Close Up Photography with Your Point and Shoot Camera

Do you have a tough time getting sharp close-ups of flowers? Are the trees behind the flower in focus, but not the flower itself?

Macrophotography is one of the most fun (and perhaps most misunderstood) features you will find on most digital point and shoot cameras.

By definition macrophotography is: photography producing photographs of small items larger than life size.

In other words: Close Up photography.

I love getting extremely close to an object and making a strange alien landscape full of texture.

Here are a few tips on how to get sharper close-ups.

As always, my first recommendation is to turn that flash off, unless you absolutely need it.

Second, consider how far you are from your subject. If it is more than a foot, try zooming in. It gives you more focus control, but you may increase the odds of getting the blur caused by camera movement.

To counter this, try to get physically closer to your subject instead.

If you can put your camera closer to your subject, it will give you an opportunity to use the macro feature/mode (represented by the flower on camera dials and menus) available on most point and shoot cameras. This mode is best when the distance to your subject is 12 inches or less.

The macro mode gives you the same focus control as zooming but does so by telling your camera's brain that what you are trying to capture is immediately in front of the lens. The upside is you have less chance of blur caused by camera movement. The downside is that zooming becomes more difficult while in macro mode.

(The Canon Powershot G7 allows you to focus approximately a centimeter from your subject, but when you step back more than a foot, the auto focus is lost and zooming to compensate becomes nearly impossible.)

Different cameras have different quirks while in macro mode. My advice is to experiment.

Something else to consider is your subject's background. Many of us spot something interesting and grab a shot straight on without once thinking about what is behind the subject. What makes a subject interesting may not be the subject itself, but the subject's relationship to something else. It's environment, for example.

We can understand more about our subject by seeing it in context.

Composition becomes as important as closeness.

So, try to gauge the distance to your subject. Zoom if it's more than a few feet. If it's less than a foot, use the macro feature. Be frugal with the flash, and be aware of your subject's background.

These are a few tips that may help those extreme close-ups. Good luck!