Part 2 Picture Size & Quality - Focusing - EV for more detail
	Most cameras have a feature where you can set the picture size and quality and it also indicates quantity as well. More pixels equal a larger file size, picture and quality/resolution (detail) and fewer pictures you can shoot at a time. Fewer pixels equal a smaller file size, picture size, poorer resolution and more pictures you can shoot at a time. For good, crisp clear pictures, especially in macro shooting you want to choose the most pixels your camera offers. That will mean fewer pictures you can shoot at a time and larger file sizes. So set your camera to the setting with the most pixels. It is a must for working in macro. I find it easier to work with kilobytes, kb and megabytes, mb than pixels x pixels. It appears Dave’s forums will accept 1.5 meg pictures without downsizing them. Plantfiles on the other hand, the sky is the limit, though 3 - 5 megs is usually ample for detail and to go higher might cause Dave to get a bit surly.
		Focus
	Does this look familiar?
	Take a look at the photo again. Note what IS in focus. If you can remember how far away your lens was from the flower, then the background in focus should tell you how far your lens has to be from the subject to be in focus. Focus Training Wheels For Your Camera Get some card stock paper or an old manila file folder and make yourself a ruler. Cut the paper 8 inches long and half an inch wide. Starting at one end, mark off the inches, half inches and quarter inches up to 6 inches. Doesn’t have to be dead accurate. Now turn on your camera and with a piece of sticky tape, tape the ruler to the bottom of your camera with the 1 inch mark being even with your lens. If the paper won’t stay rigid, then slightly fold it down the center lengthwise.
	Grab a pencil & paper and go find something to shoot. Take the shot like you normally would, ignoring your ruler. After shooting don’t move the camera but note how far away your lens was from the center of the subject you were taking. Write it down on your piece of paper. Now take the same shot with the end of the ruler at dead center of your subject and another an inch closer and so on until you get to a point where the picture looks blurry in the view finder. If you camera has macro capabilities, the icon looks like this, dial up macro and do the same exercise over again, remember to write down how far away you were with each shot. When you upload the photo’s note the ones that are crisp and clear and how far away your lens was from the subject. Once you have determined the minimum distance you can get , cut off your ruler to that distance and train your brain to know just how close you can go. It’s better to be too far away then too close.
	EV - Exposure Compensation
	For those of you with camera settings that can be manipulated, see if you have an EV setting .. the icon for it looks like this . What this feature does is allow you to increase or decrease the brightness. You’ve probably noticed that when you shoot light colored or shimmery iridescent flowers in sunlight that the picture is too bright and tends to lose a lot of detail. The opposite is true as well, if you are shooting a dark colored flower at dusk or in shadow the picture is very dark and again you lose detail. If you don’t want to use flash, EV is very handy. Since it is a dark and stormy day, my choice of examples was limited.
	The picture on the left is the first shot I took. Overall it’s a nice bright picture but you are losing the rain drops. In the second picture I dropped the EV down. Big difference!
	In the original on the left you can see some detail on the ground, but look at the big difference when I pushed the EV up a notch. Really big difference. In that first shot you don’t see that dead leaf in the lower left.
	What I want you to do now is practice taking close-ups with and without Macro and learn your cameras limitation. Also play with the EV.
	The next lesson will be entirely Macro.
	Part 1 - Part 3