You wont have to look hr to find close-up ideas even everyday household objets can make fantastic subjects Once Youve trained your eye to look for macro photo opportunities, youll find them almost anywhere, even in objects such as stamps, coins, paper clips, drawing pins and so on. The fact that youre capturing them from an unusual viewpoint makes shot of found objects interesting in themselves.

Macro tips

If your camera focuses poorly at close range, use the telephoto setting to increase magnification. However, remember that this will further reduce depth of field.

Attach a close up lens that screws onto the cameras filter thread (assuming your camera has one). Available in +1, +2, +3, +4 and +10 magnification, many camera can be adapted with push on systems that enable a close up lens to be fitted

Use a small or white silver reflector to fill in shadow caused by overhead lighting or the camera itself

Boost the ISO setting to enable you to use faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures. Shots will be noisier, but images will be sharper with a larger depth of field

Use a tripod and cable release whenever possible to maximize depth of field and eliminate camera shake and ensure accurate focusing.

When using compact-style camera with an optical viewfinder, beware of problems with parallax an effect caused when the viewfinder is offset from the lens. Although you may have composed your shot perfectly in the viewfinder, the fact that the lens is in a slightly different position means that the composition of the finished image will be altered. The closer you get to the subject, the more inaccurate the view through viewfinder will be.

About the Author

Paul Smith has been a proffesional photograper for the last 10 years. His works are mainly published as Postcards and Calendars in Australia.

More News, Reviews, Photography Techniques, Tips and Photoshop tutorials are available in his website: Digital Photography Journal

Paul Smith