Tips for Zooming in on Your Subject

Posted on by learndigitalphotography in Blog, Digital Photography, Digital Photography Basics, Digital Photography Tips, Digital Photography Tutorial, Photography For Beginners

Nearly everyone who has ever held a camera has been intrigued by the thought of photographing the world up close—super close in fact. Fortunately nearly every digital camera includes a “macro” mode that allows you to get extremely close to your subject. Some cameras call this mode “close-up” and it is depicted by a flower icon on your camera

Depending on which type of camera you have “close” can be defined as anything from 6 to 18 inches,you can read your manual to find out what your camera allows. However, what if your desire is to get even closer than that? Below are a few tips that can help you get started.

Here are a few ways to get great up close shots.

One thing you could do is buy a “macro” lens that is made specifically for this type of shot. Unfortunately, these lenses are often quite expensive. An alternative to buying a new lens would be to purchase extension tubes for your DSLR.

An extension tube is a light-tight tunnel that extends the distance from your lens to the camera body, thereby increasing the magnification—note: the greater the distance, the higher the magnification. What do you do if your digital camera isn’t an SLR or doesn’t take interchangeable lenses?

The last, and most inexpensive, option is to purchase a zoom lens that mounts directly on top of your current lens, much the same way that you attach filters. Some cameras already have built in adapters for these types of auxiliary lenses.

Even if your camera doesn’t have an adapter you can purchase accessories from third-party manufacturers such as Raynox who have manufactured adapters to enable this capability on just about any digital camera. The advantage to this option is that you don’t have to buy a whole new lens and you can use the close-up lens with any camera, including an SLR.

Superclose Photo Tips Continued