This morning I found some wildlife in my hallway: a scorpion. Being a photographer, I rushed to get my close up equipment ready, while my wife watched the wild life, in case it would move around.
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| scorpion 1 |
The first thing you notice, technically, in a macro photo is the limited depth of field: shallow focus. The depth of field depends on two things: the aperture, and the size of depiction. The smaller the aperture (higher f number) the deeper the focus. That is a simple camera setting. The only restriction is that a small aperture needs a lot of light. In this case I used bounce flash, so I had light, but it is limited. I used f8.
The size of depiction is determined by the lens, in this case a tele lens of 200mm. That gives big depiction, so shallow focus. The other way to change the size of depiction is going closer to the subject. I used a close up attachment on the lens to go close,
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| scorpion 2 |
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so I could show the small scorpion big in the photo. I was about 20 cm from the scorpion. This also gives shallow focus. Put together the focus becomes very shallow. I focussed on what I presume is the face of the scorpion, and the result is that the tail and fangs are out of focus. There are two possible solutions: smaller aperture, but there my flash could not cope. The other is to choose an angle that you do not need deep focus. In photo 2 I photographed straight down on the
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| scorpion 3 |
scorpion. Now most of it is at the same distance from the lens, and it is all in focus. You can see a lot of detail. But from so high up it does not look menacing, it looks like a small creature (which it actually is!). I want it to look dangerous so I should be at the same height as it. (Lower would be nice but there is the floor, so that does not go). For photo 3 the scorpion decided to move from the brown tiles to the green floor next to the cupboard. Now I photographed it from the side, so most of it is at more or less the same distance from the lens. I focussed where I presume the eyes are. You see the legs close to the camera out of focus, and the fangs are also not tack sharp. But the sting on the tail is, and that is where the danger is. I am only slightly above it, so this one looks dangerous. The first one has the advantage of facing me, But this one shows more detail, and looks also scary.
After the photo session I put a glass over it, and moved it to the garden where I set it free.
