An introduction to Macro-photography

Macro-photography can be very rewarding. Things to think about:

1. Magnification & Ratio

How large the subject appears in the frame compared to its actual size. In macro photography, the subject is typically life-sized or larger.

2. Depth of Field (DOF)

Using a small aperture like f/16 or f/22 can help increase DOF and keep more of the subject in focus, but may require slower shutter speeds or higher ISO.

If you’re not familiar with DoF, check out my course!

3. Lighting

Consider using diffused light to reduce harsh shadows and evenly illuminate the subject. Ring lights or macro flashes can be very useful because they provide even, directional lighting.

4. Focusing Techniques

Macro lenses typically offer manual focus due to the extreme precision required at close distances. 

5. Stability and Camera Shake

Consider a tripod, remote- shutter release or self-timer to minimize camera shake.

6. Choosing the Right Lens

A dedicated macro lens (usually 50mm, 100mm, or 150mm) can be expensive.  Consider extension tubes. They're cheaper than buying dedicated lenses, but there may be compromises.

7. Composition

Pay attention to the background and foreground.

8. Insect & Nature Photography Considerations

If you're photographing small plants or flowers, consider the time of day as morning light can be softer and dew can add interesting details to the subject.

9. Post-Processing

Post-processing can help enhance colours, sharpen details, or even combine images for focus stacking.

Here are a few lens suggestions (November 2024):

Canon:

DSLR: EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Mirrorless: RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Nikon:

DSLR: AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

Mirrorless: Z 105mm f/2.8 VR S

Sony:

Sony full frame: FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

Sony APS-C: E 30mm f/3.5 Macro

Sigma:

105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro: Available for both Canon, Nikon, and Sigma cameras.

70mm f/2.8 DG Macro Art: From Sigma's "Art" line. Available for Canon, Nikon, and Sony mirrorless cameras.

 Tamron:

90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 VC USD: Available for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. 

What to look for when buying a lens:

1. Magnification Ratio: 1:1.

2. Focal Length: 90mm or 100mm, for a longer working distance from the subject, (useful for shooting insects or delicate subjects). 

3. Stabilization: Image stabilization (IS, VR, or

It's time for another podcast...

