Master macro photography from gear and fieldcraft, to creative techniques and processing, with award-winning, specialist expert Tony North.
(As well as access to all five live sessions, you will automatically receive links to the recordings, which will remain available until 1 March 2027)
Macro photography brings us remarkably close to subjects and details that are easily overlooked, but consistently producing excellent images requires much more than simply getting close.
Across five sessions, Tony North will take you through the complete process of macro photography, combining detailed tuition with numerous photographic examples from his own work.
Starting with equipment and the different ways of achieving high-quality close-up photography, the series progresses through fieldcraft and understanding your subjects, the technical skills needed for sharp, well-exposed photographs, the creative decisions that make an image beautiful, and finally the processing techniques that bring everything together.
Macro Fundamentals 1: Gear
Understand the equipment available for close-up and macro photography and how to choose what is right for you.
Macro lenses, extension tubes, close-up filters and other equipment, together with the importance of camera type and how different approaches affect the results you can achieve.
Learn how to test your equipment for image quality and check whether your existing set-up is giving you the performance you need for successful macro photography.
Macro Fundamentals 2: Fieldcraft
Learn how understanding nature can dramatically improve your chances of finding and photographing macro subjects successfully in the field.
Productive locations, weather conditions, the best times of year and day, and the biology and behaviour of insects.
See how good fieldcraft can help you approach subjects without disturbing them, work safely around insects and recognise potential hazards while photographing on location.
Macro Fundamentals 3: Technical Skills
Develop the technical skills needed to produce consistently high-quality macro photographs.
Know how camera settings, exposure and shutter speed affect your results, how to minimise noise and maximise sharpness, and how to manage the particularly demanding depth-of-field challenges of close-up photography.
Tony will also explain focusing techniques and focus stacking, showing when and why these approaches can help you achieve the result you want.
Macro Fundamentals 4: Artistry
Move beyond technical accuracy and consider what makes a macro photograph visually successful.
Explore composition, backgrounds and bokeh, lighting and colour, showing how each can change the appearance and impact of an image.
See how creative decisions work alongside technical qualities such as sharpness and depth of field, helping you produce photographs that are not simply technically sound, but beautiful.
Macro Fundamentals 5: Processing
Follow a complete editing workflow designed to get the best from your finished macro photographs.
Starting with the RAW file, Tony will cover sharpening, noise reduction, focus stacking, correcting stacking errors and applying the final adjustments that complete an image.
Live demonstrations will include Lightroom, Topaz Denoise, Helicon Focus and Photoshop, while the underlying principles will be applicable to similar editing software.
Tony North is a Manchester-based photographer specialising in macro photography. Since taking up photography in 2016, he has gained numerous awards and distinctions, including MPAGB and ABPE. In 2023 he was the overall winner of International Garden Photographer of the Year. His combination of technical expertise, field knowledge and creative photography makes him ideally placed to guide photographers through every stage of producing successful macro images.
