Beginners guide to macro photography.

What is macro photography? Taking images of a small subjects, comparable to the camera sensor size is called macro photography. Most common subjects are insects and flowers, however many common things may become an excellent subject. Macro photography is a very interesting and exciting area. You can reveal tiny details invisible by the naked eye and present a very unusual vision of common things. For example, an insect portrait enlarged to 1 meter size looks really impressive. Macro photography is a relatively affordable hobby, it is possible to get stunning close-up images even with a compact camera. To achieve very good results you need some specialized equipment like dedicated macro lenses, but it is not as expensive as supertelephoto lenses for serious wildlife photography.

Macro photography has some unique aspects, that are not common for other types of photography. Most important are:

- razor blade thin, depth of field, usually less than a millimeter;

- camera shake and movement is magnified and similar to very long telephoto lens, the rule of 1/(focal length) shutter speed doesn't work at high magnification;

- amount of light that reaches camera sensor decreases, as you are getting closer.

The aperture displayed by the camera assumes that the focus is set to infinity. The actual or effective aperture becomes darker at closer focusing distances (the closer you are to the subject the greater magnification you have). This does not cause any problems during shooting at normal distances, but when you approach magnification ratios of 1:4, that means that your subjects size is 4 times bigger than its image on the camera sensor size, the amount of light that reaches camera sensor decreases to a noticeable value. This can be proved by focusing on the same subject from various distances, and watching the exposure time changing. The change in the effective f-number should not be ignored in close up photography. You shouldn't worry about it too much, as camera exposure automatics with TTL metering is correct, but it is vital for understanding and if you prefer manual exposure control for whatever reason. To calculate effective apertures one can use this approximated formula:

Effective Aperture = (Lens Aperture Setting) X (1 + Magnification)

Canon, Sony (Minolta) and Nikon cameras handles apperture settings in different ways. Canon and Sony cameras operates with the aperture setting, that means that it sets and show physical aperture opening, and it doesn't change as you focus closer. Nikon cameras operates with the effective aperture. It is important to be aware of this facts, as it affects DoF and exposure calculations.

Macro photography demands for a lot of light. When you work in a true macro range, the DOF is very thin, it may be hair thin. So to get reasonable part of your subject in focus you will need to use small apertures from f/8 to f/16 or even f/22. However at apertures smaller than f/14 diffraction effects may be visible. This will make your images look soft. I try to avoid shooting macro at apertures less than f/16, and prefer to chose focusing more carefully to put emphasis on the most interesting part of the image. Some people like to have the entire macro subject in focus. This can be achieved by special shooting technique, called focus stacking. It is possible with static subjects only, for example some objects or sleeping insects. The idea is simple, you take several pictures with a slight focus adjustment, remember both camera and subject shouldn't move! Than you can use this series of images with thin DOF to combine a single image with great DOF using special focus stacking software, or, if you have enough patience, you can do it in your image editor manually by masking parts of the image layers and blending them.

There are two approaches for macro photography. Classic is shooting from a tripod with natural light. This will allow you to get perfectly looking shots of insects with very beautiful lighting. Artificial lighting will never lit your subject as good as natural daylight. You need a sturdy tripod to keep a camera steady. Use of macro focusing rails is highly recommended for accurate composition and focusing. The downside of this approach is that your subjects are usually sitting still, and there is no action or even motion in the images.

I prefer shooting insects that moves. Unfortunately you have to do it either in the middle of a day to have plenty of light or use additional artificial lighting. If you use flash it will solve some problems but it will introduce new ones. You will have plenty of light and as the flash impulse is very short you can freeze subjects motion and almost completely solve the problem of camera shake. But if you use bare flash it will give you harsh lighting and backgrounds will turn very dark, may be even black. I recommend that you use reflectors and softboxes to enhance lighting. The easiest way is to make one yourself from a white paper. I'll describe how to do it in details in another article.

You can use general purpose flash unit like Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for macro photography. It is very easy and will give reasonably good results. Just attach a reflector to it and go shooting. Canon offers two dedicated macro flash units. Ring type Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX Flash gives uniform light, that evenly lits your subject, it shows tiny details, but your subject will appear relatively flat. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash is very flexible dual headed unit with a mounting ring. Ring mount attaches to the lens. You can adjust each flash head intensity, tilt them, and position anywhere on a ring mount independently. You can even detach a flash head form the mount ring and put it anywhere you like. For general macro photography, at magnifications about 1:4 to 1:2 it produces lighting that is harsh to my taste, and I believe that you definitely need some small softboxes for the Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash heads to achieve pleasantly looking lighting. When you go in 1:1 magnification range and beyond, than the size of light emitting element of the Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash becomes comparable to a subject and it gives lighting of a good quality.

