Close-up Photography Tips

Getting Good Close-up Shots with your Point 'n Shoot Digital Camera (and a few points for you SLR camera bugs too)

Good close-up photography is easy with most of today's mid-range point 'n shoot digital cameras. By close-up, I mean something closer than about 24" between camera lens and the object being photographed. Most of the wildflower photos you've seen in my photo galleries would be considered close-up shots. Many of my photos were taken with the same kind of inexpensive point 'n shoot digital camera that can be had today for less than $200. You don't need a high-dollar camera to take great close-up photos. In this article I'll try to explain some of the basics for taking good close-ups with simple point 'n shoot cameras.

Macro Function

You first need to understand that to get your camera to automatically focus on objects closer than about 24" you'll need to "select" your point 'n shoot camera's "Macro" function. If you don't do this, your camera will NOT properly focus on your subject. This requirement generally applies to all "modes" except "manual focus". SLR (single lens reflex) camera users don't have to do this. If you turn-off your camera, the next time it comes back on you'll probably find it has reverted to the "Normal" focusing mode and you'll have to reselect the Macro function for more close-up shooting. Look for the little "flower" symbol on your camera's controls--that is the "Macro" function selector.

Auto Focusing and Depth of Field

Automatic focusing for close-up shooting is much trickier than when shooting at normal distances. The reason for this has to do with something called "depth of field." Depth of field is simply the areas of the photograph in front of and behind the main focus point which remain in sharp focus. You've all seen examples of depth of field being limited in images where the background is fuzzy (out-of-focus) while the object being photographed is sharp (in-focus). The factors which affect depth of field are something which become critically important to understand whenever you start taking photos of objects closer than about 36" from the camera. Some of these factors you can control with camera settings but the biggest variable has to do with how close you are to the object you are shooting.

Let me first discuss depth of field a bit more before getting into the auto focusing topic....

When it comes to wildflower photography, there are many times when you'll want to get very close to your subject so that you capture more details. Wildflowers photographed "up close" are much more interesting to view as images on the computer monitor than those shot from 5 or 6 feet away. However, whenever you get closer than about 36" to your photo subject then you can expect that your depth of field will be very short. This effect becomes even more pronounced whenever you get closer than about 18". Photos of objects which are only 18" away from the camera lens can be expected to have depth of fields ranging from only 1/32" to as much as 1" for most point 'n shoot digital cameras. SLR cameras also offer the 1/32" minimum but can easily extend the maximum depth of field to more than 12". With such a limited depth of field, you can see how important it becomes to focus on a very specific part of your overall subject. It wouldn't be good, for example, to focus on the stem of a flower when what you wanted to be in-focus was the blossom that was a couple of inches closer to you than the stem.

Here are the two primary factors you can control with your camera to influence depth of field for your images:

Zoom factor...(magnification by the lens, i.e. the 1x - 10x "zoom" range on some camera lens systems). The more you zoom-in, the shorter will be your depth of field.

Lens aperture setting... Aperture setting is commonly known as the f/stop (f-stop) setting, i.e. f/2.8, f/8, f/32, etc. Aperture is all about the size of the adjustable opening of the lens. It is controlled in the camera by an adjustable diaphragm of overlapping blades that can open or close--similar to the pupils of our eyes--to limit the amount of light that enters the camera lens. How aperture affects depth of field is complicated but you can remember simply that f/stop values which are small, i.e. f/2, f/2.8, f/4 etc., result in images with shallow depths of field. Increasing the f/stop setting to something like f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32, etc. will result in images with greater depths of field. It turns out that small f/stop values actually result in larger lens aperture openings, i.e. more light can enter the camera lens. Large f/stop settings tend to cause the camera's aperture diaphragm to close to a very small opening which results in less light entering the camera lens. Talking about aperture settings can easily result in getting tripped-up as you speak of small f/stops meaning larger apertures while large f/stops mean small apertures. I suggest you just remember little f/stop values mean short depth of field while larger f/stops give you larger depth of fields. Forget the rest of that stuff.

