Macro Photography tips for Point and Shoot Cameras V

Hey People!
How are you today?

It rained very heavy last night and sent a cool breeze all over but the morning sun made all the signs of last night's rain disappear...just saw a white throated kingfisher and a crow in an aerial fight, ran to grab my camera but it was too late by then. OK, then lets put the personal talk aside and concentrate on the last and final topic of Macro photography.

To understand this discussion today you need to check my last posts too.

Today we are going to discuss the last but not the least topic of our Macro photography discussion.

5.POST PROCESSING

This may seem useless to few but trust me the editing which we do after a shot is equally important as the shot itself, but there are a few pictures which have been so perfectly framed that they do not need any editing at all. Trust me there are not many such pictures.

Now that I'm talking about editing and all do not be  afraid that I'm emphasizing on very difficult editing tools, but rather I'd like to introduce you all to the very basic editing tool by GOOGLE which is freely available and not much explored by everyone. 

Ah! yes, you all guessed it right...I'm talking about the PICASA software. Take my word people this the best laymen photo editing tool available, it does not require technical expertise to do the editing. All the techniques are very clearly written and the thumbnails show the post processing effect and you can undo any thing you have done, is it not very easy people?

You can download the Picasa software here.

Now the most basic adjustment we can do to make the picture lively is to adjust the color, contrsat, brightness etc 

I would like to illustrate what Picasa does to a picture when used subtly

The two pictures above are the same(Very tiny seed dispersal of wild Asteraceae flowers) but the later has been processed appropriately in picasa.

The tools I used here are Tuning and Cropping.

Tuning: I have increased the contrast and the shadow in the picture. Which eliminated the dullness and brought the rich color of the plant and its background but got a bit overexposed due to the usage of flash.

Cropping: The picture has been appropriately cropped to show in the detail of seed dispersal as well as to get the required closeness.

When cropped the picture becomes quite big and the unwanted things in the picture can be eliminated to showcase what we intended to.

While capturing this picture it was windy and I had to use flash which restricted me from going very close to the plant as that would cast a shadow which is very undesirable , hence took the picture from a distance and rather thought of cropping it later to show the parts only in perfect focus.

There are many other modes in picasa which you can explore and this software also allows us to upload and store our picture online with our gmail account or separate picasa account, isn't it a wonderful thing? So, why the delay my dear friends start clicking and have fun editing to give those dramatic effects to your pictures which you have been dreaming of all these days.

Good luck with photographing the best Macro shots ever people.

Keep smiling and Happy clicking

Cheers,
Deepthi Nannam

Macro Photography tips for Point and Shoot cameras IV

Hi! 

Hope you are all good today, and did you enjoy my yesterdays post?

Let us continue the tutorial in macro photography, we have discussed 3 points so far, now the next point of importance is STURDINESS OF HANDS OR TRIPODS.

Using tripod is a very important step to achieve those wonderful macros, tripods allow us to achieve the details of the subject very well because the lens is stable and the chance of moving is eliminated, which results in blur free images. The usage of tripod becomes inevitable especially while shooting insects outdoors. The insects are either very fast moving like dragon flies, bees etc or the branch or flower on which the insect is sitting or feeding might be swaying in the breeze, remember not only high velocity wind effects the picture quality but even a little breeze can do much harm, and the lens when set in macro mode is vulnerable to even these slightest changes in the air, so If you want a better macro photograph, consider getting a tripod very soon just like me or you will end up getting such blurry images .

I will very soon get a tripod and will post it's details very soon.Very good tripods are available even for a lesser price. Check out this link from Flipkart for a variety of tripods in an affordable range. 

Word of caution: Please read the customer reviews and various video links attached on the site before purchase.

Okay, people don't be disheartened if you cannot think of getting a tripod now, I will post a few pictures which I took without tripod and will surely hope that even hand held shots can be wonderful. The trick is to have very sturdy hands.
The following two picture were hand held

Or another cheap idea is to rest our camera on something solid if available. 

Eg. I would like to display two images here which have been shot in an interval of a minute, the Exif,is the same but a slight variation in the angle which they were shot.

You can click on the images for a closer view.

The two images displayed here are of Euphorbia milli flowers from my home garden(not much of a garden though) both of them look equally good, they were clicked using all the earlier mentioned points in the previous posts like a shallow-depth-of- field, an appropriate angle to showcase the pollen inside the flowers, and the white balance is set properly as to not burn the colors of the image.

But the only difference is that the first image was shot by resting the camera on the window grill while the second shot was hand held.

Now when they were zoomed to 100% and cropped appropriately it resulted in the following images, 

Now do you see the difference in the clarity of the pollen?

The first image has a relatively clearer pollen than the second image.

