Welcome to MobiWorkshop - your home for ongoing explorations into photographic topics. The idea behind MobiWorkshop is to provide a group learning environment where we can explore various topics and discuss the photos we made on the topic. We will draw upon the expertise of members, books, and online resources to help us learn about new topics. Once we have an initial information session and maybe answer a few questions it will be time to go out and make some photographs and then post them where we can discuss the results and learn from each other. Each workshop will last one week. Feel free to suggest more topics for MobiWorkshops.
MobiWorkshop 1 - Close-up Photography
There are unlimited opportunities for close-up photos. If you look at this photo carefully you will get a sense of the limitations in depth of field that we struggle with in mobile photography. There’s never enough and we try to work around it.
Think Small!
Once you enter the close-up world you soon discover there vastly more opportunities for close-up photos than there are for landscapes. The natural world is endlessly fascinating and close-up photography allows you to bring home your discoveries. You don’t have to coax the right expression out of a mushroom and neither will it present you with problems about privacy or require model releases. You can start making close-up photos with your phone camera just as it is and easily expand the close-up capabilities with a few simple accessories. There are a few things that are useful to know when starting close-up photography so let’s get started.
Definitions:
Let’s start by defining the words “Close-up” and “Macro” as used in photography. Focus your phone camera as close as it can get - about 4". The Close-up world begins there. You might add a magnifying glass or a close-up lens attachment to get even closer. The stronger the magnification the closer you can get and the bigger the subject will be in your photo. When you have enough magnification that your subject is life-size in your image you have reached 1:1, the beginning of the Macro range. As you add more and more magnification you eventually reach a point where it is much easier switching to a microscope - Micro Photography.
Most of the photography of small things we do falls into the Close-up Photography range. The word Macro is often misused to include any type of close-up requiring attachments to get more magnification.
The closer you get, or the more magnification you use, the more difficult the challenges become.
A true Macro lens is capable of photographing at 1:1, or life-sized. The other special characteristic of a macro lens is a flat plane of focus. You will only appreciate this when photographing something flat like a document or postage stamp. For most subjects outdoors the flatness of field isn’t that important.
Close-up accessories:
You can certainly start in close-up photography without any additional close-up lenses. As you get more excited about making close-up photos you discover there is a limit to how close you can get. Your phone camera can focus to about 4” from the subject but if you try to get closer to make the subject bigger the camera just won’t focus any closer. Add-on close-up lenses extend the close-focusing capability of your camera and now you can get even closer! Here is an introduction to close-up accessories.
Here is a set of close-up lenses plus a clip-on filter holder. On my filter holder I opened out the hole in the middle to cover both lenses at once. More about that later. Also I painted the inside surface flat black to minimize reflections.
Once you have your close-up equipment figured out you’re ready to make some close-up photos.
The basic plan.
Think Small! Imagine you are holding a small wire frame about the size of your phone and look for subjects that would fit inside your frame. Once you are thinking in the right scale you will start to see interesting details everywhere. See what catches your eye. It could be a shape, colour, a pattern, or a juxtaposition. You will do your best work if you go with something that really draws your interest rather than something you think other people might like.
Use whatever way you are comfortable with to photograph your subject. Try your familiar camera apps. You have your own way of seeing and your own way of working. If you run into problems you may find other apps are more suited to close-up work.
If you are just getting started here are some ideas you might consider.
To make things easier for yourself also consider the setting around the subject before deciding to use the subject. What is in the background? You don’t want to be crowded by a lot of distracting brush. You want enough distance between the subject and the nearest background so you won’t be struggling to get enough visual separation because the background will naturally be more out of focus.
What are you trying to accomplish? Is it an abstract, a study in form and colour? If it is a nature study you might want to imagine you are seeing the subject from the vantage point of a small forest creature like a mouse. If you were photographing a person you would want your camera angle to be eye-to-eye with the subject, not shooting down on top of their head.
Check to see the lighting is good, not full of extreme bright and dark areas. Look at the subject the same as you would a portrait of a person. Look at the subject planes and decide the best way to reveal it’s shape and texture. You might need to add a fill-in reflector if the shadows within the subject are too dark, or add an accent reflector to highlight certain edges or add separation from the background. You might even want to darken the background by casting a shadow.
I often find backlighting is very dramatic for close-ups. The rim lighting provides good separation from the background, especially if you can shoot into a shadowed area. Backlighting usually requires some fill-in light to reduce the extreme difference in exposure between bright highlights and dark shadows. You can make some small 4x5” reflectors by gluing wrinkled tinfoil onto cardboard. Or check out a store that has cake making supplies for the silver foil-covered cardboard used to put a cake onto. It’s handy to have reflectors with different amounts of reflectance to suit the lighting conditions. Some bamboo skewer sticks from the grocery store are perfect to poke into the ground to hold up your reflectors. A bit of time spent setting up reflectors can save a lot of burning & dodging time during editing.
