Getting the Micro Hang of It
Getting the hang of a microstock technique means never having to say you’re sorry, you couldn’t find the right lens setting fast enough. Having to delete a fudged blurry close up photo again. This image of a rose represents a long journey on the part of this photographer to grasp the finer points of micro focus technology and camera techniques working with the dreaded tulip. When a photographer and their camera operate as an organic whole, the image grab is unbeatable.
Imagine being able to finally grab an image confidently with the tulip lens setting without cowardly dependence on the SmartScene Kodak lens adjustment. Baby’s first steps as a micropayment photojournalist are when the tulip camera setting yields money shots like the one above. This image is exactly the quality and definition, composition and resolution the microstock galleries want to vend.
The first tulip utilization shots were blurry and sometimes just plain captured too close to the subject to be of any use. The rules change for composition when photographing in micro mode, while my skill usually lies in large frame composition. I have wasted time before at image capture point, wasting photo opportunity debating whether setting the tulip lens setting was just throwing away a decent medium shot window.
When working with image capture in micro focus, the composition is much more final. The compression of the image sizing in the editing “room” will likely detract from overall resolution, not build the visual impact to the naked eye. Knowing when to move on in the field is difficult with so many challenging possibilities lurking behind every lens setting and image capture button depression.
Looking for the finest and most subtle element within a shot can improve the dramatic value of the image. The sharp focus midpoint and blurry soft focus or blurred background can work when composed around an object of interest. Massing the color within a tightly focused micro shot can be hard when the endpoint of the focus is mere inches.
The decisions made when capturing shots “in the wild” then progress through a finite list of possibilities. This makes time management more efficient. A nature shot, a human picture, a signage photo, or a plain wrap object become the only possibilities. Then the moving on through a location can happen.
In the right circumstances, the microstock photographer works until light falls. Maximum efficiency image capture potential occurs when the experience and camera usage. and lens settings are an array of options, instead of experimental first tries. Don’t ever underestimate a day spent in the field even if the images don’t qualify as your best. The experience will make a difference on the day when you have mere seconds to flip the lens, take aim, focus and depress the button.
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