed

Looking for some tips on what to photograph, then sign-up for my "Image of the Week" and see what inspires me!
www.edheaton.com

Check out my 2011 Workshops and Tours! 
· 2011 Creative Composition Workshops & Tours