by Brenda Tharp
SEA FIG, POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, CALIFORNIA. Selective focus can create wonderful impressions of flowers. It requires wider apertures, to keep the depth of field shallow. 100mm macro lens with EF25mm extension tube, f /3.5 at 1/30 sec.
Diopters, also called close-up lenses, look like filters, but these magnifying type lenses, when mounted on the front of any lens allow it to focus closer, thereby increasing the magnification of the subject because you physically can get closer. When you use them with a macro lens, you can get in very close, usually magnifying the subject greater than 1:1, or larger than life-size. I love to use my diopter on my 70–200mm, or my 100–400mm, on the long end, as the narrow field of view with those lenses gives me a simpler background to work with, and the close-up lens allows me to focus closer than those lenses would normally so I can move in on my subject more. When I travel, I can’t always take a dedicated macro lens, and so my 500D diopter goes with me—everywhere—and it has allowed me to get closer and make pictures I would have otherwise missed. Because no light is lost through these glass lenses, they allow for faster shutter speeds at any chosen aperture, something that’s important when working with magnified subjects. Top-quality, dual-element diopters are sold individually and come in specific diameters; most fit lenses with a 62–77mm filter size. I suggest buying it to fit your telephoto lens, and using step-down rings for fitting it to other lenses if necessary.
MORNING GLORIES, CALIFORNIA. These flowers are big enough that, with three of them in the frame, I didn’t need a macro lens to get a frame-filling close-up. I loved how the light came through the white part of the flowers, so they appeared to glow from within. 24–70mm lens at 64mm, f /20 at 1/2 sec.
Extension tubes contain no optical glass. They just push the lens farther away from the sensor or film plane and, in so doing, allow you to focus the lens closer than it would normally focus. This means you can move in closer, and that increases the magnification of the image. The downside of extension tubes is that you lose light, requiring slower shutter speeds at whatever aperture you’ve chosen. Being in close, the slightest movements are magnified, so in even the faintest breeze, you can have trouble keeping your subject sharp. The upside is that you can use them with many of your lenses. I can put my 12mm EF tube on my 17–40mm or 300mm lens. Extension tubes are often sold in sets of three sizes, or you can buy individual ones made for your camera model.
The overall goal in photographing the world close-up is to share details others might have missed. Yet there are many different approaches to macro photography. Some photographers like to photograph an intimate view of a whole flower, while others want to get close enough to see whether the bug on the petal is carrying any luggage! Some prefer everything exposed at f/22, while others leave their lenses wide open to create abstract or impressionistic effects. The choice is totally personal. It all boils down to that now-familiar question: What you do want to say with your photograph?
This section is not designed to teach you specifically how to make macro photographs but rather to get you thinking about macro as a way to see. There are excellent resources available today to help you do that. I recommend Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Close-Up Photography (Amphoto Books) for an in-depth how-to.
Following are some simple ideas that can give your close-up or macro photographs more impact:
Work in diffused light, often the best type of photography for macro and close-up details, but also consider backlighting for dramatic effect.
Go out after a rainstorm or ice storm and you’ll capture some of the special moments of nature in detail.
Head into meadows in early morning for dew-covered insects and spider webs.
Try to compose simply for the strongest impact.
Pay close attention to your background and try to keep it uncluttered.
Look for harmonious color contrasts.
Even if you haven’t yet mastered the technical aspects of macro photography, you can still learn to see subjects creatively. Think in terms of interpreting your subject instead of merely recording it.
FINDING THE ESSENCE
ROSE, CALIFORNIA. Abstract interpretations of flowers are really fun to create—but not without challenge too. I used my 100mm lens and a 500D diopter. I wanted to get in close and let the petal edges of this beautiful rose blend and blur, just hinting at the essence of a rose. 100mm macro lens, f /2.8 at 1/400 sec.
What is the essence of a flower? Or of water? Can that essence be photographed? According to the dictionary, essence is “that which makes something what it is.” So if we learn to look deeply enough, we can photograph what makes a tree a tree. For example, there are things that are specific to certain trees. The essence of a California oak tree might be its gnarled branches and classic overall shape. A birch tree’s essence might be the papery, peeling bark.
Essence is sometimes difficult to put into words, but we intuitively recognize it in some things, and so we can photograph them from that perspective. When someone tells you that you’ve captured the essence of something in a picture, you’ve succeeded in expressing an idea that is widely felt or understood. At other times, the essence may simply be what you consider it to be but not so easily understood.
ROUNDUP, MONTANA. I wanted this scene to seem timeless and to capture the essence of a timeless activity. I converted this color picture to black and white and gave it a sepia tone. 100–400mm lens at 390mm, f /10 at 1/500 sec.
Ask yourself what the idea or object means to you. For example, what is the essence of autumn? What elements define that essence? It might be pumpkins, or autumn leaves, or geese flying in formation. If, for you, the essence of autumn involves a vision of glowing, colorful leaves, how can you photograph those leaves so they express that? Do you want them sharply focused and crisp, like the autumn air that surrounds them? Or should they appear as soft, blurry impressions in which the colors overlap and blend to create a palette of autumn hues? The choices are yours to make.
