How To: Close-ups

I have struggled for months with taking photos of trees and plants while out botanising - I only have a little camera-phone with me, as I don't want to carry an expensive camera around while scrambling up banks and in woodlands, and it's fine for general views, but hopeless for close-ups of buds, leaves, etc.

On one outing last summer, my fellow botanist, Morag, had trouble with her camera, the macro wouldn't work, so she tried taking a photo through her hand lens, and the result was brilliant! I tried the same technique with my camera phone, and to my amazement, it works.

This is what it looks like, if I try to take a close-up normally, with my camera-phone:

As you can see, dismal failure. This is Spindle - Euonymus europaeus -but honestly, you'd be hard pressed to ID it from this photo, wouldn't you? And the closer I get to the fruit, the worse the focus.

But here's the same plant, same camera phone, through a hand lens:

Extraordinary, isn't it? It's tricky to get the hand-lens in exactly the right place, as you can see, but with the addition of a rubber band... read on for details.

Here's how to do it.


1)  Unfold hand-lens:

2) Place over lens of phone:

3) Get really close to the object

4) Take photo.

Here's what you need: I'm doing this indoors to show you, but it works just as well outdoors.

Needed: a hand lens. Mine is x20, you can use a x10 but honestly, x20 is better and well worth buying.

Camera with phone - my cheap Nokia.

Rubber band.

Specimen: I am using a white envelope as background, just to make it easier to see.

Place opened hand lens over lens of camera.

Do note that it's not in the middle of the phone!

Twist rubber band twice around the hand lens to keep it in place.

This can be a bit of a faff, but it's worth persisting.

Make sure you get the hand lens right over the camera lens - or, as far over it as you can, at any rate.

Here's the Heath Robinson result - not pretty, but it does the job, and frees up your hands to press for the photo, and to hold the specimen still.

And here's the phone, taking a photo through the strapped-on hand lens.

Mine is a touch-screen phone, as most of them are these days, and I have quickly learned to hold the phone in my right hand, using one finger to "tap" to take the picture, and the other hand is then free to hold the branch still.


And what of the results: here, below, is the actual above phone picture:

Impressive, for a cheap phone, don't you think? Not the best one I've taken, as I was rushing a bit to get it done, but with practice you can get the phone quite steady as you "tap".

My posh indoor camera, on macro, can do somewhat better,  as you would expect:

But not really that much better, all things considered.

I do think, to be honest, that you can see more detail with your eye and a hand-lens: this technique isn't quite as good, but if you get tired eyes after an hour or more or peering through a hand-lens, or if you have trouble getting things in focus through  your hand lens, try this idea.

Now, when I get to the "tired eyes" stage, I use the rubber band to hold the hand lens in place,  and just take photos, instead of getting cross-eyed and headachey.

And of course this allows you to take good close-ups of buds, flowers, etc for use on iSpot - so get out there and get those hand-lenses doing double duty!