Macro photography is fun and extremely addictive. The ability to zoom into something and see things the normal eye cannot see is a reward in and of itself.

Today, we show you an extremely simple macro environment anyone can do.

Just like photographing products, lighting is key in shooting beautiful macro photos. In this setup, we use one off-camera flash, a reflector card, and an on-camera flash.

Here is an image of how a DIY macro environment might look like.

Of coarse any sort of reflective surface will aid in lighting your object properly, but adding some form of texture in the back can significantly increase the effectiveness of the photo.

We used crumpled foil mainly to get a some nice bokeh when we are zoomed in for a macro shot. Here are some examples from our photoshoot today.

Using the same foil background, and depending on the subject, it might even work when placed in the foreground.

But aside from nice bokeh, and pretty foil, the true beauty of Macro is the creativity in finding patterns and textures in regular every day objects, and even living subjects.

The pictures below are from a shower scrub. Who would have thought shower scrubs could be so pretty?

Good macro photographers will have an eye for mixing patterns and colors in a composition. So whenever you decide to go out and shoot some macro photos, keep those three things in mind. And never forget to have fun! Enjoy this amazing part of photography.

Being able to shoot products properly can mean the difference between a good portfolio, and a bad one. But sometimes, not all of us have the luxury of a studio or a fancy lightbox.

Today, we show a method used by many photographers to get a professional shot, with not so professional gear.

Bouncing light on both sides of the product will be your best friend. In this setup, we used four 8.5” x 11” pages to bounce the light on the product from all sides to properly light the scene. To get two of the pages to stand, we folded opposing edges of the page at a 90 degree angle to act as support. We also used one more page to act as a back drop, while the last page is used as a floor for the product. The bigger the paper, the better, but for the most part, standard sized sheets of paper will do.

For cost effectiveness, using 2 strong lamps instead of off-camera slave flashes will also do; but expect to tweak the image in an image editor later.

Below is an image of the setup, and an overhead diagram of how the setup might look like.

Feel free to move the camera around and try different angles. There’s nothing wrong with exploring.

Here are sample Product shots we took using this setup.