Everything has an essence, but to find it you’ll need to open up your mind and throw out your need to be literal. To stimulate your mind and eye to think about essence, try photographing images that express the essence of:
A season
A flower
Joy
Family
The West
Death and rebirth
A forest
A place: wilderness area or village
This is just a short list of ideas, but it can help jump-start you on the path to discovering the essence you see—in everything. Once you get started, you may find your list goes on forever! Whatever you do, take some time to find the essence of things. There is magic in the discovery.
STAIRS AND LEAVES, CALIFORNIA. These stairs are just outside my home, and every autumn we are treated to this pretty sight. It’s one of those pictures you can easily miss if you don’t pay attention to what’s literally right under your feet. 24–105mm lens at 31mm, f/16 at 1 second.
BEING OPEN TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU
LEAF FROZEN IN ICE, CALIFORNIA. The season was just turning cold, and a thin layer of ice had trapped this cottonwood leaf. I love how all the swirling lines in the ice lead you to the leaf, suspended in time as the pond freezes. 28–135mm lens at 100mm, f /16 at 1/25 sec.
You are open when you are willing to look at what is presented to you and when you respond to it and do not analyze it or try to define it.
When was the last time you picked up your camera and headed out the door with no specific plan or destination in mind? If it wasn’t recently, it’s time to get out there! It’s great to go out without a specific plan and see what presents itself. A walk to the local park might provide you with all the photo possibilities you can handle in a day. For that matter, a walk into your backyard could do the same thing. It depends upon your openness to what’s around you.
I’ve made some of my best photographs and had some incredible experiences when I didn’t have a specific direction planned but just wandered ou
t of the hotel or down the trail and let my eyes lead me. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan and research a destination, whether it’s a national park or a city. Having some idea of where you want to go when you get there makes good sense. But be loose with your schedule, so you can immerse yourself in the place and be receptive to pictures as they present themselves to you.
It pays to have a camera with you at all times. But the reality of that is that it’s not always easy to carry a full complement of lenses or accessories. Yet even a compact digital is worth having, if photography for you is about capturing light and documenting moments and things along the pathway of life itself.
The point is really the process of seeing wonderful moments and beauty everywhere, and trying to make those moments stay by capturing them in our memory as well as on memory cards. A photographer’s most important guide is his or her emotions, because you make a great picture with your soul, not your eyes. You can’t make images that affect others if you aren’t in some way affected while making them.
EXERCISING YOUR VISION
TWIRLING FERRIS WHEEL, CALIFORNIA. Amusement rides are great fun to photograph. I love how the motion created a pinwheel effect from the slow shutter speed and moving lights. The sharp supports are a graphic counterpoint to the blur of the wheel. 16–35mm lens at 20mm, f /22 at 4 seconds.
Writers can suffer from writer’s block, and photographers can become visually blocked. I’ve had it happen. I’ve arrived at some popular place and thought to myself, “Why bother? So-and-so has a great shot of this, and I’ve seen a dozen similar images of this scene already.” To silence those voices of resignation, I tell myself, “Yes, but there isn’t a picture made by me yet!” All too often we forget that our vision, our point of view, is unique to us—viewed through those filters of life that I talked about in the beginning of the book. But to bring that vision out, you’ll have to approach that all-too-familiar subject in a way that is different, personal, and ultimately pleasing to you.
SUNSET, MEXICO. Trying a fresh approach to photographing sunsets, I panned the camera on this vibrant sky, which gave me an abstract, almost airbrushed effect. 24–105mm lens at 105mm, f/20 at 1/6 sec.
I’ve had days when I’ve had a lot on my mind, and I can’t seem to see creatively as I look around. Sound familiar? When this happens, I sometimes just keep the camera in the bag and walk around a little, to shrug off the mental baggage I might be carrying that day. Or, I’ll take my camera out, and rely on my list of ways to get “unstuck,” shown below. I don’t overanalyze whether I’m making good pictures or not. I consider these photos part of a warm-up exercise, and before long both my eyes and my mind are primed and ready to see again. The following exercises are designed to help get the creative juices flowing, to stimulate your mind and your eyes. Whether you’re stuck or not, they push you to stretch your vision.
Make no less than twenty different pictures of one object, from every angle and point of view you can find.
Photograph concepts, metaphors, and contrasts. Here are a few to get you started: standing out from the crowd, cheerfulness, solitude, power, risk, strength, death and rebirth, big and small, fast and slow.
Use your wide-angle lens to make close-ups.
Use your telephoto lens to make landscapes.
Select a 3 × 3–foot area and make at least fifteen images within that area.
Photograph for a day from a low point of view.
Photograph something or somewhere you’ve never photographed before.
Go to a familiar location and make images with a fresh, new point of view.
Photograph reflections.
Make black-and-white images, even though your camera records color. Look for monochromatic scenes with contrast.