Transcript

>> Speaker A: 0:16

Hello again. In this podcast I thought I would talk about a subject that I don't think I've spoken about before. I couldn't find any reference to it, which surprised me a little bit because it is an area of photography that I quite like. I don't do a lot of it, but the area that I'm talking about is macro photography. So macro is definitely a ah, more specialized area. There are some specialist gear you can get to get better results. But to me it's important because one of the things that I like about photography, one of my aims when I take photographs is to try and show the subject. And it might be a familiar subject, but show it in a way that people haven't seen it before. And I think that's definitely true of macro. so if you're not familiar with what macro is, it's basically you can call it extreme close up photography I guess. but generally what macro means I'll talk about magnification and ratio at this point. So the magnification is how big an image appears on the sensor, physically on the sensor, and on the film when you shoot it. And macro is where you have a ratio of 1 to 1. So in other words the size of the subject on the negative or on the sensor is actually life size. So immediately we're talking about small things or small details anyway of larger things and basically anything bigger than that. So that would d be a ratio of one to one and anything bigger than that, say two to one would be known, is known as super macro. And that's where you're getting into much bigger magnifications. So you're starting to get into this sort of microscope type photography if you continue that much further. So for the purposes of this I'll talk about one to one, I'll talk about macro. And again I think the beauty of it is that you can get in very close. If you're able to do that and show something in the way that it wouldn't normally be seen. It might be the pictures I like, are insect pictures, their faces often because you'll have an idea of what an insect face looks like anyway from seeing it. But being able to study it close up is really good. I find that really interesting. And also other details I wouldn't normally think of. So I'm thinking about a picture that I saw a little while ago now. It was actually of a fly's foot and it was beautifully executed. Let's say the photography was really good. They had used the colors to emphasize different aspects of it. And it was a kind of work of art, on the one hand, but also it just showed the detail, that goes into these insects that we not only, probably trying to ignore as much as possible, but might even swap from time to time. So macro photography to me definitely ticks that box of being able to present a subject and show it in a way that people would not normally see it. And that I think, is one of the main attractions of it. Ok, so what are the things to think about? I'm going to just cover a few things very quickly, just to give you kind of an intro to macro, if you've never got into it and just some thoughts if you want to try it out. And again with photography, I'm very keen on people not buying things unless they really need them. because I think'true with many things, but photography especially, it's very easy to spend a lot of money on equipment that then just sits in a drawer or in a cupboard and is rarely used. And I've done that. I'll sit my hand up. So I buy something that seems like a good idea at the time, but when I start to use it it's actually not that useful. macro is definitely, one of those areas where you can get into that situation. So things to think about. the first one is depth of field that you're working with is going to be very, very narrow. So hopefully, you know, depth field, if you don't take my course and you'll learn all about it. but bear in mind one of the aspects of depth of field. One of the things that drives depth of field is your distance from your subject. And if you are millimeters away, which is often the case with macro, clearly your depth of field is going to be extremely narrow. So if you're using a wide aperture, something like F5 or F 2.8, something like that, so that you've got a lot of light coming in, your depth of field might be measured in millimeters or even less than a millimeter. So it can be extremely narrow. obviously the counter to that is to use a larger F number, so F22, or F16, something like that to get the best depth of field you can get. So depth of field though is one of those things you really need to think about, perhaps even more so than in regular photography because it really does determine what's in focus and what Isn't now lighting is as always, an important area and you may be able to use natural light, which is great. I was watching a guy doing just a video tutorial on Macrome. He d was shooting a leaf and got very close to it. But luckily it was a sunny day, it was outside and had the sun was backlighting the leaf and it was great because you could see all the sort of cellular structure of it was amazing. So do think about natural light. And obviously natural light can give you really nice colors as well. the other thing is it's the light that we use as people when we're looking at these subjects. So if you want to present a familiar subject, definitely shoot it in natural light as at least one option because the colors will be what we're used to seeing. So it'be more familiar in that sense. And that familiarity can actually lead to a much greater impact when people look at the image. other things you can use are things like a softbox or a diffuser. again depending what you're photographing, you might be able to use a flash. The ideal flash though for macros to use a ring flash. So if you don't know what that is, it's basically a ring shaped flash unit that fits onto the front of your lens. Because if you imagine if you've got a normal hot shoe flash and you're really close to your subject, it's questionable how useful that's likely to be. another thought that I had, while I was just kind of putting this one together. Whst that if you're indoors and a friend of mine did this, he had a glass table and I forget what he was shooting but what he decided to do was light the subject from underneath. So he had the subject on top of the table and then underneath the table he had light source. And he also experimented with just different, different colored tissue paper, over the top of the light source. So that is another way of just creating a really cool sort of studio in your home. If what you're photographing is very small, then you don't need a lot of space to do photography. focusing. you