As you move your position, you also move where things appear in your images relative to each other. For example, you can move something in the distant background's position relative to something in the foreground by moving to the left or to the right. By lowering your position you can shrink the middle-ground space. By moving upwards you can stretch the middle-ground of the image. We often think about how angles can impact background elements in our landscape images. But, have you thought of the same impact in macro photography?

          Let me show you an image:

If you look at the bee's wing, on your right-hand side you can see that in the background there is an out of focus lighter line going from the white petal to the top right of the image. It is not too bothersome because it is blurred and not too bright, although I would prefer that it not be there at all. That line would bother the viewer much more if it intersected with the bee's body (rather than just being behind the wing). Let's say that that brighter line did find itself right behind the bee's body. What can you do about it? It is not possible to reach over the bee to move it out of the way, as the bee will fly away.

          The best thing to do is to move that line by moving your position. If you move to the left somewhat, that line will also move to the left, placing that line right behind the bee's body. If you move to the right, that line will move to the right (relative to the position of the bee). The closer the object is the bee, the less it will move relative to your movement. The further it is away from the bee, the more it will move as you move. In this case, I did not want that line right behind the bee's body, nor behind the orange section of the flower. So I moved so that that line's position relative to the bee changed to the right of the bee (to behind it's wing).

          So you might ask, "well, why didn't you move even more to get that line more to the right of the image so that it is not behind the wing anymore?" I could have, but we also want to pay attention to the bee's eyes. I did not want the bee to look too much to the left of the image (which would have happened had I move too much to the right). In macro photography, being on eye-level and making eye contact is important. So you want to photograph the insect from their front. Catching the insect from the side does not make for an engaging image. There are some exceptions thought. If you have an insect that does not have its two eyes facing forward but one on either side of the head, then side images work well (think moths or butterflies).

          Whether you are shooting still life pictures, landscapes or macros, always consider your angle of attack and that angle's impact on the background.