Arts and Photography tips and guide

Digital cameras have taken away most of the challenge in taking challenging shots. It's now possible to take that macro shot without having to have specialized equipment. Now even a novice photographer is able to take that extreme close-up image with a perfect success rate. Great for capturing small things like the pupil of a fly.

For you to have the ability to capture an image not easily visible to the naked eye and bring it to extreme close up in beautiful color may be something that becomes addictive. There is nothing more satisfying than to capture a huge print of an insect, or any small object that normally is tiny to the naked eye and capture it with the technique of macro photography.

Back in the day with old school cameras you had to have all types of add-ons to take high quality photos of highly magnified images of extremely small subjects. Now a days however, a digital camera or compact DSLR, will allow even a child to take amazingly large photos of small tiny subjects.

Macro Photography
The term macro in photography speak, used to refer to the capturing of a subject that resulted in an image on the 35mm film frame (24x36mm) that ranged from 1:10 to 1:1 the size of the original subject. The term micro referred to a film image that was larger than 1:1 life size; micro photography could easily give you a 35mm film image of a flea that was much larger than the original flea. A CCD or CMOS sensor can be as tiny as 3x4mm, so any definition term that applied in the old school days now no more. But the rules that apply in accomplishing successful and satisfying macro photography still stand. But the same basic rules apply.

The camera's purpose is to record a sharp image by adjusting the lens to sensor distance: For photos taken at a great distance, the lens is positioned at the minimal lens to sensor distance. Therefore for short distance photos the lens to sensor position is increased. With macro photography the lens to sensor lens is positioned even closer, much closer than normal. It's been found that most compact digital cameras and most DSLR's have selectable macro mode. In some cameras you can select macro mode via an external control, while in others you must access the viewfinder menu. It's just that locating the function varies between manufacturers.

Tips for Macro Beginners
Being intrigued by how a photo of a honey bee can be captured beautifully at over 10x's it's natural size may have led you to find out just how you may be able to do the same with your own subject.

When you set your digital camera to macro mode it automatically adjusts the lens elements into an array best suited for close focusing. Which is no simple task. In fact it's so complicated that once macro mode is enabled, you lose control of both your lens aperture and shutter speed. No matter what digital camera manufacturer's camera you choose to use your best macro photos will be created only when you use the smallest lens aperture in order to produce optimum image sharpness and depth of field in your shot. Also using a small lens aperture is going to mean that you're going to need more light. So extend the exposure time to create a correctly exposed photo.

Omar Erwin has developed a passion for digital photos and its many different avenues. This passion has driven him to write a book not just for beginners of digital cameras and digital photos, but for all who love participating in digital photography. You may get your free copy as a gift by going to http://www.omarerwin.com/gift.html

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Flowers are one of my favorite photography subject. They can't complain if the photo doesn't come out right. Flowers also look very different when shot from different angles and zoom levels. Explore the flower from these different angles to get completely new photos. While taking photos indoors, the 2 most important things to keep in mind are lighting and background.

1) Choose a diffused light source like a large window or multiple lamps to throw light on the flowers. Harsh lighting sources can cause the photograph to look washed out.

2) Pick an uncluttered background such as a plain wall. You can even hang a cloth at a distance behind the flowers to get a plain solid colored background. Make sure that the background is far away from the subject. This ensures that it's out of focus and also makes sure that no shadows fall on the background.

3) Chose a low depth of field. Keeping the depth of field low will reduce the background clutter and draw attention to the flower. Low depth of field is achieved by opening up the lens wide.

Outdoors, it's tougher to control the background.

4) Moving around to change the angle of the shot can dramatically change the background. Choose an angle from where the background is far away from the flower itself. May photographers carry a few plain cloth sheets with them to use as backgrounds.

5) Carry a Macro lens or extension tubes. Macro lenses allow you to get closer to the subject and still focus on them. Extension tubes allow you to reuse your lenses and reduce the minimum focusing distance of your lenses. Since they don't have any optical components, they don't harm the image quality in any way.

6) Add an insect to the photograph to make it more interesting. The best time to photograph is during early morning since the insects are still inactive due to the night's cold and dew.

7) Rain and Dew make the flower shots more interesting. Look for flowers with dew drops on them or just spray some yourself.

Post processing of flower photos

8) You can always post process the photo to enhance it. Some of the common post processing techniques used in flower photos are cropping the photograph, increasing saturation to give richer colors, increasing contrast and brightness and adding vignetting effects. Vignetting effect is the dark shadows on the corners of the photograph's frame often caused by the lens. Adding vignetting increases the focus to the center of the photograph.

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