Macro Image Workshop

Macro image Workshop 

Final 6 images over the workshop with Mr. Haydn:

I went out to the bicycle stands to capture this image of the gears on one bike.
It was a challenge to keep my hand steady to get this shot.

This is a picture of a sponge captured in the classroom.
It looks so abstract and detailed up close.

This is a paint brush taken in the classroom.
I used a similar paper color to lay the brush on to bring out the highlights of white in the object.

This is a small ornament that I was able to fill the frame with in the classroom. 

Another small key captured in the classroom that the blue paper was the final choice.
The focal area was placed on the middle of the key.

This is a detailed image of a flower in the science block. I really like the details captured of the little bugs.

What aspect of taking Macro shots did you find to be the most challenging or difficult? Explain why.
I found getting the right point in focus the most challenging since everything was so small and closeby and we were also on manual focus (which I was not used to). In the end, a lot of trial and error and precise camera movements did get me the right focus point in one of the ten or so images I would shoot from a single angle. However, I don't think it is a difficult skill to master--I just didn't have enough practice, so I got a lot better at finding the right focus point over the course of the workshop.

Also, using the Helicon Focus software for stacking was very tedious and took me a while to figure out...but I eventually did find the perfect setting by trial and error.

What aspect of taking Macro shots did you find to be the most enjoyable or fulfilling? Explain why.
By far, the most enjoyable/fulfilling part of this project was to be able to finally stack photos taken at different focus points, Firstly, it was extremely difficult and tedious to take around 30-40 photos at one angle at by slightly changing the focus point every time. Next, the Mac Photoshop would always seem to lag/crash whenever I tried to stack photos, so I was really bummed that it didn't work out. However, I actually used this software called Helicon Focus on my own computer which was able to stack the images--this also took a while as I had to experiment with a bunch of settings, do a lot waiting, and install a couple drivers to get the perfect stacked image. Even then, my images weren't very good for stacking, but I thought it was a great first attempt and that I will only get better. I quite liked them.

I also honestly found one of the most enjoyable/fulfilling part of the project to actually just look at the photos themselves. Usually, when I take photos close-up all the details are blurred out and it's not very nice, but I love how these Macro lenses allow me to see the smallest details from such a close distance. It gave me a nice change of lens and a different way to look at taking photos and photography.

Feedback:

Feedback from Saachi: I really the composition of each image. For example the first day of the close up workshop, the angle of the gears are really interesting. I love how you can see the different layers of the gears from big to small. I think something that you could think about is maybe the sharpness of the image or reducing the ISO. For example the first picture of the macro photography, the background is a little noisy but it's not necessary.

Feedback from Lydia: The one photo of macro photography I like the most is the sponge, you really went deep into the sponge and captured the individual lines that make up the sponge, as well as some colours that got stuck, it provided some really good contrast and spiced up the image a bit. Something you can maybe work on is putting the subject a little closer to the camera, such as the picture of the paintbrush, I feel like you could be able to capture the essence of the bristles more, even if it loses focus on some parts, I think it will still look really cool. Overall, I love your use of angles in your photos and even without editing, your colours are pretty outstanding.


Feedback from Pronoy : I like the aesthetic of all of your images but my favourite photo of all is the honeycomb. It truly shows the essence of macro photography because you made the honey comb seem almost life like. I liked the details in this image and also the colours in the photo which made it pop. Overall, I feel that all of your images are outstanding.


Feedback Reflection: I agree with a lot of the constructive criticism that I got through my feedback process. I think that something I need to work on on a large scale is making my images less noisy and more sharp. I think that the reason that this was the case in this project was that I did not get the chance to try and edit out the images through photoshop, so they are all still RAW files. I also think that Lydia was right in saying that I could have gotten a little bit closer to my subject. I was scared to get way too close to my subject because I wanted to get as much of it in focus as I could, but I think that if I would have gotten a little bit closer, it would have been both sharper and provided a lot more detail. I think Pronoy was right in saying that my photo of the sponge was the one that was taken the best. It was taken from such a short distance that it does not even look like a sponge and resembles honeycomb.


Final Reflection: Over the past couple of days we have been working with Larry to learn about close up and macro photography. On the first day, I struggled with catching close up photos because I wanted to go much closer than my lens allowed me. My strengths usually lie in nature photography but I only managed to take a nice photo of something mechanical. One the second day we worked with macro photography. Compared to close up, I definitely think that I did I lot better. I do, however, need to work on shooting without grain. I think that this problem could have been fixed if I edited the photos, however the photos above are all unedited. I particularly enjoyed the third day of the workshop where we worked with stacking photos to make one very clear photo. I took the risk of shooting outside in nature which I knew was going to be difficult because the plant would move. That being said, I am very happy with the way the image turned out after putting it through Helicon focus. I was originally going to attach other stacked image, but when I rendered it, it came out more blurry than I would have liked and therefore not included it into the presentation.