How To Take Great Close-Up Photos

Step 7 Conclusion

Macro pictures look cool. Most people don't know how to take them well and are easily impressed by them. Good pictures of small parts can make all the difference in an ebay auction or a craigslist posting. As a mad scientist, I often use it for taking pictures of test results and using it to see details too small to see with the naked eye. Doing a quick measurement of the tap on my screen, my 7 megapixel camera gives me about an 8x magnification when viewed on the screen at full size. For more detail, you need to get into microscopy. That instructable will be coming along soon.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good macro picture must be worth&the one thousand and sixty-nine words here.

Since the small photos here don't really do it justice, I have the full size images here:
http://www.bloomautomatic.com/3546.jpg
http://www.bloomautomatic.com/3547.jpg
http://www.bloomautomatic.com/3549.jpg
http://www.bloomautomatic.com/3550.jpg

Comments

[pavangadu]

great dude....its much helpful.....thanks a lot...@@@

[EvilMarker]

http://oi55.tinypic.com/zxv7fq.jpg

[EvilMarker]

point and shoot awesomeness

[srsantafe]

Thanks for your instructable, looks cool

[munish4u911ex]

You dont need no expensive cameras!!! just have a look at the pics I took with my sony ericsson k310i camera (VGA!) & using a tiny lens from a laser pointer:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/munish4u911ex/MyMicroscope

[rustygray]

Do you have an instructable to show us the lens and setup?

Awesome photos!

[munish4u911ex]

Hi rustygray, thanks for watching the pics. Unfortunately I do not have a instructable for it now, since it was not really some special setup but i accidentally fitted the lens on the K310i. But now I'm thinking to write one!

The lens was around 5 or 6 mm in width & fits almost nicely on the phone. The K310i's camera is a little deeper than the rest of the body so it provides the space for the lens to fit. I took it out from an old, 3button cell run, laser pointer. I think it's focal length might be 4 or 5 mm. It has both sides convex, but one side has a little more curvature. Only from one side the pics look uniform, if you try to see through the other side, image is somewhat blurred at the periphery (the 'zoom into' effect)

For now, I have lost the lens somewhere... But I'll do more experiments on this concept & will surely post an instructable. Might have to buy a new laser pointer :P

[skylane]

The Panamanian Quarter caught my attention.... Nice Instructable!

[Mariolover24]

WOW Thank you soooo much! I have that SAME EXACT CAMERA and this helps me a lot because now i know that without macro mode close ups are really bad.

[Annon201]

Install CHKD on your camera, it gives you control of the DOF down to the mm, its great.
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1961/125/109/501707626/n501707626_1864979_2178.jpg - the flowers were only a few mm across.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1961/125/109/501707626/n501707626_1864996_7473.jpg - some normal sized ants, on a concrete wall.
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1961/125/109/501707626/n501707626_1864990_8137.jpg - A grasshopper (dead - stationary targets are much better to get close ups of ;)
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1961/125/109/501707626/n501707626_1864981_3342.jpg - A little LED light, in the full rez picture you can see the inperfections on the diode itself, as well as the texture of the plastic casing (which you cant see looking at the object directly)

All pics taken on a Canon Ixus 50 w/ CHKD, and they have been scaled down from their original size by facebook.

[Annon201]

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1961/125/109/501707626/n501707626_1864998_8190.jpg - oh, and this one, a fly on a nettle leaf, it was a dark muggy day, and setting the exposure any higher would make it too hard to hold the camera, so its a pretty dark picture.

[caityjay]

Thanks so much for this 'ible- I've always been far too lazy to figure out things like this for myself (read the manual, what?), and this has offered a great solution to my macro problems! Thanks for making a simple, concise tutorial.

[Greatpix]

Also, cleaning off dust and gunk from the object you're going to photograph saves you from having to retouch it out later.

[Greatpix]

Looking at your EXIF data (for the coin shot) you might have been better off to go with aperture preferred automatic or manual and stopped down for more depth of field. Another option is to take several shots, varying your focus point, then combining them using Photoshop or other image editor with an intelligent merge function and have the entire object, such as the drill bit, in focus.

[Fugitive_Bill]

Taking a picture of your camea, Nar, Must have been done with smoke and mirrors. I have an old Kodak EasyShare C643 (6.1Mp), and never realised the 'flower' setting actually inferred macro, it just says 'Close Up: For subjects closer than 28 inches (70 cm)' I've noticed it's impossible to get in as close as I would like, so I pull back the camera until will auto focus, then zoom in as far as I can, until just before it can't hold focus. Nice tips thanks for the instructable.

[pjennelle]

Wow. I use the macro setting often because I love the limited depth of field you were talking about, but I never understood how the timer function could help. Thank you so much for your great explanation and a very practical instructible! I'm looking forward to sharing some photos that are not fuzzy all the way through. :-)

[okiesound]

Nice! Possibly the most helpful instructable for me so far! Thanks...

[sugaree16]

thanks so much for posting this! i never knew what that little flower on my camera meant and i suppose i was too lazy to look it up in the manual :) this was really informative, and i'll surely be using it in the future.

[adder30]

great! I've played around with macro before (I'm a mad scientist too) but never even thought of using the timer to reduce vibration.

[Marylutn]

THANK YOU!!!!