The Window VIII :: Getting really close

When you think there is nothing more to challenge your photographic desires taking photos of TheWindow, its time to get closer.  "The closer you are too the subject, the more detail you see and the greater the impact of your photograph" ... Rich Sammon. This advice is not new but now is a perfect time to take the advice seriously.

You actually don't need a specialist macro lens, although they can simplify the tasks when getting really close up. You can use any lens really, but there will be a few challenges to address.

Most lenses have a minimum distance that they can focus and in general terms the longer the focal length the greater the minimum focusing distance. This can work against you when trying to use the magnification capability of a telephoto lens to get a larger image. With your impressive Telephone Zoom you might have to stand a meter or more away!  Whereas with your wide angle lens you could get with a few centimetres.

The next obstacle is depth of field which is a bigger topic than I need to address in full here, where by the longer the focal length of the lens the shorter can be the width over which the camera is able to achieve sharp focus and to confuse things the Aperture (which controls the amount of light let through the lens) also affects the apparent depth of field. Wider Aperture (lower f-stops) narrow the zone within which the focus seems sharp.

The distance to the subject also affect perspective. Wider angle lenses (lower focal distance of the lens) make close objects seem larger. Telephotos (large focal length lens) make distant objects appear larger and more similar in size to close objects (they seem to compress space). This difference can be amplified for close up photo.

The final issue that might prove a challenge is the about of light. Consider that there is only a fixed amount light coming off a subject so as you use more magnification. The amount of light landing on a given sized pixel in you sensor gets less. You will need to either expose longer of move to a wide aperture. Leading to the possibility of blurring via camera shake or soft focus due to a narrower depth of field.

I'm deliberately not telling you how to find the compromise between all these issues. I'd rather you figured this out yourself. You should have plenty of time to work through your solution. No need to keep those trial photos this is an exercise in understanding not make a single great photo. However I found this nice explanation of what depth of field Is and Isn't on a new YouTube channel called Photography Online. Its quiet an informative show so perhaps check out some of the earlier episodes as well.

"When you think you are close enough, Get closer"

... Rich Sammon