There are many macro lenses on the market, may be too many to make an easy choice. Nowadays almost nobody makes macro lenses that are really bad, but all of them have some issues that may influence field performance.

Macro lenses differ by focal length and working distance. They range from 50mm to 200mm. Short focal length macro lenses are good for object photography, but for insect macro photography I prefer long focal lengths. In general the longer - the better. With long lens you will have more working distance, and it will be less sensitive to distracting backgrounds. However if you shoot handheld and with natural light long focal length macro lens may be difficult to handhold. In macro photography, when you get really close, camera movements are very noticeable. Any camera shake or movement is magnified, similar to shooting with a long telephoto lens. With a hair thin DOF any movement along lens axis will result in getting focus in a slightly different place than desired. So it is very important to hold you camera very steady, as a very tiny movement may ruin a macro shot.

For insect photography I can recommend getting 100mm macro lenses for handhold shooting. For serious work from tripod it is better to get something in 150mm - 200mm range.

Focusing in macro photography is not the same as when shooting at normal distances. Almost all macro lenses change their focal length when focusing in macro range. Some macro lenses have internal focusing and doesn't change size while focusing. Lenses, that don't feature internal focusing extend in size and decrease working distance, as you focus on something closer. So when you use lens focusing mechanism, your composition changes and, if the lens doesn't have internal focusing, working distance also changes. If you use AF for macro photography, and when you shoot something very small, especially the one that can be frightened easily and will fly away it may be a factor that will influence whether you get a shot or not. So if you plan to shoot with AF lenses with internal focus are preferred. For more consistent results I suggest slightly different shooting technique. Just focus it for desired magnification and move camera back and forward slightly, to get your subject in focus. If you don't have special macro focusing rails for your tripod head, this can be a real pain to shoot, however if you have, than the lack of internal focusing and image frame size variations are not an issue any more. I must say, that you will need macro focusing rails for serious macro work, they really makes it many times easier, whatever lens you use.

If 1:1 magnification is not enough for you, there are several ways to increase it. You can use a 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter like Canon EF 1.4x III Extender or Canon EF 2x III Extender, third party less expensive teleconverters are available from Kenko, Sigma and other manufacturers. Teleconverter will increase you maximum magnification ratio according to its multiplier. So 1.4x teleconverter will give you 1.4 times magnification and 2.0x magnifies it 2 times. The big plus in using teleconverter is that it changes working distance by its own size only. But you will not get it for free. You will lose light accordinly to the added magnification, so 2x extender will make you f/2.8 lens into f/5.6 lens. Teleconverters usually degrade image quality, as they magnifies all optical flaws of the lenses too. Extension tubes (12mm, 24mm, 25mm and 36mm are available) or close up filter like Canon 250D Close-up Lens or Canon 500D Close-up Lens can also increase maximum magnification of your lens beyond 1:1 ratio. Extension tubes and close-up filters don't allow the lens to focus at infinity, so with these methods you will be limited to macro range only. All 3 described methods will severely affect autofocus performance and darkens viewfinder. So shooting will be slightly more difficult than it was with bare lens.

If you are experienced macro shooter and want to further increase you horizons, have a look at unique Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens. It may be called a super macro lens, most true macro lenses ends at 1:1 magnification. With this one it only starts here. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro cannot take normal photographs, but it rules in macro and extreme macro range. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro allows you to take macro shots with magnification from 1x to 5x. 5x magnification is really impressive, just imagine that a grain of rice fills entire frame area! However this lens is not for everyone, it is really difficult to master. It is manual focus, and when you shoot at maximum magnification it becomes very long and your viewfinder will look very dark, and you will need a lot of light to focus and make a shot. DoF is very thin, much thinner than it is with conventional 1:1 macro lens, it will be only fractions of a millimeter. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro is a real challenge to shoot with. However if you dare to walk a very long learning path, resulting images may look really stunning. If you've never shot macro before I don't recommend Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens as your first macro lens. At first results will be disappointing and you will need patience, and a lot of it, to learn using it. Optically and mechanically Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro is excellent. I definitely recommend it for experienced macro photographers, who want to push their creativity to a new level.