You may also be interested in the following articles.

Close-ups

Photographing Flowers

Photographing butterflies

High magnification close-ups

Sharp close-ups

Close-up photography on a budget

Controlling depth-of-field

Choosing lenses

Accessories 

Teleconverters

Do You Need Macro Lenses?




35mm SLR, Tokina 80-200mm f-2.8 ATX, Fuji Velvia 50, Bogen tripod and ball head.
Multi-segment metering, 1/125 sec at f-8. Aperture priority, and manual focus.
You might have heard that you need macro lenses in order to do close-up photography. This is not true. The only difference between macro lenses and other type of lenses is that macros can focus closer all by themselves, usually to half or life-size magnifications. Life-size means that a subject recorded on film will have the same size as in real life. Macro lenses are more corrected for close-up work, but this is only important for copying flat art work or when making duplicate slides. Macro lenses can also be used for any other type of photography including portraits, landscape, and architectural with excellent results. You may own some zooms with macro setting either at shorter or longer end of the zoom. I don't consider these type of zooms macros. The magnification you get with macro zooms is usually quarter life-size or less. To me a macro lens should focus down to at least half life-size. Some wide-angle zooms have their macro setting at the widest focal length. This is a big problem since working distance becomes very limited.

If you plan on doing a lot of close-up photography, I suggest purchasing a macro lens. The only reason is convenience. You can attach your macro lens to the camera and start composing. You can easily increase or decrease magnification as you like. Macro lenses are available in 50mm, 100mm, and 200mm focal lengths, although 180mm versions are available by Sigma. Nikon also makes 70-180mm macro zoom. Buy a macro lens with life-size capability. Also avoid 50mm versions because of their short working distance. 100mm and 200mm macro lenses provide more working distance than 50mm lenses. Many insects for example, won't allow close approach, so you need to stay back and still be able to get high magnification results. If you can afford a 200mm macro lens and don't mind the size and weight, buy this macro lens. You get plenty of working distance and all the magnification you'll need. Currently Canon, Nikon, Minolta, and Pentax make 200mm macro lenses with life-size capability. All four models also include tripod collars for quick vertical shots. 100mm macros are a great compromise. They are more affordable and still provide good working distance. I do a lot of close-up photography of insects and own a 100mm macro lens. I need this lens for the same reason I need my 300mm lens. I use my 300mm lens for larger wildlife and my 100mm macro lens for smaller wildlife.

If you want to do some close-up work, you don't need to purchase macro lenses. Try a medium telephoto lens or 80-200mm and 75-300mm zooms with extension tubes. Extension tubes are attached between the camera and lens. Tubes don't have any glass built into them and only create some space between the camera and lens which make lenses focus closer. How much magnification you obtain, depends on the lens and extension tubes. Remember this formula: Magnification= Extension/lens focal length. As you can see, a 50mm lens needs only 50mm of extension to reach life-size, but a 100mm requires 100mm of extension. Macro lenses already have this extension built into them. You can purchase tubes and use them on any lens for close-up photography. Best results are obtained with short to medium telephotos. Tubes are sold singly or in set of three. A 28-70mm zoom for example, set at 70mm with 70mm of extension tube give you life-size images. You won't always shoot at very high magnifications. Your 80-200mm and a single 35mm extension tube for instance, will be enough for most flower photography. My favorite combination for photographing flowers is my 200mm or 80-200mm zoom with extension tubes. I prefer this combination over my 100mm macro lens. Longer focal length lenses produce nice out of focus background and make the flowers standout. You can also use teleconverters with extension tubes to gain more magnification. For example, use a 35mm extension tube with your 28-70mm lens set at 70mm and you are at half-life size. Attach a 2X teleconverter behind the tube and you magnify the image by 2X to reach life-size. You must first attach the tube to your lens or you loose magnification. Remember the formula I mentioned above? If you attach a 2X teleconverter to your lens, you increase focal length. Your 28-70mm zoom becomes 56-140mm. Set the lens to 140mm setting and you need 140mm of extension tube to reach life size. By attaching your extension tube to the lens and placing the teleconverter behind it, you gain more magnification. There is some loss of light with extension tubes. It depends on the extension tube and lens in use.



35mm SLR, 24-50mm f-4 with extension tubes, Fuji Velvia 50, Bogen tripod and ball head. 1/15 sec at f-16. Aperture priority and manual focus.


You can also use close-up filters for some close-ups. Stay with+1 to +3 filters and medium telephotos. Magnification is limited with filters and loss of sharpness will be noticeable at wider apertures. The best method is extension tubes. You don't have to own macro lenses to take quality close-up shots. Any quality short to medium lens with extension tubes will work just fine. Tubes are inexpensive and easy to carry. The best buy is Kenko extension tubes. They are available in autofocus with full camera contact including auto diaphragm. I use mine on my 100mm macro lens for increased magnification as well as my other lenses including zooms. Keep in mind that with zooms, you need to refocus if you zoom back and forth. Zooms without extension tubes don't require you to adjust focus if you change zoom setting. With extension tubes attached to zoom lenses, focus must be readjusted every time zoom setting is changed. I'm using my extension tubes more and more often than my macro lens. Actually, the only reason I still have my 100mm macro lens is being able to photograph small insects at very high magnifications. I think no outdoor photographer should ever leave home without a set of extension tubes. With tubes and today's high quality lenses, anyone can enter the wonderful world of macro photography.

Macro photography: Learning from a Master



 

The one book that any photographer needs to become an expert in the art of portraying nature close-up, Macrophotography invites readers to explore a magical world in which miniature landscapes are magnified in all their radiant splendor, capturing flora and fauna in exquisite detail. In these pages, in remarkably clear, larger-than-life stop-action images, we see the delicate stamen of an orchid, the intricate pattern of a butterfly's wings, snails climbing on mushrooms, and the eye of a gecko. This splendid how-to manual not only reproduces these images in glorious full-color photographs, but also provides technical information of immense value to nature photographers, both amateur and professional.

Topics covered in this outstanding guide range from practical advice about basic equipment and more sophisticated accessories to aesthetic concerns such as composition and color. After explaining how to proceed in the variety of terrains nature photographers may encounter in their travels, the book examines macrophotography in the studio, discussing how animal and plant life can be shot in aquariums and vivariums and using studio backdrops.