While our eyes are better than our cameras in some ways, our cameras can sometimes allow us to get in really close and capture a whole new world that can’t be seen with the human eye.
That’s the magic of macro photography. (And, of course, the ability to sell macro photography as stock and make an income from it makes it pretty magical, too. More on that in a minute.)
Macro is great for stock, because you don’t have to worry about model releases. You can find macro photos just about anywhere you go. And designers buy macro photos for use in advertisements and websites all the time.
The trick to taking a macro photo that will sell well is having a concept in mind when you shoot. Here are some samples of macro photos that sell well as stock.
Notice that each of them has a strong concept — from communication, to time, to growth, to health/wellness, to money/debt, etc. Also notice that many of them have multiple interpretations:
Look around your home and workplace for objects that you could turn into macro photos for stock.
When you shoot, ask yourself what the concept could be. Once you start thinking about stock concepts, you’ll start to see them everywhere.
Don’t have a macro photography lens, no problem.
S&SPC Premium members learned how to take macro shots without a macro lens today as part of their Premium Membership Challenge.
June’s theme is Macro Photography, so I took a few macro photos using this technique I showed them. Here’s the photo I tried creating before using the technique…
This is as close as my camera would let me get. When I got in closer, I couldn’t focus on anything. And here’s how close I could get using the exact same lens, with the trick I showed S&SPC Premium members today…
Same lens. Same camera. No cropping. Pretty cool trick!
