Photograph details in nature like leaves, vines, flowers, and insects during the early morning or late afternoon. This gives you nice warm light that is flattering and more diffuse than harsh overhead light. Cloudy days are also great times to photograph details. The soft diffuse light gives you wonderful color. Light is everything in photography — the details in the image will be ruined if you shoot in harsh light.
Another great time to photograph details is after a rainstorm or on a foggy morning when your subject is dappled with little pearls of moisture. Carry a small mister with you. When you want to add moisture to a flower, just spritz and you’ve got instant dew. Don’t do this during the heat of the day as you may kill or injure the flower.
Here are more tips for photographing details:
Shoot in Aperture Priority mode and choose a relatively large aperture (small f-stop value). This gives you a limited depth of field, which renders any distracting details in front of or behind your subject as a soft out-of-focus blur.
If you’re photographing something like a tangle of vines, or any subject that has some depth, stop down to about f/7.1 and focus about one-third of the way into the subject. This gives you a slightly larger depth of field to ensure your subject is in focus from front to back.
Use a focal length that is the 35mm equivalent of 100mm or longer. This gets you close to your subject without distorting it. It also gives you a shallower depth of field than a wide-angle lens does.
Switch to a single auto-focus point. This gives you precise control over the point where focus is achieved. When you’re photographing details, focus is critical.
Choose the lowest ISO setting that yields a shutter speed that is the reciprocal of the 35mm equivalent of the focal length you’re using to photograph your subject.
Use image stabilization if your camera or lens has this option. This option is useful when you’re photographing small details because any camera movement can result in a blurry image.
Photograph a subject against a contrasting background. You won't get enough contrast for a good image if you photograph green leaves on green grass. However, red flower petals against green grass do give you good contrast.
Also be careful that you don’t have any bright areas in the background. Bright spectral highlights wreak havoc with an image, especially when those highlights appear in the corner of an image. A bright area in the corner of an image gives your viewers an escape route.
Carry a shear cloth or a small handheld diffuser with you. Have a friend hold it over the object you want to photograph if you are forced to photograph in bright light. This diffuses the harsh light, making it look like you photographed the image on a cloudy day.