Macro is my friend

The sun finally came out over the weekend, and I decided to take some pictures of my newest jewellery makes so I could finally load it up in the shops. ( I have been slacking!)

You all know already that photos are vital if you want to sell anything online, and with jewellery in particular you really need a great photo that picks up all the detail, and colour of the item.

You might remember me playing with my camera a few months ago here and here; I realised then that just taking 5 minutes to play with the settings on my camera made all the difference. This weekend I played around with the Macro button.

 Don't get me wrong, I use macro, I often use macro - honest! But I don't always, and wasn't really sure what difference if any it really made.

Basically, all you need to do is press the macro button, which usually has a flower on it (see above!), and the computer moves the lens around to focus really close up on an object - which could even be just inches away. 

So here are the results of my very complicated, and time consuming experiement (ahem) ok 30 seconds in the garden.

 With the macro

Without the macro

I've made the pictures bigger so you can really see the difference. You can really pick up all the detail with the macro function... can you see how the pattern of the middle part of flower is so much clearer, 

BUT just a couple of issues to bear in mind...

Shadows - as you get closer in, it's alot easier to cast a shadow over the object you are trying to photograph

Depth of field - as usual, you only get focus on a particular part of the photo, but with the macro button the area that is in focus is reduced. This means you have to be careful to get the focus covering the right area!

Flash - you can't usually use a flash in macro mode, because you're generally so close to the object that the flash wouldn't illuminate it properly.

But that's it - easy peasy! A brilliant excuse to go off and explore the world in close up... would love to see your macro shots if you have any....add a link in the comments below.