Macro Still Life

Alliums, with their firework-like heads can make great subjects for macro photography but knowing where to focus and how to keep yourself and your subject still can be challenging. Here the focus is slightly off, which your eye can’t quite forgive. To make things easier, use a tripod, steady the plant with a garden cane and floristry wire and focus manually on the seed heads.

There’s some lovely potential here: the curves of the slinky flow into the centre, the crop is good and the ability to see a common object in a fresh way is wonderful. Sadly, at 1600 the ISO is too high, creating a lot of noise. What’s more, the focus is slightly off, and the white balance needs correcting. Definitely worth coming back to.

I like the composition here (nice diagonal, no gaps between the petals, super tight crop) and I like the colour contrast. Unfortunately, this image has some technical faults that count against it. Firstly, it’s noisy. Secondly, it’s not quite sharp enough. The picture was captured on a phone and, I’m assuming, quite heavily cropped, which explains some of the technical issues. Sometimes, you’ve got to use what you’ve got or risk losing the picture, but it would be nice to see a second attempt.

Slime moulds are often just millimetres high, so finding them is a challenge. And then, of course, you need to find an aesthetically pleasing group, ensure the background is free of distractions and ensure you have enough depth of field to keep each stem sharp. An eye for detail and excellent focus stacking skills have resulted in a great shot here.

Beautifully lit to reveal the curves and contours of the beetroot, this picture has an air of the old master painters about it. The crop is great – as we’re familiar with the subject, our minds naturally complete the shape – and the negative space is nicely balanced. The only criticism is the sharpness of the leaves – a smaller aperture might have helped bring them more into focus.

When you’re struggling to master the technical side of close-up or macro photography it’s easy to forget that the ‘rules’ of composition still apply. While you might not have a fence or a river to act as a lead-in line, blades of grass, petal edges or, in this example, the teeth of a zip can all act as a way to guide the eye into the scene. It’s an effective technique!

Few of us will have seen the interior of a violin before, but thanks to the natural curiosity of one photographer we can now enjoy the architectural splendour inside! It seems churlish to find fault, but an aperture of f/1.8 doesn’t quite give enough depth of field, and the focus is a little off. Having said that, the picture was shot with an iPhone – probably the only camera that would fit inside!

There are a lot of spiderweb images in this contest, but the graphic simplicity of this one really gives it the wow factor. Converting the image to black & white helps to focus the eye on the frost-coated lines of the web, while the window frame contains the action nicely.

When an eye for detail is combined with skilful use of a macro lens, ordinary objects can be transformed into beautiful abstract art. Here, water on a plastic food tray has been recorded as a mix of shapes and curves, neatly enclosed in the square outline of the container. As the photographer suggests, the scene has an air of a Man Ray Rayograph. The sepia treatment finishes the job off nicely.

A lens like the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro allows you to get right into the centre of the action, as we can see here. The focus is exactly where it should be – in the centre of the top berry. Close-up photographers often say that if your subject doesn’t have an eye then treat the centre of the flower (or in this case berry) like one and keep it super sharp. Beautiful work.

This is a striking image with plenty of behaviour and storytelling to hold our interest. The colours are fabulous, the focus is spot on, and the lighting is great. Having been caught on the stems of a carnivorous plant, I’m assuming these insects are dead (allowing them to fall under the ‘inanimate natural object’ part of the brief. Great work!

Bags of atmosphere, painterly colours, great composition and super accurate focusing – not a lot to complain about here! Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit the ‘still life’ brief. I very much look forward to seeing it again in another Photocrowd contest!

When you’re shooting wide open with a macro lens, depth of field is extremely limited, which can sometimes work in your favour. Here the eye is drawn up the edges of the petals to the point where they touch, while everything else falls out of focus. The water adds extra interest, while the outline of the petals in the background provides context.

It’s surprisingly hard to find balance when you’re arranging objects for a still life, but the photographer has done a wonderful job here. The group of cotton reels form a pleasing triangle shape and the buttons at the base help provide a bit of variety when it comes to height. The rhythm created by thread spilling from each reel also works beautifully.

A chain, a cube light and a willingness to experiment has resulted in a striking image of what look like a line of swans (or camels). The photographer has twisted the chain perfectly to create nice clear outlines which have been made even more graphic by converting the shot to black & white. Simple and effective.