For You

Here is the next instalment of my photo features series... this time it's all about shooting close-ups. I enjoy shooting things very close up - you can create beautiful images by focusing in on the smallest detail of your subject. And there are several ways of doing this... which you use will depend to an extent on how close you can physically get to your subject matter. [caption id=attachment_577 align=aligncenter width=653] Portrait![/caption] The easiest way is to get in close and just shoot the part of your subject that you want... just pick a bit that looks like it would make an interesting photo. Whether that's because of its shape, texture, colour or anything else.  This only works, of course, if you can physically get close to what you want to capture... so it's fine for certain subjects: flowers, people (generally), and objects which are at your level or which can be moved to your level. If you want to get in really, really close and focus on the fine detail, you will need to use a macro lens/setting which allows you to capture extreme close ups. [caption id=attachment_519 align=aligncenter width=665] Lily Up Close![/caption] But if it's not possible to get close to your subject then you'll have to take the photo from further away and either use a zoom lens or crop in close when you are editing in order to focus on the specific part you want in your final image. Obviously, for some subjects these are the only options... if you want to shoot just a small part of a building for example, more often than not you will be unable to get close enough so will need to zoom in or edit the image afterwards to only show the part you want. Bear in mind though that if this is what you plan to do, you will need to make sure the original image is high enough resolution for you to be able to crop out all but a small part of it.  If it's not a high enough resolution then your cropped image will just look grainy. You can use macro/close up photography on pretty much anything... I enjoy shooting nature/wildlife shots up close but there are so many subjects that have some interesting detail that can form an image. I sometimes like to take a series of shots showing different perspectives of the same subject and this can look very effective when they are all displayed together. In fact, it doesn't even need to be obvious what the photograph is of - it's good to challenge people and see if they can work out what it is they are actually looking at... art should make people think after all! [caption id=attachment_576 align=aligncenter width=692] On the rocks...[/caption] Why not give it a try and see what you can create? Let me know how you get on... Kate     