PhotoClassVG: Macro photography

Here is your text for the macro assignment and also the example sheet. You can click on zany of the images on this page to get an enlarged version.

Macro: up close and personal

Macro photography involves getting very close to your subject, thus making it look larger than life size. Why would you want to do this? Several reasons…

1. In the course of our normal lives, we see generalities and not the details. Macro is photography’s equivalent of stopping to smell the flowers. There is a whole universe at the macro level to which we are normally oblivious.

2. Macro photography allows you to study objects in detail.

3. The composition in your photographs often improves when you are working in the macro mode because you fill the viewing area with large, dramatic shapes. In addition, your depth of field is very shallow so that background shapes are usually greatly blurred. Since the main object in your field of vision is in normally in sharp focus while the rest is blurred, it easy to establish a focal point for your photograph.

4. By coming up very close to objects, it is possible to edit them out of their usual context so that you may not know what you are looking at. Your imagination is engaged as you attempt to figure out the source of the photograph.

5. Availability of subject matter: it’s everywhere… in an office, classroom, home, outdoors, a microwave, under your car’s hood, etc., etc., etc.

I figured that this is a good assignment for this time of staying around the house. Take close-up photos of all kinds of things around the house from what might appear to be interesting to the mundane. You never know how something might look when blown up.

However: it is not enough to just shoot closeups and think that you’re done. The photos that you submit should be well-composed with good contrast, good use of the elements, and all the ingredients that we have been talking about. And CROP! And experiment with the exposure controls!

Due date: Next Sunday, April 5

You will need to crop and adjust the exposure on just about every photo that you take!!!

More examples:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------