Macro or closeup?

[ranchermom]

What qualifies a photo as "macro"? Many that I see posted seem to be just close-ups. I do not have a macro lens, but I like to get in as tight as I can. Please tell me anything that you see. Thanks

Camera Nikon D60
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 55 mm
Focal Length 55.0 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

[schaferleigh]

I don't have a technical definition of "macro" for you, but what I can see is that your photo has a lot of detail and it has a shallow depth of field making the background less in focus.

Here's a Wikipedia link...Macro photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beautiful picture! Nice Job!

[ZinhaEq]

I would say it's a close-up, but I am not into such technical things. It's quite far away from true macro (1:1), but it depends on the size of that flower. I have never seen it, so it's hard to guess the size. Maybe it's very tiny, and that makes your photo almost macro, or it is normal size and it's just a close-up. I am still very sure however, that this one is close-up.

[LeeR]

ZinhaEq is right in that a true macro shot is one in which the size of the image on your sensor is equal to or greater than the original object. However, it is one of those terms that gets badly abused by photographers and camera manufacturers alike. My wife has a point and shoot camera that has a "macro" setting even though you could never hope to get close enough to get a 1:1 image with it. They may as well have called it the "flower" setting, because that is all it is good for. (They did use a flower as a symbol for the setting.) Your shot is nice even if not a true macro; the bloom from a prickly pear cactus, if I am not mistaken. If you wanted to improve the shot you may have been able to move the camera so that the background was a bit darker and less busy.

[niravlad]

one morning i found this water droplet on a flower in the garden and i captured the moment

[LucaG]

Dear All, I tend to consider the two above shots are close-up. Just for the sake of discussion, I would like to show below an example of what I think Macro is supposed to be (in terms of subject size, not quality of the image: I am not that arrogant )

This shot has been done with the Macro kit of Lensbaby. This is basically a magnifying glass screwed on the front of the Lensbaby Composer. The magnification of the glass is 10x. the shot is done with Nikon D90, Lensbaby Composer and macro kit 10x, hand held. The nice thing I like about hand holding is the same thing that characterize Lensbaby: the somehow unpredictability of the shot.

Enjoy!

Luca

[ranchermom]

Thanks yall. Indeed, prickle pear bloom it is. There were beautiful this year. The lens that I used is a nikkor 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G. I would love to get a macro type lens just haven't had to extra cash yet. Also as stated above used the "macro" setting on my D60, but I can never get a tight enough picture to suite me. Thanks again for all the input!!

[RudyMiculescu]

I'm not a expert here ! but the definition says that the macro world begins at 1:1 with your sensor/film size, so if you consider that the flower is 1 on 1 or bigger that your camera sensor and it fills the frame then is a macro or closeup photography ( they are the same - macro and closeup). I think the only difference here is the point view of everybody in this matter !