Macro Stock Photography – Learn The Important Facts
Stock photography is one category of professional photography that can be used by artists, graphic designers, or anyone in need of certain images that they have decided would look good in their project. Macro stock photography is generally considered the most overused genre of stock photography.
Macro photography lays claim to some interesting stock photography because of its general aesthetic appeal. It can best be described as capturing a small portion of an object as an image, or an extreme close up. Because macro stock photography only captures a portion of a larger object, it appeals to a different demographic than the usual practiced stock photography.
Being Interesting And Unique Is Key
The mass appeal of macro stock photography when compared to other types of stock photography is that the photographers are not stuck in a box, trying to fulfill or provide generic images along with unique, artistic images. The macro stock photographers are allowed to think outside the box and photograph whatever strikes them as an interesting or attractive image.
A well-rounded macro stock photographer’s portfolio should include not only unique and different images, but tried and true images as well. The difference being that there should be something unique and untried about their macro stock images. When photographing macro stock images, every object you capture should be interesting in some way that sets it apart from other photographs in the same genre, beyond just being a close up of an appealing object.
How To Stand Out – The Proper Use Of Color And Contrast
Colors are very important to macro stock photography and help images stand out, but the truly artistic part of this type of photography is the image capturing contrasts within the colors. The images with interesting contrasts will help the photographs stand out amongst the other more generic macro stock photos.
Color and contrast are one of, if not the most vital element of a well-composed image. Many people think color and contrast and automatically gravitate toward an object that is vibrating with every color imaginable. In truth, an object with good color and contrast is an item that contains contrasting colors, so much so that it is surreal in appearance. For example, a photographer could shoot an old object made of rusted iron and use as a macro stock photo that has captured all of the contrasting colors of rust flakes.
Meaning that a similar color can have good contrast that creates a variant of rust colors in the image, even though all of the colors are contrasting shades of rust. The contrast in the photograph is what makes the color stand out as a unique macro stock photo. Using sharpness paired with strong contrast in color makes for beautiful images, even though they are composed of the same colors.
Macros, where?
The fact that macro stock photographs can be found in everything and everywhere makes them an appealing type of photography to shoot. However, their appeal is also a double-edged sword, because the fact that they can be found everywhere makes them extremely hard to sell.
Any everyday item can be made to fit the definition of a macro stock photo. What sets the amazing and perfect macro photos apart from the rest is the object in the photograph; it must be an uncommon item, not found or seen everyday. Items that are not commonly seen like rotten wood, broken crystal, antique lanterns as such are objects that typically would not make anyone look twice.
A successful macro stock photographer must be able to look past the old item as a whole, and see it for its make-up. Objects that make good macros are things that have different or odd textures and materials, and capture their image in a way that a person studying the photograph is able to recognize what the texture or material in the photograph is, but do not actually know for sure. The best way to find such objects is to start with everyday items and really look at them closely. If this is done consistently, eventually a photographer will discover objects that make beautiful, unique macro stock shots.
I hope there’s at least one tip here you can use.
Ray Baker
