Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Close Up & Macro Photography 23 Slides Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: The compact digital is engineered to shoot People standing about 8’ from the camera. It’s also meant to shoot Scenery with the focus set to infinity. Even some of the low end DSLR are designed with the same principle in mind. Close up photography is about shooting a subject closer than 3 feet and it will require more skill from the user. Macro photography involves shooting a subject within inches from the lens. And that requires even more skill from the photographer.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: S pecialized Areas: Moving from normal to specialized areas of photography is like going from one state to another. There is not much fanfare going from Washington to Oregon or from Oregon to California. It is the same with going from normal to specialized areas of photography. It happens without much fanfare when using the compact digital superzoom lens. And many of the superzooms have specialized areas on both end of the focal length range.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: Z oom Lens: Amazing capability The compact digital zoom lens is a miraculous technological marvel. It offers capabilities unknown to the previous film generation of photographers. I normally drive a small 4 cylinder Sedan and my freeway speed is about 55 to 60 mph. On vacations, I often rent 6 cylinder cars. With the extra power, I find myself easily going 70 mph unintentionally. One danger of the superzoom is going 70 mph without meaning to…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: S uperzoom Lens: Amazing power With amazing power comes powerful ways to get into trouble by a press of a button. It can start with the super wide with its high image distortion characteristics. People’s face near the frame corner are usually distorted diagonally. Any vertical or horizontal line that is not dead center will appear bowed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: D o It: Turn on your camera and see for yourself 1.Place a square or a circle shape object near the frame corner. See it skew distort towards the corner. 2.Fill your frame with a window or window like object. Notice that the window edge is bowed out. 3.Place a ruler near the top of the frame creating a pseudo horizon line. The horizon will bow up in the center … scientifically proving that the world is round - photography is about creating illusions…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: Z oom Lens: Uses Most people use zoom lens in its most rudimentary form, which is to make the subject bigger by zooming. The option of moving closer to the subject is rarely used. Next level of sophistication might be to use it for image framing (cropping) purpose. It’s not exactly misuse but it’s like using a Stradivarius violin as a doorbell.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: Z oom Lens: Tool use There is no perfect way to use a zoom lens. But there is such a thing as ‘efficient use’. And that is to balance the different needs: Increasing or decreasing subject sizeIncreasing or decreasing subject size Cropping for the right framingCropping for the right framing Moozing (going wider) to achieve ‘safety margin’Moozing (going wider) to achieve ‘safety margin’

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography : F ocus-Point & DOD (Depth-of-Field): Precise focus point and adequate DOF are important to Image Making. It becomes more sensitive an issue when shooting close up shots due to the natural tendency towards shallower DOF. Bracketing exact focus point is a good idea when it comes to close-up or macro photography.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: DSLR: Also more critical Because of physics, shooting with a DSLR takes more care when focusing. The image from a DSLR is also much more detailed showing all the flaws that might be hidden in a compact digital image. And the compact digital also has a natural tendency for having deep DOF which tends to hide many focus errors. This needs to be super sharp. This needs to be sharp too.This does not need to be sharp. But this does.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: S top Down to Increase DOF: Remember the ‘thumb/squint-view’ exercise we did early on this quarter? That’s where you used the squint-view technique combined with your thumbnail to experience both shallow and deep DOF. Do the exercise again if needed… Image size is another relevant factor in the appearance of sharpness. That might be the actual size or influenced by viewing distance. When the image becomes smaller for any reason, the apparent sharpness of an image increases.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Close Up/Macro Photography: C lass Room: Shooting assignment Set up a vertical still-life with 7 identical golf ball size objects. Line them up in a straight line diagonally across the image from bottom left to top right. Place the objects at 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, and 32 inch positions. Position the nearest object at the bottom right. Position the last object at the top left. Fill the frame with the story using either the 17 mm for compact or 50 mm for DSLR. Next slide begins the student example series…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: S tudent Example: The two example images show the exact visual effect when the aperture is change from wide to small lens opening. This image concretizes the squint-view with thumbnail demonstration that you experienced at the beginning of the quarter. Focus Point Wide OpenStopped Down

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: D OF Rule: The general rule is to stop down for deep DOF and open up for shallow DOD which is good for selective focus. The sharp to un-sharp image quality can be seen in both the subject and the black to white line. This example uses only 5 distance tubes. You will be using 7. Wide OpenStopped Down Focus Point

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: F ocus: Near Point The exact focus point makes a big difference to the illusion of sharpness for the whole image. An extra tube is being used to indicate the Near Point focus as shown by the red arrow. Near Point Focus Wide OpenStopped Down

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: F ocus: Middle Point When the focus point is shifted to the farther away and up middle point, more of the image appears to be in focus. Use the Up & Down arrow keys to compare the Near and Middle point images. Middle Point Focus Wide OpenStopped Down

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: F ocus: Far Point This point-of-focus might be the best place to achieve the maximum scene sharpness. Use the Up & Down arrow keys to compare the Near, Middle, and Far Point examples. There are many possible conclusion which can be derived from this DOF test shoot series. Try to think of at least 3. And tell me about it in writing. Far Point Focus Wide OpenStopped Down

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: F ar Point: Position error: This shooting assignment is about learning how to maximize the illusion of DOF and sharpness. Focusing at the end point would not achieve the desired effect. Be prepared to explain why this would be the case. Try to really see the image to the right which is your biggest clue… Far focus point?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: N eeded: Only improvement I would like the focus point marker to be better aligned with the focus point. As the red arrow indicates, it could have been moved up in the set in all the shots. There are basically only 3 different distance shots with 2 aperture variations making up the 6 shots.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: L ab Work: Always do it Notice that the basic processed image gives far more illusion of sharpness information than the camera original ‘mushy’ image to the right. Basic ProcessedCamera Original Near Point Focus

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: T hings You’ve Learned: Keep practicing Lighting – easy to work with broad source soft Skylight. Skylight is heavily Cyan but the Auto WB will neutralize most of that. Composition – crop tight for the story but leave a 10% safety margin beyond your story image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: T hings You’ve Learned: Keep practicing Good Technique 1.Exposure – think of capturing ‘full detail’ 2.Color – Auto WB works really well. 3.Focus – maximize the DOF. 4.Focal length – use it as a visual control tool and not just as a convenient framing device.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Cameron and his team: S ummary: Build good habits Please keep shooting and place as many shots in the bull’s eye as possible. Although stay discriminating in your self judgment. Every time you accept a lack luster image as being good, you will be building bad habits.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End