If your subject has a large area of one colour it can throw the white balance out of whack. Watch out for that and correct it however your app allows. If your app has no provision for controlling white balance you need a different app.
Here are some typical problems encountered in close-up photography.
You have the basic information you need to start making some close-up photos. Start looking around and try a few different ways of making close-up photos. Experiment. Try different ways of working, maybe different apps. You know in advance your depth of field will never be enough to cover anything except a slim subject. Decide what are the most important parts of the subject that really must be in focus. Try to match your plane of focus with the most important plane of the subject. And then try deliberately using shallow depth of field to your advantage.
Close-up photography is quite a big topic with a lot of specialized info. Some of these subjects, like using lighting reflectors, base ISO, white balance, depth of field, and the photographic RGB-CMY colour wheel, really deserve to be explored as separate topics, but for now we will just jump in and see what problems arise.
Go and have some fun, and THINK SMALL!
MobiWorkshop 1 - Close-up Photography
There are unlimited opportunities for close-up photos. If you look at this photo carefully you will get a sense of the limitations in depth of field that we struggle with in mobile photography. There’s never enough and we try to work around it.
Think Small!
Once you enter the close-up world you soon discover there vastly more opportunities for close-up photos than there are for landscapes. The natural world is endlessly fascinating and close-up photography allows you to bring home your discoveries. You don’t have to coax the right expression out of a mushroom and neither will it present you with problems about privacy or require model releases. You can start making close-up photos with your phone camera just as it is and easily expand the close-up capabilities with a few simple accessories. There are a few things that are useful to know when starting close-up photography so let’s get started.
Definitions:
Let’s start by defining the words “Close-up” and “Macro” as used in photography. Focus your phone camera as close as it can get - about 4". The Close-up world begins there. You might add a magnifying glass or a close-up lens attachment to get even closer. The stronger the magnification the closer you can get and the bigger the subject will be in your photo. When you have enough magnification that your subject is life-size in your image you have reached 1:1, the beginning of the Macro range. As you add more and more magnification you eventually reach a point where it is much easier switching to a microscope - Micro Photography.
Most of the photography of small things we do falls into the Close-up Photography range. The word Macro is often misused to include any type of close-up requiring attachments to get more magnification.
The closer you get, or the more magnification you use, the more difficult the challenges become.
A true Macro lens is capable of photographing at 1:1, or life-sized. The other special characteristic of a macro lens is a flat plane of focus. You will only appreciate this when photographing something flat like a document or postage stamp. For most subjects outdoors the flatness of field isn’t that important.
Close-up accessories:
You can certainly start in close-up photography without any additional close-up lenses. As you get more excited about making close-up photos you discover there is a limit to how close you can get. Your phone camera can focus to about 4” from the subject but if you try to get closer to make the subject bigger the camera just won’t focus any closer. Add-on close-up lenses extend the close-focusing capability of your camera and now you can get even closer! Here is an introduction to close-up accessories.
- Close-up lenses: You can use any sort of magnifying lens you can get your hands on to be able to focus closer.
- The DIY approach: I have had good results from small lenses scrounged from various devices and simply taped over the lens on my phone.
- Store bought accessories: You will probably find the purpose-made accessories easier to use. The cheapest way to go is to find a clip-on filter holder and a set of close-up lenses. I found a filter holder & polarizing filter for $20 Cdn. on Amazon in a compact 37mm size. Next I bought a set of close-up lenses. These lenses look and attach just like the regular screw-on photographic filters. Typically these close-up lenses come in sets of 3 or 4 and each has a different amount of magnifying power, measured in diopters, such as +1, +2 and +4. The sets cost about $20, also on Amazon. For a few dollars more you can find a set that includes a +10 lens. You simply clip on the filter holder and screw on one or more of the close-up lenses to see which one gives you the right amount of magnification for the subject at hand. These close-up lenses work very well at modest magnifications without any noticeable loss in quality. At greater magnifications you might notice the corners of your image aren’t as sharp as the centre but most of the time that isn’t a problem as it would be for a landscape photo.
- Macro Lens: For more magnification and better optical quality you might want to consider one of several different macro lenses made for cell phones. Some attach using a universal clip-on mount while others require a special cell phone case that has the matching lens mount built in.
