Macro photos in wedding photography

Macro photos in Wedding photography are very important. A good picture of wedding rings is extremely important for a bride and groom as well as for the wedding photographer in Surrey. They have spent so much time searching for the perfect ones and they have very emotional meaning for them.

That is why a good picture of wedding rings should have its place in every wedding photography album.

Contrary to appearances macro photography is not an easy task. During photographing of the wedding rings or jewellery the wedding photographer has to choose the camera settings very carefully - to make sure that the subject is sharp and the background in nicely blurred, not the other way around.

To make a good photo of the details the photographer of wedding needs to consider many factors but one of the most important ones is the depth of field. DOF depends on the aperture, focal length and of course the distance between the object and the lens. That is why when you are photographing the same wedding rings using the 85mm lens with f/4 aperture and the macro lens you will see a huge difference between the pictures taken.

Why do we think it is important to have macro photos in wedding photography?

The wedding rings in a picture taken with the 85mm will be very small, without apparent details, but the ones on the picture were taken with the macro lens will be much larger and there will be lots of details visible.

The wedding photographer in Surrey needs to remember that the depth of field in a macro lens is tiny. The choice of f/stop determines what will be in focus on the picture so it is very important to use a greater f/number. The wedding photographer Surrey has to decide if it is only the edges that have to be in focus or if the engraving and other details are to be shown as well.

In our details photos, we usually set the f-number between 4.0 and 11.0 and since 2013 we don't use the specialised macro lens, but the macro converter - Raynox DCR-150 Super Macro Lens. We came to the conclusion that in the connection with 85 1.4 or 1.8 lenses, it's a perfect combo which gives the perfect magnification for wedding and engagement rings leaving some space to show the background. We have also tested the DCR-250 model but the magnification was too large for our needs.

Of course, the wedding photographer in Surrey has to remember that using a greater f-number requires a longer shutter speed. When the object is the wedding ring, we can do it because we don't deal with a  moving object, so if your hands are steady the picture will not be blurred.

The macro converter is not a perfect solution and it's less flexible compared to the specialised macro lens, but it will take almost no space in the wedding photographer's rucksack and it is much, much cheaper.

The only thing that you have to remember is the filter size. Raynox converter has a snap-on mount which fits on lenses with a 52mm to 67mm size.

Below you will find an example of a wedding ring shot photographed with the Raynox converter on the Nikkor 85mm lens.

It is a good example of how we set up ring shoots. The rings are laid on a dark and shiny table surface and we have used the glittering bride shoes as a backdrop. The setting of the rings is up to the Surrey wedding photographer. The most important thing is to set them in a way that the most interesting details will be visible. The glittering background is interesting thanks to the shallow depth of field. The light used in the picture is the window light coming from the right side. It is a very simple setup, which allows photographing details in a way that will be interesting for both the wedding photographer and of course for the bride and groom.

Camera: Nikon D3

Lens: Nikkor 85 mm F1.8 + Raynox DCR-250

Shutter speed: 1/60 sec.

Aperture: f 9