Macro Photography. Equipment

Transcription

1 Macro Photography Macro photography, more commonly called close-up photography, can be a very pleasing and highly creative way to shoot. As the name macro implies this type of photography is of small things or parts of the whole. In terms of equipment one can obviously spend a lot of money on macro type lenses and/or other related peripherals (add-ons) for these lenses or other non-macro type lenses that you already own for your camera system. However, it is also possible to get yourself rigged up with inexpensive equipment and yet still be able to shoot wonderful close-ups. I will detail much more on the various types of lenses and devices that allow you to shoot closer further into the notes. Subject matters, ranging from moderately close to incredibly close, are quite literally infinite for the macro photo enthusiast. You don t even have to leave your own home or backyard to find endless subjects such as insects, spiders and spider webs, flowers, morning dew drops, or abstracts. Mini-landscapes and colorful abstracts can easily be created and are limited only by your imagination. Other subject matters include closeup views of pet reptiles, fish in aquariums, amphibians, coins, stamps, rocks and minerals, sea shells, old family photographs, etc, etc. Equipment Most photographers today are imaging on digital cameras and a few diehards are shooting on film still. Whatever medium you shoot to 35mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera systems are the most popular and generally speaking offer the most variety and affordability in lenses and other closeup devices to allow for shooting in a macro mode. The list of lenses and other types of close-up devices includes true macro lenses, zoom lenses which have a limited ability to shoot close-up, close-up filters, extension tubes, bellows extension, focusing stages, Lens Babies and, in keeping with modern times, high resolution flat-bed scanners. All of these lenses and add-on devices provide for varying degrees of ability to shoot moderately close to amazingly close. Let me explain how these various types of equipment can serve you. There are for all camera systems (Canon, Nikon, Olympus, etc) macro lenses made in varying focal lengths (and range of focal distance) made by the camera manufacturers as well as other companies such as Tamaron, Sigma, etc. Macro lenses tend to be the most practical in terms ease of use.

2 - 2 - Equipment (cont d) The reason these type of lenses are the most practical is that they usually allow for quite an extensive range in their ability to shoot from moderate to extreme close-ups without the use of any other add-ons (filters, extension tubes, etc) being required. Of course it can be quite expensive to purchase the various true macro lenses made by camera companies such as Nikon, Canon, etc. The definition of a true macro lens is that it allows you to shoot images up to a 1:1 ratio in full frame 35mm format. However, these name brand lenses are not necessarily the best or the sharpest simply because you paid the most for them. As an example, the Tamaron 90mm Macro is, and has been for many years, one of the most popular true macro lenses sought out by photographers. This lens sells for less than half of the cost of similar focal length macro lenses made by Nikon and Canon. Focal lengths of macro lenses come in quite a variety from 60mm up to 200mm depending on the system that you are in Canon and Nikon both make quite a number of focal lengths. Personally I think if you are going to choose a macro lens to start with go with something around 90mm s to 105mm s. My reasoning here is that a focal length of 90mm to 105mm provides for very good close-up photography at a reasonable distance from your subject matter. With short-focal length macros (i.e. 50mm & 60mm) you have to physically get very close to your subjects in order to be able to focus. This might not be a problem with inanimate objects but not so good with subjects like spiders, bees, etc that may get spooked by your equipments proximity to them. However, if you are shooting with a camera body that is in the APS format with a 1.5 or 1.6 magnifications the lenses then allow for apparently larger magnification from a longer focal distance. Other close-up devices and Equipment As mentioned there are quite a host of other devices that will allow for shooting closer (not necessarily true macro) with non-macro type lenses that you already own. Close-up filters can be purchased from many camera (Nikon, Canon, etc) and filter manufacturers (Hoya, Kenko, etc) and often are very reasonably priced compared with actual macro lenses. Used with non-macro prime and zoom lenses it is possible to get much closer images with the use of close-up filters. Nikon and Canon both make a series of these filters with varying magnification effect in different thread.

3 - 3 - Close-filters (cont d) sizes designed for optimum use with their lenses. They can be considered to be of a better quality (and of course more expensive) thereby yielding sharper images than that of some of the other brands such as Hoya and Kenko close-up filters. However, the differences in sharpness may be so subtle that it s a non-issue for the average photographer they all generally work well and produce good quality sharp images. These same close-up filters can also be used with your macro lenses further increasing your ability to shoot closer, perhaps beyond a 1:1 magnification if you own a true macro lens that already allows for 1:1. This is definitely the case with the brand name close-up filters available from camera manufacturers such as Nikon and Canon i.e. integrated optically designed filters for their macros. Extension tubes are devices that are installed between your camera body and your lenses, and are available from the camera manufacturers and other companies (Kenko, etc). Extension tubes usually come in a series of 3 or 4 sizes (purchased individually or as a complete series) depending upon the manufacturer and generally speaking are quite a bit more expensive than close-up filters because of the built in requirement for contact points also being extended from lens through camera body. These tubes work by changing the minimum focusing distance of the lens that they have been coupled with. The longer the extension tube being used is, the closer you are able to get to your subject matter and multiple coupling of the extension tubes is also possible yet gain increasing magnification rates. Extension tubes also have the distinct advantage, over close-up filters, of not changing the optical qualities of the lens being used with them. So for example, if you have a very sharp non-macro prime lens you can use an extension tube and not compromise the sharpness of that lens whatsoever. As in the case of close-up filters, extension tubes can also be coupled with most macro lenses allowing for even closer or more magnified images than that possible with only the macro lenses themselves. If you really want to push limits of magnification you can also install close-up filters in front of the lens coupled with your extension tube(s). Again, if this is all done with a true macro lens you can imagine just how close to or magnified your subject matter becomes.

4 - 4 - Another very useful device for extreme close-ups with non-macro and true macro lenses is the bellows extension which is very similar in design to that of extension tubes and is also installed between the lens and camera body. The major difference between this equipment and tubes is that a bellows extension unit allows for almost infinite focal distance change via a moveable bellows between camera and lens i.e. they are not fixed like a tube of metal in the case of extension tubes, and the only limitation is the fully extended bellows. Serious macro photographers consider this piece of equipment, when combined with a high quality macro lens, the ultimate in close-up (macro and near micro) photography. Brand-name bellows extensions from companies like Nikon and Canon can be very expensive, often more expensive than their best macro lenses. As with all peripheral devices for cameras (i.e. close-up filters, extension tubes, etc) there are a number of other manufacturers of bellows extensions. These typically, but not always, are more reasonably priced and since they are not an optical device (i.e. no glass!) there is no adverse effect to the optical qualities of the lenses being used in combination with the bellows extension. Many serious macro photographers that use a bellows extension will also combine that unit with a focusing rail. The camera, with the bellows extension and a lens, are secured onto the focusing rail which is then screwed down tightly onto a tripod. The focusing rail is then used to move the camera/bellows unit back and further in small increments via the use of a micrometer which alleviates the need for moving of your tripod in and out from the subject matter. When shooting macro images, even small movements of the camera unit on a tripod, towards and away from a subject it is very easy to move completely out of the shortest and longest possible focusing of that subject, hence the use of a focusing stage. Start with rough distancing of camera from subject (looking through the viewfinder) via tripod movement and then move the whole unit backwards or forwards via the micrometer movement of the focusing rail. As with previous examples of combinations of lenses, macro lenses, closeup filters and extension tubes it is equally feasible to use close-up filters on the front of your lens attached to the bellows extension giving you further ability to shoot much closer than 1:1 magnification.

5 - 5 - Macro Photography Techniques It should not be a surprise to any photographer that in order to shoot crisp, tack-sharp, close-up images you must secure your camera to a tripod. Shooting macro images is very similar to using long telephoto lenses even small movements of your camera/lens unit can cover large areas in your composition possibly creating blurred, un-sharp images. Presumably this problem could be aided via the use of fast shutter speeds (i.e. 1/500 th second or 1/1000 th second). However, even if the movement is partially or completed stopped by a faster shutter speed, this solution virtually negates your ability to select a preferred aperture. Another method to allow for faster shutter speeds and some flexibility in choosing an aperture would be to increase your ISO. That solution may also create new problems in your images, such as digital noise (a grainy look to your image, especially in darker regions of it). Even though the latest, greatest, low-noise cameras available today may have the possibility of shooting at very high ISO s with little noise, usually through on-board noise reduction (nr), there will be some impact to the shot compared with low ISO shooting. The more you increase noise reduction the more you impact the final quality of your image usually softening the image. Generally speaking I shoot at the lowest ISO rating possible on my cameras (100 ISO in the case of my Nikon digi s) and decide whether I would like lots of depth of field, a very shallow depth of field or somewhere in between. In either case (large, medium or small aperture) this will dictate my shutter speed, rather than the shutter speed dictating my aperture (f/stop). For most of macro work the impact, creativity and final look of any image has a lot to do with the aperture chosen for the composition. It is not that I prefer shallow to large depth of field I simply want to have total freedom to use any. Of course there are occasions where movement by the subject matter may cause you to have to shorten shutter time and you simply will have to live with a shallower depth of filed and/or grainier looking image. Whatever choice you make with shutter speed/aperture combination you should also be using a mechanical or electronic cable release. This is also for minimizing or totally negating any movement of your camera.

