Macro Shots, What is that Flower Icon?
So, you’ve had your digital camera for a year or two now, but you’ve never pushed the little flower button? The flower button, aka the Macro Button, is one of my favorite digital camera features. The Macro feature allows you to shoot things very close-up and still maintain focus. With the regular settings on your digital camera, you can get only so close to your subject without having them fall out of focus. By pressing the
little flower button you will shift to Macro mode and can get even closer to your subject.
Why would you want to do that? All kinds of reasons! I took this shot of Chloe with the Macro setting. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to fill the frame with her face while still holding her in my lap. Granted, I had to take a 
zillion pictures because she was all wiggly, but I love the results. This shot is not a cropped portion of a larger image, it is a full-frame image and my lens was about 5-inches from her nose.
I’ve also had great success using the Macro setting to shoot toys. One of my favorite images is a shot I took of my
Captain Hook Pez Dispenser. I don’t have it in a digital form, so I’ll have to track down the negative and get it transferred. I’ve also had success with shooting Barbie, the game pieces for Monopoly and other toys. It’s my way of reliving childhood “ when I really examined the objects in my life.
Macro is a great way to make your digital photographs look more unique. Give it a try!
Responses and Conversations
[...] Jim’s Canon A510 did a great job of getting close focus using the Macro setting on a 6mm lens. (For more on using the macro setting, click here). [...]
Comment by Digital Photography Blogs - i speak film - Blog Archive » DSLR and Handheld Duke It Out on April 17th, 2006 at 10:25 am
[...] My point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot A70 has gone missing in the house, so I brought my Nikon DSLR instead. The point-and-shoot would have been better for this kind of shoot because I could have used the macro function to get very close-up shots on the flowers. I didn’t want to lug around my whole camera bag with multiple lenses and my diopters on this trip because it was a day more about being with my family than taking pictures. So I chose an 18-70mm lens for my DSLR and called it a day. But I like several of the shots I took and had a wonderful time buying flowers to decorate the house for fall. [...]
Comment by i speak film - » Trip to the Flower Mart on October 8th, 2006 at 5:02 am
[...] MACRO I really like having a macro feature. It allows you to take really close-up shots of flowers in your backyard or your baby’s toes, for instance. Without this feature, the lens won’t be able to focus that closely on a subject and you’ll have to back up a bit. [...]
Comment by i speak film - » How To Buy a Digital Point-and-Shoot Camera on October 17th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
[...] best tools for shooting flowers is the macro button. It’s the button on your camera that looks like a flower. The macro button allows you to focus the camera very close to the flower. The two shots above were taken with the camera only 2 inches from the surface of the top flower. [...]
Comment by i speak film - » How to Take Great Flower Pictures on May 28th, 2007 at 11:30 am
[...] The Macro button is one of the most useful features of the compact camera, and it can also be a creative tool for shooting pictures of your baby or kiddos. The biggest challenge, of course, is finding a moment when baby is still enough to keep them in focus! But there are sometimes Sesame Street moments when baby is still and engrossed in the moment. Here’s how to do it… [...]
Comment by i speak film - » Macro Baby Pictures on June 1st, 2007 at 5:07 am
[...] 4) Rather than shooting a lot of wide shots, try shooting very close-up on the food. You will have good results if you use a medium or wide angle lens pretty close to the food. If you can’t get the food in focus this close, use the Macro button on your camera. Experiment with different lenses, zooming in and out to get the shot you want. 5) Rather than shooting from high above, try lowering your camera to just above the level of the food ranging from a 10-45-degree angle. Take a number of shots at different heights to see what looks best. [...]
Comment by i speak film - » Food Photography on June 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am