IN FOCUS | MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY
There are very specific technical requirements for capturing objects in close-up. This article is intended to be an introduction to this style of photography only, so forgive me if I don’t go into too much detail for now. Hasten to add, it takes many hours of practice in order to gain consistent images, and more so for moving pictures where my focusing technique is more conventional. I will discuss my experience and the equipment I use, however the good news is there are many products on the market, such as mobile phone camera attachments and portable lighting, that can make this type of photography accessible at an introductory and more affordable level than ever before. I am a self-taught photographer, first picking up my brother’s Olympus OM10 SLR camera around 40 years ago. The knowledge I share here is not studied at school, it is just my way of doing things to get the results I want.
. .when you take pictures of miniature things, you very quickly lose what we call depth of field. That’s how much detail you can see in the image. This can isolate the subject, or force you to only get in focus the eye of an insect for instance, not allowing the viewer to fully understand what you have captured. Let’s start with stills photography. When I shoot macro, even outside, I will normally take with me around 400 watts of lighting. Even on a sunny day! You see, when you take pictures of miniature things, you very quickly lose what we call depth of field. That’s how much detail you can see in the image. This can isolate the subject, or force you to 12
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Whilst landscape photography has for a long time been my main interest, macro photography, the capturing of small objects in close-up, has been my passion. So much so, that I have transferred the skills that I’ve developed over the years taking stills, to my filmmaking work. I also use the techniques I’ve developed, to capture more interesting angles of larger objects too. Article and Photos by Mick Child
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY
