After a short holiday break, I’m back to my macro photography challenge, ready to tackle new obstacles and learn from them. Today’s challenge? Getting the perfect focus on tiny details. Have you ever tried to take a picture of something so small and detailed that even the tiniest movement throws everything out of focus?
Imagine this—you’re capturing the delicate texture of a flower or the fine design of a ring. The closer you get, the harder it becomes to keep your subject sharp. For me, it felt like solving a puzzle.
To make things more fun (and challenging), I decided to practice on my cat. I tried capturing the soft details of his nose and the depth of his eyes. But, as you might expect, cats have their plans — his curious nose twitched, her eyes blinked, and every movement brought new focus issues.
What I Learned About Focusing in Macro Photography
- Macro Focus is Different The closer you get to your subject, the shallower your depth of field becomes. Even at smaller apertures, only a tiny part of the subject might be in focus.
- Manual Focus is Key Autofocus can struggle with tiny objects, especially when they’re moving. Switching to manual focus gave me more control, though it takes practice.
- Stability is Crucial A tripod is essential for minimizing camera shake and maintaining focus on small details.
My thoughts: how to focus
While today’s photos didn’t turn out exactly as I hoped, they taught me an important lesson: focusing is an art. Also, I have an idea of how to focus on the tiny object. Tomorrow I’m going to try different focal points, and maybe merge photos into one, like the HDR approach.