- Small Tripod: Even if you don’t use a tripod for most of your mobile photography it would be worth thinking about a small tripod for close-up photography. Higher magnification makes camera shake more noticeable. In addition, close-up photos often require careful focusing that is difficult to achieve with a hand held camera.
Here is a set of close-up lenses plus a clip-on filter holder. On my filter holder I opened out the hole in the middle to cover both lenses at once. More about that later. Also I painted the inside surface flat black to minimize reflections.
Once you have your close-up equipment figured out you’re ready to make some close-up photos.
The basic plan.
Think Small! Imagine you are holding a small wire frame about the size of your phone and look for subjects that would fit inside your frame. Once you are thinking in the right scale you will start to see interesting details everywhere. See what catches your eye. It could be a shape, colour, a pattern, or a juxtaposition. You will do your best work if you go with something that really draws your interest rather than something you think other people might like.
Use whatever way you are comfortable with to photograph your subject. Try your familiar camera apps. You have your own way of seeing and your own way of working. If you run into problems you may find other apps are more suited to close-up work.
If you are just getting started here are some ideas you might consider.
To make things easier for yourself also consider the setting around the subject before deciding to use the subject. What is in the background? You don’t want to be crowded by a lot of distracting brush. You want enough distance between the subject and the nearest background so you won’t be struggling to get enough visual separation because the background will naturally be more out of focus.
What are you trying to accomplish? Is it an abstract, a study in form and colour? If it is a nature study you might want to imagine you are seeing the subject from the vantage point of a small forest creature like a mouse. If you were photographing a person you would want your camera angle to be eye-to-eye with the subject, not shooting down on top of their head.
Check to see the lighting is good, not full of extreme bright and dark areas. Look at the subject the same as you would a portrait of a person. Look at the subject planes and decide the best way to reveal it’s shape and texture. You might need to add a fill-in reflector if the shadows within the subject are too dark, or add an accent reflector to highlight certain edges or add separation from the background. You might even want to darken the background by casting a shadow.
I often find backlighting is very dramatic for close-ups. The rim lighting provides good separation from the background, especially if you can shoot into a shadowed area. Backlighting usually requires some fill-in light to reduce the extreme difference in exposure between bright highlights and dark shadows. You can make some small 4x5” reflectors by gluing wrinkled tinfoil onto cardboard. Or check out a store that has cake making supplies for the silver foil-covered cardboard used to put a cake onto. It’s handy to have reflectors with different amounts of reflectance to suit the lighting conditions. Some bamboo skewer sticks from the grocery store are perfect to poke into the ground to hold up your reflectors. A bit of time spent setting up reflectors can save a lot of burning & dodging time during editing.
If your subject has a large area of one colour it can throw the white balance out of whack. Watch out for that and correct it however your app allows. If your app has no provision for controlling white balance you need a different app.
Here are some typical problems encountered in close-up photography.
- I tap to focus on my subject but the background is in focus instead. - The subject is too small to conceal the background in the focus reticle. I need to move my focus point to something bigger that doesn’t include any part of the background. Or, I should try a different camera app with good manual focusing. Focus Peaking really helps, too.
- I have trouble seeing what I’m doing. - I need a screen magnifier like the ones used for DSLRs.
- I’m so close that I’m blocking the light with my body or hands/phone. - I need to turn and shoot from another angle.
- I can’t stand white blobs in my background. The eye is always attracted to the brightest thing in the picture so it draws the eye away from my subject. - I need to be more careful to avoid bright spots behind the subject by trying different camera angles.
- When its windy I have trouble keeping the subject in the frame or in focus (flowers, insects, etc.) - I should do this early in the morning before the wind comes up. Or, I need to poke a stick into the ground near the plant stem and clip them together.
- The focus is too far back. My camera was focused as close as possible but I pushed it a bit closer in my desire to get a closer shot. It looked OK on the screen but looking more closely at the picture I can see moving the camera closer just moved the focus farther back. - I need to be more careful checking what is really in focus.
- Can’t get enough in focus. One part is in focus but the rest is out of focus. - That’s all the depth of field there is. I need to place my camera parallel with the most important plane of the subject to make the best use possible of the depth of field. Or, I need to deliberately use shallow depth of field in my design.
- My background is too distracting, how can I get it more out of focus? - Make sure distracting background elements are at least a few feet away. Anything within a foot will be too much in focus to be nicely blurred.
- I come back with dirty knees after doing close-up photography. - Now I take a folded up piece of plastic with me to kneel on.
- I have trouble keeping my phone steady enough. My little tripod is wobbly on soft ground. - High magnification amplifies camera movement. Use the self timer to allow the camera to settle before the picture is made.