That is the reason the camera has to rest on some support, but that is not possible every time, is it? Hence the importance of tripod cannot be ruled out in Macro photography.

Hope my article helps, do write in if you have any doubts and I would be honored to reply. And keep checking for my further tutorials.

PS: Please click on the images for a bigger view.

Have a great day people, keep smiling and Keep clicking.

Cheers, Deepthi Nannam

Macro Photography tips for Point and Shoot cameras III

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing?

Hope you have enjoyed my last post on Lighting tips in macro photography for Point and shoot cameras, If you haven't read it yet then please do visit  because the present post is a continuation of the last post.

Don't you ever look at the wonderful macro pictures on the internet and wonder if you could also click something like those. But very often we get discouraged because we do not have the right gear for that, and admit it that we do envy the fact that those people have those hi-fi cameras and fancy lenses. But do not be dis heartened dear friends because I'm a person just like you, having only a "POINT AND SHOOT" camera. But that doesn't stop me from experimenting time and time again until I get the desired results. 

The macro mode built in the point and shoot cameras also give some amazing photos provided you are ready to keep trying no matter what and God willing some day you might own a brand new DSLR and those fancy lenses like others, but till then keep pushing your Point and shoot to its limits like I do and trust me, your camera will become your best friend and your pictures will start speaking your thoughts.

For the picture to convey your words an important thing to remember is THE ANGLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Trying to capture a something in almost the same way becomes monotonous after some day and people loose interest in your pictures, so this article will emphasize on the Angle involved in photographing using Macro mode.

Let me explain my point to you through an example

Above are the three shots of the same flower(These are the tender buds of the Euphorbia milli).

1.

In the first picture we observe that the angle is very common this is the common mistake people do while clicking the macros of a flower, they go quite close and they try to focus from an angle above the flower. 

The cons of doing so are that the image is out of focus because the subject is too close to the lens and the details are lost making it a bad picture.

2. 

The second picture is taken by tilting the camera at an angle which is slightly away from the perpendicular shot above. 

Pros: The details of the flower are retained

Cons: The composition is not very interesting

Nevertheless some people might like the picture, depending upon their personal taste.

3.

The final picture shows the buds in a bokeh backdrop, +which has been achieved using a shallow depth of field and the rule of thirds (This will be explained in the coming posts, so stay tuned )have been used to compost the third picture which makes it an interesting composition. 

Pros: The availability of a far away background with trees have been used here to make the subject stand out, and it gives a professional touch.

Stay tuned for the next posts on tips for macro photography.

BOKEH, RULE-OF-THIRDS, DEPTH-OF-FIELD etc will be explained in my coming posts.

PS: Please click on the images for a larger view.

Till then have fun, keep smiling and Happy clicking people.

Cheers,
Deepthi Nannam

Macro Photography tips for Point and Shoot Cameras II

This post is a continuation of the last post.

So, we were discussing the various possible subjects in macro photography. Today I will give a few more examples and then will move ahead with lighting.

The other subjects can be Insects which make for interesting subjects only when the focus is at the right point.

Wasp clicked by my husband using Nikon L820
Look at the clarity, even the fur on the wasp is clearly visible

For more of the interesting Insect pictures please visit the following link INSECTA

2. LIGHTING

Lighting plays a very important role in macro photography, in any photography as a matter of fact though.

The best light would be the sunlight, especially early in the mornings and in the evenings when the glow of the sun is soft and is at an angle and sun casts a beautiful glow on the subjects.

Please avoid shooting when the sun is at its peak and the skies are clear because the intensity of the sunlight is very harsh at noon which makes the highlights of the picture to be "blown out". And the natural hues or color of the subject changes.

So, while shooting outdoors white balance should be taken into consideration to capture the real colors and to retain the freshness of the subject. Choose the sunlight option under white balance for shooting outdoors.

Shooting in very harsh light and without setting the white balance resulted in "blown up" image and false colors 

The same flower shot at a different time of the day when it was cloudy and with white balance set to Sunlight

The above two photos were shot using a 5mp Samsung duos phone camera.

But when the subject is being shot indoors, then the flash plays an important role, make sure that the camera is not very close to the subject as the flash can cause a shadow. Select the Fill flash option which is more desirable while using flash.

Flash plays an important role even outside when the subject is constantly moving due to wind, the usage of flash enables us to freeze the motion in other words it eliminates blur.

The following examples illustrate this.

Buds of the wild neem (Melia azarderach), the flash has cast a shadow

By properly distancing the subject the fill flash option can be used to create stunning images

Though these flowers were captured during day light the shadow of the tree, and it was quite windy which made me use the flash. 

This ends the topic of lighting, the post will continue with the remaining topics.