Triple T Tuesday

It’s time for another Triple T Tuesday! Today I’m going to give you a tip, or rather a reminder. Don’t forget to use the MACRO setting on your digital camera. Almost all digital cameras today have a macro setting, whether you have a DSLR or a point-and-shoot. Owners of a DSLR have the advantage, however, of purchasing a macro lens for their camera which can produce wonderful photos, but just using the macro setting can produce great photos as well. Macro photography is simply close-up photography.

Macro photography lets you see the natural beauty of the tiny things all around you. You can get in close to your subject – flowers, bugs, coins, you name it – by activating your camera’s macro mode. When selected, it will tell your camera that you want to focus on a subject closer to your lens than normal. It will force your lens to focus on close-up objects, making background objects blurry. If you’ve never used the macro setting before, look for the setting that has a flower icon.

Here are some tips for using the macro setting on your camera:
1. If you can avoid it, don’t use flash. Turn off your flash. Taking a picture with a lot of natural or artificial light will make for a clearer macro photo.
2. Because of the high shutter speeds usually produced in macro photography, the camera needs to be very stable. Any movement will affect your focus. If you are having problems remaining steady enough, you may want to try using a tripod.
3. If your camera has a viewfinder as well as the LCD screen, always use the LCD screen for viewing. What you see in a viewfinder is not always what the camera will photograph in macro mode.
4. Focus on your subject and press the shutter release half way to lock the focus. Then move the camera backwards and forwards while looking at the image on the LCD. When the part of the object you want to be in focus appears to be in focus, press the shutter fully down.

Once you start taking close up photos with the macro setting on your camera, you’ll be hooked! Have fun and don’t forget to use your MACRO setting! The photos below were taken with a point-and-shoot camera.