Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens PDF
Preview Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens
UNDERSTANDING CREATIVE CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH OR WITHOUT A MACRO LENS | Brya n Peterson AUTHOR OF Understanding Exposure UNDERSTANDING | ——————— UNDERSTANDING @eooe-UP PHOTOGRAPHS CREATIVE CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH OR WITHOUT A MACRO LENS Bryan Peterson ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not be what it is without the greatest editor in the world, Alisa Palazzo, who really makes me think! Without Victoria Craven, | wouldn’t have any books at all. And of course, no one is better at book design than Bob Fillie. | will never be able to thank all three of you enough! Editorial Director: Victoria Craven Senior Development Editor: Alisa Palazzo Creative Director: Marysarah Quinn Art Director: Jess Morphew Designer: Bob Fillie Production Manager: Alyn Evans Typeset in DIN Copyright © 2009 Bryan Peterson All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Amphoto Books an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group a division of Random House, Inc., New York www.crownpublishing.com www.watsonguptill.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peterson, Bryan F. Understanding close-up photography : creative close encounters with or without a macro Lens / Bryan Peterson. — 1st ed. p.cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8174-2719-1 (pbk.] ISBN-10: 0-8174-2719-8 (pbk.} 1. Photography, Close-up. |. Title. TR683.P48 2009 778.3'24—de22 2008036031 ISBN 978-0-8174-2719-1 Printed in Malaysia 10987654321 First Edition Papillon—No one is as close to my heart as you. What Does Macro Mean? 14 If It's Not Macro, It's Close-up Photography 18 Using Wide-Angle Lenses for Close-up Work 20 Macro Lenses 26 Extension Tubes 36 Close-up Lenses vs. the Canon 500D 42 Canon 500D and the Wide-Angle 48 Reversing Rings 50 Digital Point-and-Shoot Cameras 54 Wide-Angle Lenses 64 The Fish-Eye Te Reflectors 78 Ring Flash 84 Tripods 88 Small Things 90 Depth of Field 94 Correct vs. Creatively Correct Exposure 96 The Depth-of-Field Preview Button 98 Exposure without DOF Preview 102 Specular Highlights 106 Sunrise, Sunset 112 Foreground and Background Framing 118 Really Filling the Frame 124 Horizontal vs. Vertical 126 Texture Up Close 130 The Home Studio Setup 140 The Kitchen 142 Other Rooms, Other Subjects, Other Light 146 The “Dewdrop” as Mini Fish-Eye Lens 150 Appendix A: VR and IS Lenses Exposed 156 Appendix B: Macro Magnification Ratios 158 O YOU REMEMBER your first time? | do. My first time—my first intimate encounter with a photographic sub- ject—was with Daisy, a white Shasta daisy to be exact, and it happened on a hot August day in Oregon while looking through the viewfinder of my brother's Nikon F. And, | confess, | have been a close-up photogra- phy addict ever since. If there is any constant in the world of close-up pho- tography, it is this: Flowers are like snowflakes; no two are exactly the same when viewed through any combina- tion of close-up photography equipment. The closer you focus on a given subject, the more that is revealed, and it is with these revelations that the “drug” that is close-up photography maintains its constant and unrelenting hold. You begin to consider adopting a belief in reincarnation or reaffirming your lapsed reincarnation beliefs as you soon realize that your appetite, your hunger, your insatiable desire for more “intimate encounters” is truly vast and deep and that “there can’t possibly be just one lifetime, because | need to come back for more—much more!” I've often been asked by students in my workshops, at my seminar presentations, and in my online photography school how | define an intimate encounter in photogra- phy. My answer hasn't changed a whole lot since the first time this question came up, way back in 1978. In my mind, an intimate encounter was then and continues to be an “in your face” experience, one with an emotional charge so great that it is best described as a low-voltage electrical shock to all five of your senses, especially sight, touch, and smell. The world of close-up photogra- phy does serve up a bounty of texture-filled images: feathers, human skin, animal fur, wood, rocks, sand, leaves, thorns, berries, broken glass, ice, frost, and even pond scum. It is often the texture within a close-up pho- tograph that awakens our senses the most, whether that texture is “felt” as soft or hard, rough or smooth, dull or sharp, or hot or cold. To convey that texture—so that the subject is “felt” by the viewer—we must toss aside the old adage “Less is more” in exchange for a new motto: More is more. Intimate encounters are all about getting close, in many cases closer than you ever thought possible. When our loved ones are away for extended periods, we ache for their touch. We've had enough of “less is more,” and we want them to return now so that we can get back to “more
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