{"id":2428,"date":"2012-02-11T15:22:31","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T15:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2012-02-11T15:22:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T15:22:31","slug":"writing-the-macro-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2428","title":{"rendered":"Writing the macro tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am currently writing a series of tutorials for people wanting to get more out of their basic digital camera. The latest was a 3-part tutorial on indoor close-up and macro photography:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2429\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/writing-the-macro-tutorial\/img_0287p1-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2429\" title=\"IMG_0287p1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/IMG_0287p1-600x424.jpg\" alt=\"final macro image\" width=\"600\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/IMG_0287p1-600x424.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/IMG_0287p1-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/IMG_0287p1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>This was the final image at the end of the set taken with a basic entry-level digital compact (a Canon A470), a cheap second-hand tripod from a car boot sale, a mirror card from a craft shop and some black material. This was taken on our kitchen table with the light from a window. Not bad for such a cheap set-up.<\/p>\n<p>This is what the set-up looks like, in our kitchen with the window to the top right corner:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2430\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/writing-the-macro-tutorial\/s12_0110\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2430\" title=\"S12_0110\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0110.jpg\" alt=\"close-up set-up\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0110.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0110-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 85vw, 500px\" \/><\/a>As you can see, a simple set-up.<\/p>\n<p>I am writing this set of tutorials with 3 uses in mind:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a hand-out for the (occasional) lessons in basic digital photography that I present for the WEA (Workers Educational Association)<\/li>\n<li>As a point of interest within my website<\/li>\n<li>For an artist friend to use for her very popular and interactive website<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This particular lesson is the seventh. I started with the basics such as the shutter button and zoom controls. I have learnt not to assume any level of competence: I have even been asked how to insert the batteries and, in one session, one person was very surprised to learn that she had a zoom facility on her camera!<\/p>\n<p>In this lesson I discuss issues such as the equipment needed, the controls of the camera, lighting and reflectors, how close to get, backgrounds and a whole host more. I find such an exercise quite useful in that it makes me think of every step and try to preempt any questions people may ask. I also learn a lot from doing this &#8211; it clarifies the thought processes.<\/p>\n<p>One issue I wanted to bring out is that it is quite difficult to get a good picture very close up. In the market these cameras are pitched at, people think you need to get close to get a close up, hence many cameras can get as close as 1cm from the subject. In the tutorial I make a comparison with my professional macro lens and show how far away that is for a similar sized image &#8211; these setups are shown below:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2433\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/writing-the-macro-tutorial\/s12_0047\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2433\" title=\"S12_0047\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0047.jpg\" alt=\"close-up with acompact camera\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0047.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0047-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 85vw, 500px\" \/><\/a>Above I show how close you can get in at the standard macro setting (super macro gets even closer!)<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2434\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/writing-the-macro-tutorial\/s12_0049\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2434\" title=\"S12_0049\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0049-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"close-up with a professional lens\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0049-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0049-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/S12_0049.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>Here is my professional setup getting the same size image &#8211; a much more comfortable working distance.<\/p>\n<p>Come the summer months I intend to follow this up with a tutorial looking at taking close-up photographs in the garden &#8211; a more challenging task. You can find the tutorials on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/tutorials\/\">tutorials page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am currently writing a series of tutorials for people wanting to get more out of their basic digital camera. The latest was a 3-part tutorial on indoor close-up and macro photography: This was the final image at the end of the set taken with a basic entry-level digital compact (a Canon A470), a cheap &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2428\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Writing the macro tutorial&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,22,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-close-up","category-macro","category-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2441,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}