Quick Photography Lesson
by Alan Hall
(accessed from the internet)
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A zoom with macro is by far the best way to go. The long lens coupled with a macro setting gives you the maximum depth of field and is by the best way to take closeups (short of using a bellows...and how many of us have one of those laying around!). The "close up lenses" that thread on like a filter are called diopters and usually come in a set of three. They are inexpensive and can be combined to obtain various degrees of magnification. They are simply magnifying glasses and suffer from spherical aberration (the area towards the outside of the lens becomes distorted). As the magnification increases, the aberration increases. This problem is compounded when using large apertures because the depth of field is being reduced by the aberration caused by the increased area of the lens opening. So...if you use diopters stop the lens down all the way. You will have to increase the shutter time, but the difference in quality is dramatic. If you can't get close enough to fill the frame, don't worry about it. If you use a tight grain film you can always crop and enlarge latter. When using any of these, the depth of field (the amount of the subject in >focus) is drastically reduced so you need to use as large an aperture as possible which will mean a long exposure. What you mean is that you need as *small* an aperture as possible. The f stop number (the number that is printed on the lens) is opposite the size of the aperture. Therefore, you need the highest f stop (smallest aperture). Exposures over 1 second cause all sorts of technical problems and so are not to be recommended. I get around this by using fast film and lots of light. Modern fast film is pretty good and I find that the Fuji 800 and 1600 print films have the finest grain. Exposures over one second don't cause any technical problems. Use a tripod and a cable release. Once you set up the shot (focus, etc.) or actually shoot let the camera "settle" for a few seconds to eliminate vibration before tripping the release again. You should hang weights below the tripod's pan head (books, sandbags, unpainted miniatures, etc.) which will help dampen and vibration from the camera and vibration that may come from other sources like the floor. Remember...vibration is the enemy. Take your time. The *slower* the film the tighter the grain. Use the slowest film you can get your hands on. This generally means Kodachrome. Slides are preferable anyway...you can setup a slide show for your club. You can always make prints from slides, and you make only the prints you want. If you take a *lot* of pictures you will find that slides work out to be *much* cheaper in the long run. A word of caution, though, in using slide film. Kodachrome is a "warm" film (it tends to be on the red sensitive) and Ectachrome is "cool" film (leans toward blue). So, take pictures of your Napoleonic Brits with Kodachrome and the French Guard with Ectachrome. Another point is that using ordinary indoor lights results in a yellow cast to the photos; this can be corrected using a pale blue filter. You're right about this. To expand a little...incandescent lights change color with the wattage. A 25 watt bulb will cast an orange glow and a 200 watt light will cast a light yellow glow. You can obtain special bulbs called "photo floods" that are incandescent bulbs that screw into a regular socket. They are blue glass and run from 200 to 500 watts. Their life is only a couple of hours, but you only turn them on for a couple of seconds when you actually trip the shutter or take a meter reading so they last a long time and don't start any fires!! If you are taking pictures under fluorescent lights you have more problems. Normal fluorescent lights cast a varying amount of green glow. A lot of bulbs have slightly colored glass to filter some of the green. Some light fixtures have "daylight" filtering in the diffuser. There are filters that you can buy for incandescent and fluorescent lighting. The problem is that the amount of orange or green cast varies so much that they can't totally correct the problem. The *best* light is sunlight on a cloudy day (no shadows and best color saturation). Put a table next to a window and use natural light. Use a large piece of flat white paper or card on the opposite side of the light source to reduce shadows (you don't want to eliminate them or your pictures will look two dimensional). Lighting preferences are:
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