On more sophisticated point 'n shoot cameras, the user can control the aperture setting....

Normally you'll have your camera's mode selector in either "Auto" or "P" (program) mode. Putting your camera's mode selector in the "A" or "Av" mode will allow you to select the aperture setting used by your camera; this is called the Aperture Priority mode. Read about this function in your camera's user manual. Below are some images of the mode selector wheel seen on a few common camera brands. If you don't see the "A" or "Av" mode on your camera's selector wheel then your camera probably doesn't allow you to manually select the aperture.

Which mode to use?

Remember that changing the aperture setting changes the amount of light that can enter the camera lens. Small f/stop settings allow the most light to enter the lens and this in turn allows the camera to use the fastest shutter speed. Fast shutter speeds will result in less chance of a fuzzy image because of camera shake or the object moving during the photo. When you use your camera in the "Auto" or "P" (program) mode, it usually selects a small f/stop setting in order to get the fastest possible shutter speed. If you choose to extend your depth of field by selecting a larger f/stop setting, i.e. f/8 or higher, then you should know that the matching shutter speed will be slower--sometimes MUCH slower. This is especially true in dim lighting which is what we often have in the Smokies when shooting wildflowers. The shutter speed might be so slow that you cannot hand-hold the camera (you'll need to use a tripod). If the object is moving--like it often is when the wind is blowing--then you'll not be able to use those higher f/stop settings which in turn require slower shutter speeds. Ideally, you'll have a tripod and there will be no movement of your photo subject. In those cases, you can usually use whatever f/stop setting you want.

Most point 'n shoot cameras have f/8 as their highest f/stop setting. SLR cameras with exchangeable lens systems often offer aperture settings of f/32 or higher.

You'll also find that as you zoom-in on an object that the smallest f/stop setting you can select may tend to increase. For example, many cameras offer f/2.8 as an aperture setting when zoomed-out (no zoom) but this changes to f/4.5 or f/5.6 as the lens is zoomed to higher magnifications.

Again, you'll have more options and better photos if you use a tripod and shoot during times of no wind.

Now we're ready to talk briefly about auto focus.

Most point 'n shoot cameras automatically focus on either the object in the center of the LCD/viewfinder or on the object closest to the lens (in the field of view). Some cameras have a focusing rectangle in the display which represents the area of the image to be used for the focusing point. Some cameras even allow the user to move the focusing rectangle to different parts of the field of view. Almost all of the cameras, however, allow you to "freeze" the focus by pressing the shutter release button about "halfway". I suggest you set-up your camera so that it focuses on the part of the image in the focusing rectangle (instead of the closest object to the lens). Learn to put the focusing rectangle on that part of the image you want to be in sharp focus, half-press the shutter to "lock" the focus, and then while holding the shutter in the half-press/focus lock mode, reposition the camera to get the overall view you want before fully pressing the shutter to capture the shot. Practice this until you get the hang of it. If your camera doesn't want to focus when you half-press the shutter for a close-up shot then the problem is either that you don't have the "macro" function selected or there isn't enough "contrast" between the object and the background. Try to focus on sharply defined "edges" (like the edge of a blossom) instead of the "center" of a uniformly textured object. Also, you'll need plenty of light for some cameras to auto-focus properly. You may have to use the camera's built-in focus-asisst light (read your manual).

Keep in mind that the depth of field (zone of focus) is VERY shallow for close-up photography. If you are photographing two or more objects in one shot then position yourself so that all of the objects are about the same distance from the camera lens. This will allow ALL of them to be in sharp focus with one shot. Shooting two flowers with one behind the other, for example, is not going to give you satisfactory results for a close-up photo. Your other option would be to back away (more distance). Getting farther away will increase your depth of field (zone of sharp focus).

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