Make compositions using selective focus and keep your lens on the widest aperture.
Spend a few hours making pictures that work, yet are entirely out of focus. Yes, you read that right.
If you always photograph in macro, spend a week using your wide-angle lens.
If you always use your telephoto, spend a week using your wide-angle or normal lens.
If you always photograph wildlife, photograph people, and vice versa.
Tell a story about something in nature in four pictures. (Make only four pictures for this one—make each one count.)
RIVER ROCKS AND DESERT HARDPAN (MIXED LOCATIONS). I regularly photograph patterns and textures for “sandwiching” them with other images. This one worked really well when combined with an image of stones. Various lenses and exposure settings.
{CHAPTER TEN}
EVALUATING YOUR PROGRESS
“Your first ten thousand photographs are your worst.”
—HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
WHEN IT COMES TIME TO REVIEW PICTURES IN workshops, the groans from students are audible. It’s not always their favorite time of the class, but it is mine because someone invariably shows us all a new way of seeing. It’s that eye-opening experience that makes review sessions so wonderful.
If you want honest evaluations from other sources, don’t ask mom or family members! Unless mom or a caring sibling is a curator or gallery owner, you’ll likely get biased responses. How often have you heard, “You should make calendars with these images,” or, “You should try to get these published,” from a family member, who looks at your pictures through “love-coated” filters. If you want a more unbiased evaluation, ask friends whose taste or “eye” you admire; join a camera club that has critique nights; hire a professional to review your portfolio; or take a critique class with a local instructor. Find someone whose work you respect and like, so that you’ll trust his or her opinion.
MILKWEED SEED, MAINE. I love the little stories that nature tells. This milkweed seed had at one point been floating aimlessly in the breeze, until it ran into this orchard grass stalk. Then the evening dew came. Now, until it dries out, that seed’s not going anywhere. But that gave me the opportunity to capture the magic of the jewel-like water drops stuck to the gossamer threads of the seed. 70–200mm lens, f /5.6 at 1/250 sec.
At some point, you’ll have to learn to critique your own work to assess your progress. The key is learning how to separate from the emotional connection you have with your pictures. Never mind that it took 2 hours to climb the hill for a unique viewpoint of the village or that you lay on your belly for 4 hours to get the shot of the fox vixen by her den. We’ve all done hard things to make a picture. As Freeman Patterson once said, “Don’t evaluate the pictures you thought you made, evaluate the ones you actually made.” Does the photograph work? It’s still the fundamental question, and you answer it by asking several other important questions. After you’ve put aside the obvious “woofers” from your most recent group of photographs, use a checklist of questions to help you evaluate the rest.
self-evaluation checklist
Begin with this list and add your own questions that may be specifically appropriate to what you like to photograph—say, for wildlife or aerial photography. Be ruthlessly honest, but also realize that while you may not have gotten the image you wanted, perhaps you made a better one.
Does the photograph express your intent?
Is the light appropriate for what you wanted to express?
Does the photograph make interesting use of any existing design elements?
Does the picture make good use of perspective to create visual interest?
Is the image composed well, the arrangement dynamic?
Are the exposure, focus, and other settings correct or appropriate for the subject?
Could the photograph have been simplified?
Is there something in the image that detracts from the main subject?
Do the color relationships work?
Once you have decided the image works, congratulations are in order! But what if it doesn’t work? Don’t toss out that image just yet. Consider why it doesn’t. Use your outcasts as a way of evaluating what you did wrong so you can get it right. Learn fro
m your mistakes. And, with digital image editing capabilities, you can salvage some images. You can’t solve poor lighting, focus, or lack of visual depth issues, but you can crop, adjust the color, eliminate the telephone pole in the middle of the picture, and correct for perspective and other less serious problems. It’s pretty amazing what you can do to improve an image. However, unless it’s a special and unrepeatable photo, it may not be worth all that effort to save it. I make my decision based on whether I’ll ever be happy enough with it to make a print of it or put it in my portfolio or give it to my stock agency. If not, then it doesn’t get saved.
It’s a known fact that the photographs we make grow more dramatic (in our minds) while sitting on the memory cards, so when they finally get into the computer for reviewing, they can be disappointing given all the expectation we’ve built up around them. It’s a good idea to wait a while to do the serious editing/sorting of your pictures. That allows the emotional experience to subside a bit, and the more honest critic in you to emerge. If you shoot RAW, remember that the pictures will never look as good as the scene did. I found initially that my reactions to my pictures were flat, because the photos themselves were flat and lacking saturation. But once I learned how to process my RAW files, I knew how to review the RAW pictures up front—mostly for content, composition, focus, and overall lighting and exposure—and evaluate whether they would “work” after processing.
DESERT DRIFTWOOD, ARIZONA. These pieces of desert wood were so nicely entwined. I found them on the sandstone, just as they appear here. The lines in the stone were wonderful pathways, leading us down to the wood. 24–105mm lens at 75mm, f /16 at 4 seconds.
