Macro? Micro? What the?

Hi budds, wassup? Alright so, I have been clicking macros for a long time with my Sony DSC H50 point and shoot. And numerous people have asked me how come I manage such close shots with a point and shoot, with no special lenses and stuff. So here goes today's post.

How to click good macro shots?

Well as a matter of fact let me tell you, most point and shoots are excellent at taking close ups, even my puny little mobile phone had a decent macro capability. "Macro"...now that's just another one of those funny things about photography, macro is the name used to describe photos of micro subjects :) Ironic? Well life is, so better move on.

So what you need to look for in your camera is this symbol

Rotate the camera dial till this symbol is selected or press the button on the navigation button panel with this picture on it. Yes, that's it, you are in macro mode now. Ok so that was the easy bit. Now comes the tricky part. I have listed out a few things here to make life easy while clicking our micro pals.

1) Don't get too close to the subject, if you get too close, the auto focus will not function, so be close but keep a good 10 cm from our subject, so the auto focus can lock on. Also getting too close may disturb the insect( or any live being, oh cmon!!!) and it might make a quick getaway denying you your shot.

2) Try and avoid direct sunlight on the subject, in "auto" + "macro", mode this will surely blow up the highlights on the subject thus killing all the precious detailing. If you want to shoot in direct heavy light, put the camera in manual mode with the macro feature still on( most cameras have this feature, well at least my DSC H50 does, and if your camera doesn't have it, just accept it and read on..knowledge always comes in handy) and increase the shutter speed to cut off the light, also this helps in freezing motion, in case the subject is a little too shaky. Stop at a shutter speed where you get enough exposure as you look into your point and shoot screen.

3) From experience, i feel that the evening and early morning sunlight is just perfect for macros.

4) Keep your eyes open to spot interesting insects, flowers etc for your macro subjects..I love clicking macros of water droplets. You can get some pretty cool refractions through them.

5)Few things that makes a good image are a combination of: something that the viewer gets pleasure from viewing (aesthetically), something that excites the viewer's curiosity and makes him wonder, something that makes him see things in a way that he has never looked at them before, something that encourages him to make up a story about the setting of that click, something he can empathize with.

Make your macros slightly different from the conventional macros you see around, and to me they must tell a bit more of a story than "Hi, i am a fly on a flower" or "I am a beautiful pink flower and you are looking at me realllllly close, infact parts of me are out of focus". - These words were said by my good friend Rehaan, and I so agree with him.

6) Most importantly, be patient and enjoy the time you spend clicking macros, you will never get it right in one go, that's the rule! I have been through it, you have been through it and we all will again go through it. Just a learning curve.

This click for instance has been a testimony to the fact that being patient can pay rich dividends!

All clear for landing., originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

This one is one of my favs, I was waiting for the train at the Downtown Mountain View railway station, expecting a phone call form a lovely friend from Bangalore who that day also didnt call me, when i heard that the trains late by an hour! Frustrated, I cursed the Caltrain guys for the delay and while I was walking here and there near the railway station since my lovely friend had also not called up as usual, i noticed these bee like flies( Horseflies I guess) all over the place. Didn't waste any time :) took my cam out and was determined to get a shot of one of them in the air,i tried i think over a hundred clicks and almost gave up.... and lo it happened, i got the click i wanted!!!!! ..and in no time the train came as well....that's when i realized, I had been at it for an hour! And my lovely friend still didnt call up.

For more macros, visit my Big Small things collection in Flickr.

Signing off,

Mukul.

Does the camera really matter?

Just the other day I was chatting with my good friend Unni, who incidentally is an awesome photo journalist who has some phenomenal work under his belt. And guess what, he uses a normal film camera. No high-fi equipment, nothing. Just basic black and white stuff is what he mostly shoots. But yeah he does own a pretty cool canon digital camera as well. Check out his site: http://www.unniphotography.com

Ok so back to what I was saying, yeah, we were talking of how most of us think, getting a better camera can get us better clicks. Well, let me get this straight, the best camera out there is your eye. See things through the eyes and store images in your brain. That's what we have been doing ever since we are born! And its this eye of ours that decides what to click and what not to, how to click and how not to. So developing your eye is what photography is all about. Train your eye to spot interesting subjects, beautiful colors, striking compositions then will be just a matter of time. Watch and learn the best lighting situations that work best for your camera, through trial and error .And yeah I hate blabbering about lens and camera technologies, because ultimately it is you that matters above all...not the cam, not the technology and not the mindless tech talk.

So, I started my passion for photography, by clicking with my old Sony Ericsson K810i Cell phone camera. Many have asked me how the hell do I click pretty decent shots with it. Well I would like to share a few points to take care of when you use a basic camera like this mobile phone camera, or any other point and shoot:

1) Never click with the sun in the background unless it is the setting or rising sun.
2) Always make sure that light falls on you subject, try and avoid very dark and shady places.
3)Make sure that you switch to various modes like landscape, portrait, macro etc according to the composition you shoot. If you shot a flower in landscape you would get a poor result but if you do the same with a macro mode, results can be quite awesome.
4)Use exposure compensation function of your camera. In my mobile phone, i just needed to make sure that my ev value is more towards the negative side in bright light and more to the positive side in dark conditions. I do this by moving the joystick up or down while the camera is on, this adjusts exposure.

5)Read the manual always before you start clicking!
6)Open up your image in some image editing software and adjust the brightness, contrast, curves etc to make your photo better. To hell with those who say, they dont use Photoshop, thats because they dont know how to use software for post processing :P

Just follow these tips and you can also end up with some pretty cool pictures from you mobile phone. Here are a few that came from my beloved K810i mobile phone.

Heaven's on earth, just look around to see it., originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

A ray of light, originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

I10, originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

Signing off,
Mukul.

Life

Life, originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

I was walking along the streets of San Francisco, along Market street to be precise, enjoying the cold breeze and the spring sun, looking for interesting subjects to click. That when i saw this guy. He makes his livelihood by playing drums and entertaining people. Well his drums are nothing but disposed water cans. A rather crude way of making music one might think, but dont be mistaken, he is a master of his art. His sense of beats and timing is impeccable, so is his passion. Passion, the very essence of living. Have you ever felt doing something that never tires you out? Have you ever craved to do more some activity again and again? Have you worked all night with just one focus, to finish off what you set out to do? Do you sit back and take a deep breath and smile at the end of what you started out with? If you don't, well you haven't discovered passion yet. If you do, then well you are alive and kicking! Enjoying life to the fullest, radiating positivity and realizing what is the true meaning of satisfaction, this man plays his drums and the passion with which he plays is an inspiration, to me, to you and to the world...he doesn't have material wealth , he doesn't have a home but he has a burning love for music inside of him, a flame that keeps him going, while hoping that a few more alms come in so he can have his next meal.

He inspires me, he should inspire each one of us. Do what what you love to do for a living my friends. If you can manage that, you are truly living!

Life = Passion. Peace out.