- My lighting is too flat to reveal form and texture. - I should bring some reflectors to create a more 3D lighting effect, just like lighting a portrait. Main light, fill light, hair light. But for natural results only one main lighting direction.
- I found a good subject but it’s in a bad location. - Keep looking.
- I found a good subject but the lighting is terrible. - Come back later.
- I have trouble keeping my subject in focus. The slightest move I make sends the focus way off. - Close-up lenses magnify camera movement. It’s almost impossible to hold a camera steady by hand. Shallow depth of field makes the use of a tripod more important. I could deliberately move my camera closer and back, passing through the plane of focus while I use Burst Mode to take continuous shots. One of them is bound to be focused in the right place. Or, I could use my stasis ray on the subject to freeze it in place for a few minutes until I get my shot.
- I went to a place to photograph some rare flowers and found the surrounding area trampled flat. They even pulled out nearby plants that they decided were in the way. - I will always try to cause no damage to the places I photograph. I aim to leave no traces of my having been there. Take only pictures, and don’t even leave any footprints.
- Rather than looking at all sizes of subjects and then fiddling with your equipment to get it the right size, figure out what size of image your camera can make with a particular close-up or macro lens and then look for subjects that size.
- What is the practical working height of your tripod? If it is from 4” to 10” off the ground focus your attention on finding subjects in that range.
- When you’re out practicing close-up photography don’t make life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. There is no shortage of things to photograph. There’s no need to photograph in the middle of a prickle bush or the bottom of a muddy hole.
- There’s no such thing as one tripod that is good for every purpose. Having a special tripod for close-up photography can save you a lot of aggravation.
- Make yourself a close-up kit that includes everything you need while out making close-ups. Your close-up lenses, 2 or 3 small reflectors about 4x5”, skewer sticks to hold up your reflectors, a folded-up piece of plastic to kneel on. If you later want to add some fancier stuff, add a compact umbrella to make shade, some small clips to hold stems out of the way or clip stems together to reduce how much they flap in the wind.
- Organize up your gear to avoid frustration. A small bag with pockets to organize small items can make your day go smoother.
- If your camera lens is at one corner of your phone the “normal” position is at the top. When you hold your phone horizontally with the bottom edge touching the ground the lens is still a couple of inches above the ground. But if you turn your phone upside down your lens is only 1/4” above the ground and you can get some amazing worm’s eye views that way.
- Use a close-up lens even when you don’t need one! Let’s suppose you are photographing something quite small but it does not require a close-up lens to be in focus. Your standard lens can focus from about 4” to infinity. If you put on a close-up lens your new focusing range may now be 3” to 12”. The subject is still in focus but think about the background. Right, it will be easier to throw a distracting background out of focus!
- If you don’t have a tripod handy you can quite successfully brace one edge of your phone right on the ground and make steady exposures close to 1/15 second or more.
- The simpler your photo, the better.
- If you find your fine details look a bit mushy try to keep your ISO as low as possible - 64 or less. Next, try using a camera app that shoots in RAW or DNG file format and editing in an app for developing RAW files. Snapseed is a good choice. Also Darkroom, RAW Power. Affinity.
- Front lighting, or light from the built-in flash makes your photos look flat. Cross lighting reveals more shape and texture.
You have the basic information you need to start making some close-up photos. Start looking around and try a few different ways of making close-up photos. Experiment. Try different ways of working, maybe different apps. You know in advance your depth of field will never be enough to cover anything except a slim subject. Decide what are the most important parts of the subject that really must be in focus. Try to match your plane of focus with the most important plane of the subject. And then try deliberately using shallow depth of field to your advantage.
- You have 3 days (until Wednesday) to take lots of pictures.
- Pick a few of your favourites to work on.
- Feel free to edit as much as you like but avoid special effects apps, double exposures, overlays, textures, wacky filters, antique effects. Save them for another time. For now give us the straight goods so we clearly see the details.
- You might also want to show pictures that failed to live up to your expectations or are good examples of problems in close-up photography.
- Post up to 6 photos. Only post pictures made this week.
- Post them by Wednesday so we will have time to study them and discuss how things turned out.
- Feel free to ask questions any time.
- If you have some suggestions of your own to offer please share.
Close-up photography is quite a big topic with a lot of specialized info. Some of these subjects, like using lighting reflectors, base ISO, white balance, depth of field, and the photographic RGB-CMY colour wheel, really deserve to be explored as separate topics, but for now we will just jump in and see what problems arise.
Go and have some fun, and THINK SMALL!
Last edited: