Close-up and Macro Photography

Kent Messamore
9/5/2011
 Close-up and Macro Photography
Reproduction Ratio
Size of Subject related to Size it appears on Sensor
Camera
= 1:4 Ratio or X
Lens
Camera
1/4 Inch Sensor
One Inch
Same Size or Life size = 1:1 Ratio or 1X
Five Times = 5:1 Ratio or 5X
Close up Photography is generally 1:10 to 1:1
Macro Photography is generally 1:1 to 10:1 or 10X
Micro Photography is generally 10:1 up
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Close-up and Macro Photography

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Close-up & Macro equipment
Macro Lenses
Tripod, Remote Cable
Macro Focusing Rail
Extension Tubes
Bellows
Teleconverters
Lighting Equipment
Polarizer Filters
Macro Filters
Reflector
Plamp
Right Angle View Finder

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Macro with a point & shoot

Macro Movies

Point & Shoot Macro Icon

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Macro Lenses
Nikon60 mm f/2.8 1X
Designed for Close-up photography
Also useful for general photography
Most are 1:1 Life size
Preferred choice for Close-up Canon 60 mm f/2.8 1X

photography Canon 65 mm

Expensive
f/2.8 1 5X

Canon 100 mm f/2.8 1X ($949) Canon 100 mm f/2.8 1X

Canon 60 mm f/2.8 1X ($409)
Canon 65 mm f/2.8 5X ($929)
Canon 180 mm f/3.5 1X ($1,300)
Nikon 60mm f/2.8 1X ($519)

Canon 180 mm f/2.8

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Tripod - Preventing Camera vibration
Requirements for a tripod to support Macro
Sturdy
Convenient height without center post
Legs flex to get close to ground
No or movable center post
Joby GorillaPod very nice portable & Joby GorillaPod

flexible small tripod

Beanbag

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 Macro focusing Rail
Adorama Macro Focusing Rail ($180)
Extremely fine focusing adjustments
Movement in four directions
right, left, forward, backward
Fits on most tripods

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Extension Tubes
Enable lens to focus closer than normal
minimum focusing distance
Getting closer magnifies your subject
Converts almost any lens to a Macro lens
No optics, but create distance between lens and sensor
The greater the length of extension tube, closer lens can focus
Extension Tubes can be stacked to give even closer focus
Extension Tubes will cause loss of several stops of light
Loss of light will probably cause loss of auto-focus. Focus
Manually
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Bellows
Similar to Extension Tubes, Bellows
increases distance between lens and
sensor.
Achieves a variety of Reproduction
Rations
Extended Monorail Bellows for
SLRs ($1750)

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Teleconverters
Canon 1.4x
Optical components that fit between lens and $300

camera
Usually 1.4x or 2x multipliers to lens focal Canon 2x
$300
length
Increase lens magnification without altering
Nikon 2x
minimum focus distance $300

Cause loss of light: 1.4x 1 stop; 2x 2 stops

Very slight loss in image quality Nikon 2x

Some lenses are incompatible with them $300

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Lighting Equipment
Canon Ring Light ($495) Canon
Canon Macro Twin Light ($729)
Nikon Macro Twin Light ($489)
Phoenix Flash Macro Ring Flash ($98)
Canon

Third Party
(Phoenix)
Nikon

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Polarizer Filter
Reduces reflections on non-metallic surfaces such as water and glass
Increases color saturation and contrast. Works on
blue not gray sky
Change the degree of polarization by rotating the
filter
Zero polarization into or away from sun.
Max effect perpendicular to line to the sun
Effect cannot be reproduced in post-production
Reduces light as much as 1- 2 stops; 2 stops at
full polarization effect.
Two types of Polarizer: Circular and Linear.
Only buy a Circular polarizer as it will have an
effect on both Linear and Circular polarized light.

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Macro Filter
Extra lens placed in front of lens
Makes close-ups possible with
normal lens
Can be stacked to increase
effect
Can soften image considerably
reducing quality
Not recommended.
Use Extension Tubes instead

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Reflector
12 Inch Silver & Gold Reflector ($10)
You might try making your own
reflector by taping a piece of
aluminum foil to a piece of cardboard.

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Plamp
Wimberley Plamp ($37)
Clamps to Tripod
Great for Macro shots
Holds subject
Holds obstructing background
objects out of way
Steady windblown objects
Holds reflector, diffuser, flags

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Right angle Finder
Canon Right Angle Finder ($180)
Nikon Right Angle Finder ($220)
Opteka Professional 1X-2.5X Right
Angle Viewfinder for Canon,
Nikon ($50)

Canon Nikon Third Party (Opteka)

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 Depth of Field What is Sharp in a photograph?

Your eye perceives Perfect lens would focus a point size object
blurred blurred
sharpness within this
at a point on the sensor
distance
No lenses are perfect and Human eye can
Depth of Field Lens only resolve a point size object down to a
small circle

Sensor
O Thus the point size object becomes a very
small circle
Object As you scale the point size object to an
entire photograph, some portions of the
photograph are sharply in focus and some
Focal Length are blurred
This is a very complex subject: Depth of
Field is determined by:
f/stop or Aperture
Point size object becomes a circle. Focal Length
The circle size is a characteristic of Distance to the Subject
the Lens and Focal Length. Lens sharpness
What is acceptably sharp is a Sensor size
characteristic of the human eye Print Size
Print viewing distance
For more depth on the subject try this link:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm Human eye characteristics

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 Control over DEF:

Depth of Field
Three (3) things you can do to
control DOF:

Focus Point
Lens Focal Length:
Increasing focal
length reduces DOF.
Decreasing focal
Length increases
DOF. Telephotos
typically have small
1/3 2/3 DOFs; Wide Angle
Distance: The greater the distance from the subject, the
Large DOF lenses have large
greater the DOF. If you want more DOF, Step back. If
DOF.
you want less DOF move close up
Focus Point Watch out for Zoom
Lenses as the DOF
f/stop: Decreasing aperture (increasing changes as you
f/stop) gives you greater DOF; Zoom in and out.
Increasing aperture reduces DOF. Less
DOF Open your lens; More DOF
Stop it down.

Shallow DOF
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Depth of Field
Hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be
focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp.
Hyperfocal
Focus 1/3 of way into scene for maximum Depth of Field Distance
Focus Point
For practical Macro application
Focus on infinity
Look at Depth of Field Preview
1/3 2/3
Identify closest spot in scene which still remains sharp Max DOF
Refocus on that spot
Take the shot and you will have maximum DOF

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Depth of Field
In Macro Photography we are pushing
one of the key factors influencing
Depth of Field.
The closer your are to your subject
the narrower your DOF
50 mm lens at f/4 focused at 1 foot -
DOF = 1/16 inch
50 mm lens at f/11 focused at 1 foot -
DOF = 1/2 inch
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For Maximum DOF keep sensor plane
parallel to subject to maximize DOF

Plane of Sensor

Sensor equidistant
from subject

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 Dragon Flies

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
http://www.macro-photo.org/

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Butterflies
Westford Butterfly Place - https://butterflyplace-ma.com/
Butterfly Conservatory Deerfield, MA https://wwwmagicwings.net

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 Look for the proboscis
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Bees

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See if you can catch one flying

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Arachnids
Spiders & Spider Webs are great Macro Subjects

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Misc Bugs

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 Really big Bugs

Art Vaughn
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Caterpillers

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Reptiles

Blue Tongued Skank

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Frogs

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Flesh Eating Plants

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Flower Buds

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Beautiful Flowers

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Shooting Flowers
Flowers usually have long stems which
are susceptible to small breezes
Use fast shutter speed
Use stick to stabilize stem (out of picture)

If you open the aperture to get more

light you will get narrow depth of field
If you use high ISO you will get noise

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Beautiful Flowers

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Focusing in Closer

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Focusing in Closer

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Mushrooms

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Seashells

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Misc

Pepper Corns

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Food Hmmm!! Chocolate!!

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