Practical Photography - UK (2019-09)

62 Practical PhotograPhy

W

henthesummer

seasonis atitspeak,

there’snobetter

opportunityto reach

fo r yourcamerathan

ona familydayoutat

the beach.no matter

whetheryou’remetwithclearblueskies

ortypicallyBritishgreyclouds,training

yourlenson interestingnaturaltextures

guaranteesresultsin all conditions.

Findyoursubject

astheseacontinuouslywashesagainst

the shoreovera periodof centuries,it

sl owlycreatespatternsin thegeological

fe aturesof thelocation.thismeansno

matterwhichbeachyouvisit,youcan

di scoverinterestinganduniquetextures.

Fromeclecticcollectionsof pebbles,to

gentlewavesof finelymilledsand,and

in tricatelydesignedshells,thereare

pl entyof subjectsjustwaitingforyou

totrainyourcameraon.

Beforeyouloadthecarup withdeck

chairs,a picnicandyourkit bag,make

sureyouhavetherightgearto create

a successfulclose-upshot.it’seasyto

thinkof ‘macro’as synonymouswith

‘e xpensive’,butthisdoesn’thaveto be

the case.WithDiysolutionssuchas

extensiontubes(thesego betweenyour

le nsandcamerabodyandallowyou

togetcloserto yoursubjectwhilestill

maintainingfocus)andreversemounting

(whereyouattacha lensontoyour

camerabodythewrongwayroundusing

anadaptor),youcanachievea macro

lo okwithouthavingto spendhundreds

ofpoundson specialistkit.if you have

an18-55mmkit lens,takeadvantageof

it s 30cmminimumfocusingdistanceto

achievea convincingmacroeffectwith

yourclose-upshot.

Setup yourcamera

Whencapturingmacroshots,remember

thatthecloseryougetto yoursubject,the

smalleryourdepth-of-fieldwillappear

tobe.if you seta wideapertureof f/4or

below,youmayfindthatthezoneof focus

isso smallthatit’sdifficultto achievethe

correctfocus.Forthebestresults,setyour

apertureto f/8andtakea fewtestshots.

inspecttheimageson thebackof your

cameraandadjusttheapertureif needed.

if you’reworkinghandheld,makesure

yourshutterspeedis atleast1/125sec,

oryou’llriskcamerashakein theshot.

youmay needto increaseisoto achieve

thesesettings,butif you’reshootingon a

sunnydaythenyoushouldbe ableto use

a lo wisoformaximumimagequality.

seek out macro

close-ups of

natural textures

project#1

tip

usea

reflector

Bringa minireflectoror

pi eceof whitepaperto help

bouncelightintoharsh

shadowsfromdirect

su n.