Something About Macro Photography

For me, photography is a journey to everywhere. I like capturing photos from everything around me, especially tiny things. Perhaps a lot of people have wondered how a professional photographer took clear, comprehensive photos of flowers or even insects, and what kind of photography is that? According to Philip Greenspun in his article, he defines 

Taking close-up pictures of small things is called "macro photography." Perhaps because the small things in macro photography are generally larger than the things…If you really want to be pedantic then you should say you are doing "photomacrography".

In my opinion, it’s very simple when we photograph something very small we call it "macro photography.” Don’t worry about too much about the definition because this term is defined differently from different people.

 

Next, I will talk about how we make a macro photography photo. In this decade, people are using much digital cameras more often than film cameras. In an article on Cin’s Photography Tips, a famous site about photography, a writer stated the main reason is that

The main advantage that digital photography offers is that it is much more convenient than using a camera with film… The other big reason that digital photography is so popular is that you can see your picture as soon as you take it.

For the best results of macro photography, it's better to have a single-lens reflex camera, the one professional photographers use, but it's expensive and complicated to use. In this blog, I only focus on macro photography with compact digital cameras. I believe that a lot of people have one such as a compact digital camera, the one I mentioned about in last blog, or a camera from cellphones. There is an easy way to take macro photos because they have a built-in macro mode in a telephone camera which lets us take photo of an object in close distance, up to an inch. In other words, it's one of auto modes. What we need to do is choose the right mode and shoot. 

 

The most important factor when taking macro photo is focusing. From my experience, we need to hold a camera tight, steady, and make sure there is no shaking. I usually focus an object by moving the camera and keeping the frame constant. I still remember that Ken Rockwell, a very famous photographer, said

Small variations in your position become huge variations in image size, so fixing the focus and moving the camera keeps this stable.

I'd like to share steps how to take macro photos from an article, "The Comprehensive Guide To Macro Photography", on DIY Photography site which I like the most. And here is the process:

1. Position the camera and the object. As we discussed, the camera needs to rest on a tripod and it would be best if your subject is in a place where it does not move too much. Depending on how strong your magnification is, the lens will be stuck up pretty close to the subject now. 
2. Get the scene roughly in focus. Frame and compose.
3. If you have live view on your camera turns it on and magnify as much as you can.

At the end, I'd like to share a photo that I took with my camera, it's a non-SLR camera. I took it at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. Thanks for reading my blog and hope you enjoy.

Work Cited:

Greenspun, Philip. "Macro Photography." www. photo.net. A Site for Photographers, Aug. 2007. Web. 12 Sept 2012.
 
"The Advantages of Digital Photography." www.cinphotography.com. Cin’s Photography Tips, n.d. Web. 12 Sept 2012.

Rockwell, Ken. "Macro Photography." www.kenrockwell.com. Ken Rockwell Photography, 2005. Web. 12 Sept 2012.

"The Comprehensive Guide To Macro Photography." www.diyphotography.net. DIY Photography, 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Sept 2012.