Whether you are lecturing at a trade show or a medical conference, macro video is a way to provide your audience with a great deal of information on a subject using a method that captures the imagination.

Why Use Macro?

The human eye has its limits, and it is often difficult for us to appreciate the fine features of a very small object. You might be showing an investigatory panel the microscopic cracks that led to equipment failure, or you could be mesmerizing elementary school children with an extreme close up of the mites that live on the classroom hamster. The more detail you can show, the more information you can provide.

Macro imaging isn't just a close up picture. This specialized photographic technique does more than just blowing up the image. It expands the picture's depth of field, so that a much larger area of the subject can be photographed in sharp focus. The highly detailed picture produced is unlike anything non-macro photography can create.

Why Use Video?

Something is lost when a living creature or other dynamic subject is photographed with still images. The movement is a part of the subject, and losing that makes the image less useful. Video shows off all aspects of the subject more clearly, and macro video provides an especially breathtaking view of tiny objects and creatures. It's one thing to see a detailed picture of a fly's wing. It's quite another to see that wing moving in flight.

Even inanimate objects benefit from macro video. Although photographs from multiple angles give viewers a sense of the subject, a video makes it easier to relate the different views to each other. When the camera moves around, showing viewers every side of something, they get a more realistic, three-dimensional aspect of what the object is.

Challenges Of Macro Video

This unique photographic technique requires a great deal of practice to get right. It combines the challenges of macro photography with the challenges of video. Although it is difficult, the end result is worth it.

Careful planning is necessary to ensure the subject remains well lit and in focus during the filming. Objects that are moving but not mobile, such as a mechanical device in operation, are difficult enough to keep in focus. Mobile objects like a crawling insect or a rolling marble are especially challenging since they may move out of light.

One of the most important qualities necessary to create successful macro video is patience. The shot may not work the first time...or the tenth time. However impatience leads to mistakes. All you can do is keep trying, knowing that each time you fail you learn a little something about being a better macro video photographer.