Quick Tips: Using Macro (for P&S users)

Posted on March 23, 2010

April showers bring May flowers, but we can still practice in March, right?

I shot the photo on the right in May 2006 with my Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2. With its 4 megapixels and 10x zoom, it was a great purchase back in 2004! And I used that camera until it fell apart; towards the end I was holding the battery door closed with duct tape, Band-Aids, anything I could find with adhesive.

That said, I loved the macro option.

Macro is a type of close-up photography that magnifies an image to life-size or larger. The term ‘macro’ is now used loosely, but macro photography captures a subject at at least a 1:1 ratio. Many photographers use macro lenses when they’re shooting photos of flowers, insects, jewelry or even products.

I grew up looking at macro shots of flowers my dad shot when he was stationed in Okinawa. I always loved how sharp the focus was in those photos and the bokeh, which is the blur (or the quality of the blur) in the out of focus areas of an image, was always interesting to me. From those days grew a love for photographing flowers.

In fact, sometimes I buy flowers from the grocery store just so I can bring them home, dress them up and take their picture.

Macro photography with DSLRs often requires a special macro lens, which I can assure you is not inexpensive. But if you have a point-and-shoot, consider yourself lucky! Macro photos aren’t at all difficult. Switch to macro mode – the one usually denoted by a tulip – and start shooting those beautiful blooms!

Here are some quick tips for macro pics:

1. If you can adjust your aperture, do so. The wider your aperture, the better your depth of field; this will blur your background and keep your subject in focus (like the photo on the right). A smaller aperture will keep your background in focus.

2. Steady your camera to keep your subject in focus. If you have a tripod, use it. If not, you can steady the camera on a flat surface. Great advice, I know, but what happens when you want to shoot photos of a flower or a ladybug on a blade of grass and a flat surface isn’t nearby? Use your viewfinder (instead of the preview on your LCD screen on the back of the camera); holding the camera against your face also steadies it.

3. Play with composition and details. Capture different elements of your subject. It is not always necessary to capture your subject in its entirety. If you’re photographing flowers, you can close in on its stigma, stamen and the pollen inside its petals (see above). You know it’s a flower, even though you can’t see the whole thing. Get artistic!

4. Get in closer. Test your camera and see just how close you can get while still keeping your subject in focus.

All of the above photos were taken with a point-and-shoot camera, which is proof that you don’t need an expensive camera to get great photos.