Those of you who ever took interest in macro photography, knows that it takes a great deal of skills and patient, to take a close-up shot of that little flower in your garden.

There is a lot of trail and error ahead of you and since I also learnt the hard way how to make proper macro images with digital camera, I am happy to share with you 10 tips that will hopefully make your macro shots much, much better!

1. Go Steady
Camera shake can be a real problem at high magnifications due to longer exposures and shallow depth of field. Use a tripod or assume a sturdy position. Have the mirror lockup mode activated and preferably use a cable release.

2. Windy Conditions
Shooting macros of delicate subjects is impossible on a windy day so go equipped with a makeshift windbreak. A small clamp and stand may be enough to steady flowers and plants.

3. Props
Add impact to the shot and create an early morning feel with a water spray to imitate dew or rain. You can use a droplet and simply lay a few drops on the leaf or flower, or simply spray with water. If you then take photos at sun light, it will sparkle and give your photo a nice unique touch.

4. Sharp as Possible
Maximize the depth of field by using an aperture of f/11 – f/22 and keeping your camera parallel to the subject. Use your depth of field preview button to see the result and if the preview is too dark, take a test shot and check the shot on your LCD.

5. Get Close
Ordinary lenses won’t let you get close to a subject. There is no substitute for a macro lens that can reproduce 1:1 or life-size reproduction. A focal length of 100 or 200mm will give a good distance to work from.

6. Manual Focus
Auto focus is a wonderful time saving addition to  your camera lens but can be tricky with close-ups as it battles back and forth to any subtle change or camera movement. Try switching to manual focus and choosing the focus point yourself. To make the most of the depth of field focus on the middle part of the subject.

7. Backgrounds
Try to avoid backgrounds of the same color, otherwise your subject will blend into it. Clutter and patches of bright light will draw your eye away from the subject. Ideally, your background should be opposite hue to the object you are photographing, i.e for a light pink flower try getting dark neutral color background, ideally dark gray.

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8. Fill in Flash akon beautiful
Add sparkle in dim conditions and reduce shadows and contrast on bright sunny days. A lot of photographers have this problem when making macro shots however, there are always exceptions and sometimes a shadow nicely cast on an object can look good.

9. Get Light Subjects Right
With white butterflies for example standard camera metering can be fooled into underexposing so be prepared to add two stops of positive exposure compensation to eradicate this.

10. Diffused Light for Detail
Avoid burned out highlights and maximize fine detail by shooting on bright overcast days when the light is diffused and not harsh and direct. If you can’t avoid shooting in direct light then use a diffuser to soften the light.

Guest post by Danny.