Closeup Shooting: A Guide to Closeup, Tabletop, and Macro Photography by Cyrill Harnischmacher is an English reprint of a German title that deals specifically with photographing teeny, tiny things and getting close and personal with your subjects. The attractively published hard cover book is jam packed with hints, tips, and explanations, plus amazing photographs, at a very reasonable price.

Compact and Useful book

This enjoyable read packs a lot of information in its 122 pages. Many photography books suffer from long boring chapters or too much technical information. Closeup Shooting sidesteps those problems with very focused information and illustrative photographs for the digital and film photographer. Harnishchmacher is an easy to read writer and presents even the most technical material in an engaging way.

I love shooting close-up photos outdoors, but am sorely limited by the point and shoot digital cameras I review. While my photographs may be above average, I'm always frustrated that I can't get more detail. Closeup Shooting offers some invaluable advice on how to achieve those in-your-face-shots by recommending equipment and showing how to use what you already own to create makeshift accessories to enhance your photographic skills and your closeup range.

Packed with Tips

Whether you need help photographing a product to sell on eBay or trying to shoot that elusive butterfly in your backyard, you will find valuable advice in this well laid out book. Chapters cover lenses, tripods and mounts, lighting, studio, travel, and underwater photography, in addition to very useful tricks and tips. The sample photographs are beautiful and informative.

I read the whole book in one sitting, but it will stay close at hand to refer to often, while I try to capture that elusive shot with less than perfect photographic equipment. The photographs inside warrant placing the book where others in your household can also enjoy it.

The Publisher

Rocky Nook is a new California-based publisher, with a close association to dpunkt.verlag in Germany. Their books, focused primarily on photography and imaging, are distributed and sold by O'Reilly Media.

by ilene hoffman, Reviews Editor