obviously that's going to be pretty critical because your depth field is so narrow you might find autofocus works. I think a lot of people use manual focus when they're use using macro. I certainly do just allows me to see, I can see exactly where I am. Now. A tip that I read and I've not tried this, it was for people using dslr. it might be worth a try, particularly if you're not getting great results looking through the viewfinder. But just switch to live view. You can use the screen on the back of the camera and use manual focus and that gives you a view which you would expect a pretty good view of, what the final photograph will look like that you shoot and then physically move forwards and backwards to change focus. So that's another approach to take. Now you need to think about stability, you need to think about camera shakes. So we're possibly looking tripods here. So again just find some method of stabilizing the camera. It might be resting it somewhere, it might be using a tripod and then try not to use manual shutter release. So either use a remote, or use the three second timer so that once you press the shutter button any vibrations will have gone by the time the shutter actually opens. So these are just simple things and I've spoken about them before, when I've spoken about low light photography, but definitely in this situation it's one to bear in mind. Now I'm going to talk about lenses. So there are specialised lenses. I actually have one myself and usually they will be 5, 100 or 150m to that kind of focal length. Prime lenses are well, I would say it better to use because prime lenses generally give you better performance, better optical performance, than the zoom lens. But obviously it comes down to budget as well. Andeah, these are kind of lens to think about. Now having said that, these can be quite expensive and an alternative that you have, particularly if you're just trying out macro photography and you don't have a macro lens, is to buy a thing or things called extension tubes. Now what these basically do, they're a hollow tube, they've got your regular mount, fittings on them at either end and they allow you to basically move the lens physically away from the camera body. So the kind of distances we're talking about there can be anything from 12 mil to 25 mil are pretty typical. Some will be different. you can get them from the original lens manufacturer. I was looking at a Canon 25mm that just came on its own. It was only the one tube but it was quite expensive. It was €180 when I looked at it, which I thought was quite a lot for something if you're just testing it out. So there are definitely cheaper alternatives and they will usually come in sets of three and they can be as little as€50 40 to €50. So again optically they're not to make any difference in terms of putting extra glass there because there is no glass in them. But they can affect other aspects of lens performance. So one of the things to remember with these things is you can stack them so you don't just have to use the extension tubes on their own. You can actually connect them together. What that can do though is a couple of things to think about. one is you'll probably lose Autof Focusus if it's not the original manufacturer's extension tube. That's certainly a possibility. And that's probably not such a big deal because you're probably using manual focus anyway. You might start to get vignettings. What I mean by that is that around the corners, the corners of the image start to get dark. It's because you're starting to bring the shape of the lane's aperture into the image. So normally obviously that would be ah, not there. So you get a clean rectangular original shot. But that can happen with extension tubes. the other thing is that you might get connection issues with the camera. And I've just seen this just reading other people's experiences and that might be more of a problem because that can stop the camera from taking photographs obviously. So do experiment a bit if you can borrow some first. That's probably the ideal if you're going to buy them, if you can get them from a shop, or even get them from a second hand shop. But I know that's getting more and more difficult these days. but just take a lens and your camera and just try them out if you can just to make sure everything works. That's always the best way to approach buy new gear anyway. So that's a way to start so you can buy extension tubes. If you buy a macro lens you're probably looking about 10 times the price of the extension tube. So that's why I say if you can get something like that and try it out, it's well worthwhile. Now getting on to the actual composition, the actual image. You're probably going to find that it's a little bit different to other photography you might be doing. So for one thing if you do have a background, it's probably going to be very blurred so you're going to get a boky effect on it. Which is fine if you like that effect. But just be aware that's likely what's going to happen. Secondly, in terms of kind of leading people through the image which is how I tend to approach a composition that might be more limited but you will have detail on the animal's face or foot, whatever it is that you're photographing. And the thing to do is just to experiment really try different angles if you can, try different lighting if you can. But as with all sorts of photography just see what works. But you're likely to find you've got fewer options when it comes toination position. one thing you can do by the way, because you are working with narrow depth field and I've already mentioned depth of field is maybe to take multiple images that slightly different focus, slightly differently go forward and back of where you want to go, take several images and then stack them in post processing. That's another method that you can use to get a better depth of field and still retain the correct exposure and all the other things. Your image quality is good but work around a narrow ad depth of field now when you'regraph so again I don't know what you might be photographing so nature insects are the common one. but you might also be into models of some sort like scale models. And you might want to do really ah good close up shots. A friend of mine does that. in fact you gave me a photo to using the magazine and I was running it of ah steam engine typ thing with figures in it. And that's another way of using macro. So it can help you get more creative. And as I'SAID the nice thing is a lot of it you can do indoors so you can experiment, have a lot of fun with it that way. If you're