Photography Tips (Page 20)

Macro and close-up photography is all about enlarging small subjects so we can see the beauty (or some might say ugliness in the case of some subjects) that we would otherwise miss.

Libélula I by | Ray | on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

Slit scan photography is a technique where a slowly moving shutter is used. When combined with subject movement, this can result in quite abstract images where the subject becomes stretched out over the photo.

I covered how to create a slit scan style photo of an object rotating on a turntable in my post Slit Scan Object Photography How To. At the time I wrote that article, I didn't have a camera that could record video. I now do, and have found that using video greatly speeds up the process of recording the needed images.

I've already written a similar article to this before, covering 5 Mistakes Photographers Make, in this article I want to cover a few more common mistakes.

Of course, if you do these things on purpose (which you may have good reason to do - there are always exceptions to the rule), then it's not a mistake. But if you're doing these things without really thinking about it, then hopefully this article will make you open your eyes a bit and consider if the way you currently do things is really the best way.

It's easy to just grab your camera and go out to take some photos without considering whether the camera is clean or not. Dust on the front of the lens won't normally degrade image quality visibly (unless you have a whole layer of dust on there). But if you have an interchangeable lens camera, dust can get onto the camera's image sensor, where it will cause problems.

Dust on the image sensor shows up as dark blobs in your photos. Unlike film, where the dust would only appear in one frame, then the frame would be wound on, in digital the dust spot will appear in all your photos until it is cleaned off.

Sensor Dust by Brent Schmidt on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

Vignetting describes an effect where the edges of an image are darker than the center.

The main reason that vignetting occurs is that light beams at oblique angles are blocked at the edges of the lens. The blocking of these light beams could be due to usage of a lens hood, or it may be inherent to the lens.

Lens distortion is something that is common across the vast majority of lenses. This applies to both cameras with integrated lenses, and interchangeable lenses for DSLRs, MILCs, etc. Where a lens should capture a flat view, instead the view is slightly bent or warped in some way.

Photographing inside a constricted space such as an oven or washing machine can give an unusual view that you don't normally see. I don't mean taking a photo from the outside looking into your oven or washing machine, but rather a photo taken from the inside, looking out.

There are a wide range of different photographic filters available. These filters usually screw on to the end of your camera's lens, and alter the image in some way. There are filters for darkening the sky, filters for cutting down on the light level, and filters for changing the color of an image.

But some of these filters can be quite expensive, so in this article I want to look at some cheap alternatives. Of course the alternatives aren't as convenient or as high quality as a proper camera filter. But if you can't afford the full price of a proper filter, a cheap alternative may well do the job.

Macro and close-up photography provide a way to make the unseen visible. It can highlight details and show us beauty we would otherwise have missed. Essentially macro photography is taking photos that magnify these small items and details so that they can be seen easily.

Macro by Hachi Gatsu on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

If you want to learn more about macro photography, there are some common terms used when discussing it, which it can be helpful to understand what they mean. In articles about macro and close-up photography, and in online discussion forums, you will often come across terms such as:

• true macro
• magnification ratio
• life size
• ratios such as 1:1 and 1:2

In this article I want to explain what these terms mean how they relate to actual photographic practice.

Bulb mode is a special shooting mode that will let you take really long exposures. It allows you to keep the camera's shutter open for as long as you like (or until the camera's battery runs out). You're not likely to find it as feature of most point & shoot cameras, but it can be found on most more advanced cameras.

Most cameras that feature bulb mode allow up to 30 second exposure times in normal modes. This is more than enough for most situations. During the daytime a typical exposure time will be around 1/500s to 1/160s, a pretty quick shutter speed. But if you're out in the middle of nowhere at night, then a shutter speed of over 30 seconds may be necessary.