6 - 6 - Macro Photo Techniques (cont d) As discussed, I feel that depth of field (what is in focus and out of focus) is extremely important to the look of any macro image and is one of the best compositional tools available to the photographer. Sometimes the use of a small aperture (e.g. f/22) works best, sometimes a large aperture (e.g. f/4) works best and at other times a mid-range aperture (e.g. f/11) works best. It has obviously a lot to do with the subject matter and how you ultimately want it to look. No matter what aperture used, large or small, depth of field in images shot with macro equipment is by its nature a relatively small distance. Also, depth of field with macro lenses or equipment is different from traditional lens photography it tends to be 50% in front of the critical focus point and 50% behind critical focus point. With very wide openings (e.g. f/2.8 or f/4) depth of field with extreme closeups becomes very short or shallow (down to millimeters or even less) however, the result may be to isolate one particular area of the composition which in itself creates the feeling of depth within that scene. This technique is often referred to as selective focus. When shooting images with a very shallow depth of field it is imperative that you carefully select the point of critical focus. I highly recommend that you place your critical focus via manual focusing NOT via auto-focusing. Relying on various focus targets on your viewing screen quite often will not give you the exact effect or results you were intending to get. There will many situations where even the smallest aperture (with the greatest depth of field) will not allow for as much in-focus areas of the image as you would really like. There are a number of possible solutions to increase apparent depth of field. One method would be to create a multiple exposures shot where the critical focus point is moved for each exposure. A bit of thought must go into reconfiguring each exposure which adds up to the composite (multiple) exposure e.g. 4 exposures of 1/8 f/16 each is equivalent to a single exposure of ½ f/16. There is no limit to the number of multiple exposures used to create a final shot as long as you configure (add up) each of them to get a final correctly exposed image. With most modern digital SLR cameras you need to go into your camera menu and set the number of exposures (e.g. 2, 4, 8, etc) required for your final composite image. With camera firmly on your tripod shoot each of the multiple exposures while moving critical focus for each.

7 - 7 - Macro Photo Techniques (cont d) The another method to greatly increase depth of field or even get sharpness throughout a scene is to use the same procedure as above except that you do not engage the multiple exposure setting, shoot each of your series of images correctly exposed and shoot each shot at exactly same exposure. Whatever numbers of images that are shot are then imported into photoshop where you create a final composite. This is done by using layers and subtracting any unwanted parts of each exposure (i.e. using only the part of the scene with sharp area for each frame). This method can create images that are quite literally impossible through any other including the previous method on page 6. There is another piece of equipment that can be employed to yield a large or very large area of depth of field (or sharpness throughout an image), without necessarily using small apertures, is to use a tilt-&-shift lens. These types of lenses mock view camera movements allowing for a change in the image plane of your compositions (Scheimfplug principle). Both Nikon and Canon offer various focal lengths of these types of lens (e.g. Nikon 85mm, Canon 90mm, etc). A number of tilt-&-shift lenses also have the added benefit of allowing for macro photography. Because of the technical attributes of these lenses they tend to be quite expensive even compared with the cost of traditional true macro lenses. For those photographers that own a high quality or high resolution flatbed scanner, such as a number of Epson s models, you have the possibility to create very interesting and highly detailed images of objects. This technique works best for flatter objects (e.g. butterfly specimens, flower blossoms, etc) which are placed on the carefully, cleaned glass surface of the scanner. With the lid of your scanner lifted back (or removed completely), a box with a totally black inner surface is placed over the entire scanning surface and the object being scanned. Some of these higher-resolution scanners allow for extremely detailed scans (1200 dpi, etc). The caveat with this method is twofold. First, flatbed scanners are designed for very flat objects (2-dimensional) so the depth of field is very shallow. Secondly, cleaning the glass surface completely can be frustrating which invariably means particles of dust are also scanned with the object you imaging. However, the cost of these types of scanners is quite affordable when compared with traditional macro lenses and attachments.

8 - 8 - Equipment Rentals In larger centers, such as Vancouver, Victoria or Calgary, there are a number of camera stores and suppliers which have available for rent much of the equipment I have talked about. This is a very good option for those who do not have the ability to purchase some of the very expensive lenses and attachments. Renting equipment allows you to (fairly inexpensively) try out various lenses and other macro equipment before deciding on purchasing of them. Resources and Publications There is a plethora of books published on the subject of close-up or macro photography, too many to list here. However, some of the more noteworthy photographers that are often featured in magazine articles about macro photography or have published a number of books on the subject are John Shaw (American) and Freeman Patterson (Canadian). Freeman Patterson and John Shaw, both world renowned photographers, have published quite a number of books which are particularly good how-to publications for photographers who are just starting to shoot macro images. Their books can be purchased through many of the large book stores (Chapters, etc), many camera stores, accessed via your local library or the photographers websites. There are of course many other notable photographers shooting wonderful macro images and a very good resource for them would be the public libraries, book stores or the internet. I am always accessible for technical advice on any aspect of macro or close-up photography, lighting, etc please feel free to me at kajrsvensson@telus.net and will try to answer all of your questions or give advice as quickly as time allows.