working with a living subject so an insect then you need to obviously be conscious of what you're doing in relation to the animal. I'll call it that. And it might be moving, it might not. You don't want to disturb it if you can, particularly if you want to take multiple shots at the same angle. if it's plant think about again time of day. Another thing to think about is obviously with time of day you've got the golden hour and you can use that to get more interesting colors. But you might have dew and this is where things like dew can become much more significant because if you're doing landscapes, things like that, it doesn't have a big impact on the image. But I was getting something from my Garden shed the other morning and I just saw some dew on a leaf and ran back in and got my camera and took a photograph as I do. So, these little things, just other things to think about. As always a great place to get ideas is to jump online and have a look at other people's work, get ideas from that, see if you can replicate them if you really like them. So think about what it is you want to shoot and then see what inspiration you can get. And that will give you ideas too. Okay. Post processing, all the usual stuff. you can do all the usual stuff. So color contrast, everything else. So post processing is another topic really. So I'll leave that alone for the purposes of this podcast. So I guess to dive in on the. Sorry, just something else I saw there. Diving in on the subject a bit more, just referring to my notes. So when you think about it, when you're looking at macro subjects, probably you thinking textures and patterns, might be something that you're focusing on much more. And obviously this ties back into composition a little bit. I think color will but think about what it is you showing people. You've showing them a level of detail in these subjects that they've probably never seen before, possibly never seen before. Anyway, just have a think about that and I think once you do start thinking about, you'll find an awful lot of subjects out there you can experiment with. So it's definitely an area that could be very rewarding I think as a photographer. Now I, I'm not going to recommend lenses here. I'm going to put some lens recommendations that I just found when I was doing a bit of research. So as always, I've got basically lenses is from five manufacturers, so Canon, Nikon, Sony, Sigma and Tamron. so, again you might be better off with. I always prefer to buy the manufacturer's lenses. But having said that, some of the independents are very good. They're usually a lot cheaper than the manufacturers. so it really comes down to what budget you've got. But I'll pop them in the description to this podcast. When it comes to looking at lenss, the kind of things to think about really the magnification ratio that you can get. So remember that macro, true macro, if you want to be precise about it, is one to one the kind of focal lengths, so I gave a few earlier. But if you've got a longer focal length, like 90 or 100, basically it gives you a longer working distance from the subject. So depending on what it is you're actually shooting, that might be an advantage. Alternatively, if you've got a 60 or, or 50 mil, they're less expensive, they're more compact. So from, just a stability point of view, they might be, the better option for you. But you will need to get closer. Now, image stabilization is useful. If you've got it on the lens, that can definitely be a factor. It will obviously push the LAN price up a little bit, but it's something to think about. And really, sharpness is another big factor. So sharpness and aperture. So you really want a good sharpness, especially in the center of the frame. And that's true for any photography that you're doing. aperture, if you can get an F 2.8 or better, that's ideally what you want because that allows you to get as much light in as possible. Obviously it gives you very narrow depth field, which we've, already spoken about. So these are just some things to consider, I guess, with Macro. This podcast is intended as a bit of an introduction to it. if it is something you are interested in, I would first of all get clear about the kind of subjects that you want to at least start with and maybe make the main focus of what you're doing. And if you are buying new gear, get the appropriate stuff to handle that. If you are completely new to it and you're not sure if it's for you, but it sounds interesting, then I would, go down the path of getting some extension tubes and just using your existing gear and see how well it works. As I've said, if you can try it out before you buy it, that's much, much better. But often we don't have that opportunity now. And yeah, having said all of that, have fun with it because as I've said, I think it's a very interesting approach to photography. It can give you some, very different results. Any pictures that you produce are definitely going to be, particularly if you blow them up really big, they're going to be a very interesting view of, often very everyday things. And that to me is what photography is all about. So I hope you found that useful. I shall speak to you again in the next podcast. Bye for now. Just before I go, I want to remind you that, first of all, I have an offer running, with, my free download. So if you go on to the website and there's a link at the bottom of the description of this particular podcast, and that will take you to a link, to where you can give me your email. I will send you, a PDF which is 10 Simple Steps to improve your photography today. So it includes the kind of things that I talk about in the podcast. So it's all there in black and white with some examples. You can see what's going on. And also remember, I offer online photography courses. I do fine art. If you haven't checked out my galleries, please do. The links, are again below the description of the podcast and don't forget to help me out. So you're welcome to subscribe both to the podcast and you can become a member of my Patreon membership and, join me there. So in that membership you get, access to me, and also you get advanced notice of things that are coming up. I'll tell you about other things that are going on that I don't share in my Facebook group or on Instagram or anywhere else really. So it is, just a membership where if you like what I do and you just want to be a part of it, the subscriptions are really low. It's just a couple a cuple of coffee a month. So, how much better could I be than that? So please take a look and I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.