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Macro Photography What is it ?
Bryan Davies
Macro photography leads you into a different world of
image taking by reproducing images of items, man made or by nature by
taking an image of the subject at ½ size up to 10x on the film
or image sensor ( micro is the step beyond 10x using a microscope with
a camera attached).
The image is recorded at a ½ to 10x on the CCD ( the millions of
light sensors normally found on a digi camera, but there are other types
of sensors that wont be mentioned.
However when manipulated in your PC and then printed the object can be
very large and you can see detail very clearly if taken well.
Because of the design of digi cameras they lend themselves well for this
type of shooting and most will have a macro setting and can get very close
to the subject.
Some cameras will have a filter thread that allows you to screw magnifying
filters to the front of the lens and the strength is measured in diopters
( the same as eye glasses ).
Also with the help of the LCD on the camera you can view at all times
( use a mains adapter if you have one, to preserve your batteries).
Use a tripod and operate the timer or trip lead to make the exposure,
to avoid vibration
Focus manually and finally move the camera forward or back to the subject
to get fine focus,.Depth of field is very small in this mode (behind and
in front of the focus point that will be sharp ) so choose aperture priority
and a small aperture say f11 to f22 .
Because of this f stop , size of aperture the exposure will be long so
get some decent lighting on the subject from a window and bounce some
light back in from the other side using a reflective card.
Flash may not be any good on some compacts because the
flash is not near the lens. The Pros use a ring flash around the lens.
Focus on a critical part of your subject and place a complimentary coloured
card behind the subject.
Outdoors beware of movement of the subject due to wind etc and look behind
for background clutter.
Respect insects, plants etc and because of movement with insects you may
have to back away and use fill-in flash. ( flash used with daylight ).
check your camera manual and.beware of white balance and set accordingly.
White balance is the `temperature ` of the colour of light and can vary
due to the time of day or the type of lights being used say indoors.
Remember that many people go outside of a shop to see the colour of clothing
in daylight, not artificial light, this can give extreme colour casts
to items.
To experiment to start with, place a rule alongside your subject to get
used to scaling
Thats the good thing with digi you can experiment without wasting film.
Happy macro snapping
Bryan Davies