Close-up or Macro Photography

By Steve Thomas
The Powerful Photography Coach

When I was going to photography school nothing seemed to cause students more problems than close-up photography, also known as macro photography. With this simple lesson you will find that taking close-up pictures is a lot of fun and can be very easy

Depth of field
For most close-up pictures the depth of field will be small. Since that fact is largely unavoidable, as you are picking the point of view for the picture, make the effort to get the main subjects of the picture the same distance from the lens so they will all be in focus. You can also use the small depth of field to your advantage. Let’s say that you are composing a close-up picture of several flowers. You have picked out the best flowers to be the main subjects. But what do you do with the ones that are flawed?  That’s right, you make sure that they are out of focus to mask the flaws. This works for many undesirable backgrounds as well.

In this picture the two leaves on the right help to frame the berries. I had to wait a while for the breeze to subside so the leaves would stop moving	Backlit When I was taking this one, I thought the stems of the leaves leading to the berries would be good leading lines, but to my eye they end up being distracting. Not every picture you take will work out the way you expect. suibject with fill flash

Watch out for your shadow
You will find that one of the challenges of taking close-up pictures is not to block the light to the subject with your camera or body. Often this is easier said than done.  Notice where the light is coming from and don’t stand there! Of course that may mean that you have to stand in a blackberry bramble and get stuck with thorns to take the picture. No, it  really means is that you are there at the wrong time of day.

There are stories of Ansel Adams waiting for several hours for the light and shadows to fall properly for the picture that he intended to take. If you are able to do that, great! Otherwise just try to come back for the picture on another time of the day.  But don’t wait too long or the picture idea you have in mind may no longer exist because a mower came by and chopped down the grass and weeds beside the road, or a flood wipes out the grassy meadow. That happened to one picture I was going to take when I had the time. Literally a flood turned a beautiful grassy area next to a stream into a muddy mess. I watched the area for years and the beauty of the grassy area never reoccurred.

The Subject is Very Small
There are times when you may want to take a close-up picture of something very small. Your camera can only focus so close. If you go closer than that to take the shot, you will end up being disappointed because the picture will be out of focus. I ran into that limitation when I was taking pictures of some very small electronic connectors. The connectors filled less than 10% of the frame and I cropped the original picture to end up with the final shot. Here are the results.

This was the closest I could get to keep the image in focus and not put the camera’s shadow in the picture. Notice that the background is slightly blue. The blue is caused by sky light used to light the picture.	For the final image I cropped and color corrected. This picture was used in a product catalog and on a datasheet. For those uses the background was removed.

Composition
Just because you are taking close up pictures, that doesn’t mean that the principles of composition don’t apply. They are just as important for close up photography as for any other kind. I’ve spent significant time as I was taking close-up pictures of flowers to find just the right arrangement of flowers to create a strong image with good leading lines and subject placement. (Those sound familiar don’t they?)

Water drops
Some photographers carry a small bottle with a spray top so they could “put the dew on the rose” so to speak. If you are taking pictures of things such as spider webs, having some dew on the web makes it much easier to photograph and can result in very beautiful pictures. In this particular picture, the dew on the web is natural.

Moving subjects
Do you want to take close-up pictures outside? If it is breezy, it can be difficult to get a clear picture because of the motion of the object you want to photograph. I’ve found that there are always calm moments on windy days; you may need to be patient and wait for it.

I’m looking out the window at the red Japanese maple leaves moving in a gentle breeze. Now they are really tossing as the breeze picked up and now, just a few seconds later they are completely still while another tree 10 feet away is still moving in the wind. And now the maple leaves have started to move again and tree in the background is still. You may not have to wait for long, but do expect to wait for that still moment to get your shot. Don’t expect that using a fast shutter speed will always compensate for moving objects, especially when you are doing close-up photography. When you are very close to an object, small movement will move the object over a significant portion of the picture area, enough that you will more than likely be disappointed in the results because the picture will be blurry. Another cause of blurry pictures is…

Unsteady camera
I found myself all hunched over in an awkward position trying to take a picture of something and realized that I couldn’t hold the camera steady enough for a good picture. A tripod works wonders to save your back and assure that the camera doesn’t move while you are waiting for the breeze to stop. I highly recommend using a tripod when doing close up work. There are numerous tripods available on the market at widely varying prices and weights. If your budget is very tight, you can buy a cheap tripod, but don’t expect to be very happy with it.

What  About The Background?
Let’s say you have struggled to get the composition you want but the background is distracting. What to do? With a piece of black poster board you can eliminate the background completely and isolate the subject to improve your picture. Here are four tips to make this method work.

1. Place the poster board far enough away that it is completely out of focus.
2. Make sure no shadows fall on the poster board.
3. Adjust the position of the poster board so that not too much light hits it. I usually do this by tilting the top of the board slightly toward the camera to the entire surface of the board is shadowed.
4. Be mindful of the exposure. With a dark background many cameras will tend to overexpose the image. Avoid this by making sure the camera’s light meter reads the brightness of the subject, not the darkness of the background.

The poster board doesn’t have to be black, of course. You are limited only by your imagination and the available poster board colors (or colors you can paint on the board.)

Now, go out and practice close up photography and if you have pictures you want me to see or comment on, send them to pictures@goodphotographyinfo.com . If you would like me to make comments and suggestions, please include the words “comments please” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Steve Thomas
The Powerful Photography Coach

Lesson 1 Subject Placement
Lesson 2 Leading Lines
Lesson 3 Light and Shadow
Lesson 4 Point of View
Lesson 5 Available Light
Lesson 6 Outdoor Lighting

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(c) Steve Thomas 2007 All rights reserved. This is copywrited content and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author.