Have you ever watched those adverts on TV for expensive watches, electronics or perfume and wondered how they’ve achieved such a shot? Have you ever wanted to reproduce that look yourself but not had the confidence or know how to?

 Then this small tutorial is just for you!

The Fuji Finepix HS10 is a very powerful Bridge camera with the manual controls of a DSLR. And even though many people will choose to use the automatic settings a lot of the time, learning to have full control over the exposure is much more exciting.

In the past with macro photography you have had to get extremely close to the subject, hand shaking because there isn’t a tripod to hand that can get low enough or close enough. The HS10 is slightly different, it allows you to stay a little further away and use the telephoto lens to get closer while set on ‘Marco’.

You don’t need to worry about a posh light tent (anywhere with a bit of space will do) or an expensive macro flash unit, a normal bog standard external flash will do fine but I strongly suggest printing one of these flash bouncers: http://www.ladig.org/events/2010-02/WackyHackBounceCard.pdf . This will diffuse the light and providing your flash unit has a tilting head, it will direct the light too.

 For this tutorial I chose to photograph my trusty old P&S camera as well as my partner’s perfume.

To set up your mini studio you need the following:

• A background
• A tripod
• External flash and bounce card

My flash unit is fairly simple, it has automatic exposure control at around 1/1000 sec and f/2.8. As you can’t control the flash power or anything with my flash, I use the shutter speed to compensate.

So with your HS10 setup as you want, you are ready to shoot!

Think about the composition when you are in the studio,  how your subject sits in the frame can make the difference between an average shot and a professional looking shot. Also think about the angle from which you shoot, simple changes in tilt can dramatically affect the look of your photograph.

Below are a set of photographs taken with the above setup, each photo has its EXIF data below to help you out.

Aperture: f/4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec.

ISO-100

 Aperture: f/3.6

Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec.

ISO-100

Aperture: f/5

Shutter Speed: 1/4000 sec.

ISO-100

NOTE:

You can still have a go at macro photography without an external flash. For this a tripod is a must as you will be relying on longer shutter speeds to capture the shot. Setup a custom white balance to get rid of any colour cast from your light source (refer to manual for setting a custom white balance) and use the two second shutter delay to stabilise your shot.