Macro photography is the perfect creative outlet during social distancing because you can do it at home. In this session of Macro Therapy With Caroline Jensen, the Sony Artisan shares three different black and white effects for you to try with your macro photography. Make sure you also check out her other Macro Therapy sessions – a quick start guide for choosing your camera settings for macro photography, quick tips for lighting your macro shots, shooting your prepositions, plus three other creative techniques to try at home.

In this session of Macro Therapy With Caroline Jensen, the Sony Artisan shares three different black and white effects to try on your macro photography.

Sony α7 III. Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro. 1/1000-sec., f/2.8, ISO 400

High Contrast Mono

This is one of my favorite ways to shoot macro images. Go into your camera’s menu system and change your shooting file to JPEG Extra Fine. Then go to the menu for Picture Effect and choose, High Contrast Mono. This effect is very contrasty and works best with light colored flowers. Adding water/glycerin sprinkles can also add drama and interest. It is very important to use the zebra stripe function to verify your highlight areas are not too hot, and therefore losing data.

Rich Mono

Rich Mono is another option in the Picture Effect menu. It merges three black and white images into one high dynamic range image. This option is great for stationary subjects. Watch out for motion blur as quick moving subjects will cause the frames to misalign and ghosting will be visible in your image. This can be a fun creative effect when done on purpose!

Sony α7 III. Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro. 1/250-sec., f/3.5, ISO 200

Modifying A Base Creative Style

Choose the Black and White setting and adjust the contrast to +3. This will mimic the High Contrast Mono, but you also have the option with this setting to choose RAW + JPEG in your Quality menu. The added raw is great for later fun, but you still have the high contrast black and white you saw as you shot the image.