Intro to Macro Photography
At a certain point, there will be a time when you have taken pictures of just about everything in what seems like every possible angle. You might even run out of ideas or lose interest because you think there is nothing more to take. One of the best solutions is to get a new piece of photo equipment. There are lots of different accessories to choose from that can improve and challenge your skills, but the best place to start is with a new lens. One of the most useful and fun lenses to focus is the macro lens.
All 35mm camera lenses have some kind of ratio that represent the size of an object in the picture compared to its real life size. A typical lens presents objects much smaller than their actual size, while macro lenses will get a ratio much closer to reality. Have you ever seen a close-up picture of a bug’s eye or the tip of a nail? Chances are those photographs were shot with a macro lens.
There are several different types of macro lenses available. The most common ratio found on consumer-level equipment is roughly 1:2, meaning that subjects in the image on film will be ½ their actual size. This may not seem like much, but remember that you’re going to blow the image up when it’s printed and framed to an 8×10 or 5×7, the final version will be much larger than real life. Super high grade equipment can go up to a ratio of 5:1 which is powerful enough to look at a snowflake or explore the rough surface of a sponge. Depending upon your budget and the type of results you want, you can get a simple attachment for your normal lens or a full lens that attaches directly to your camera.
Macro Experiments
Once you have a macro lens and have got a bearing on how it works, go out into the world and start seeing things like you’ve never seen them before. Even the most familiar of subjects or environments can become dramatically new and exciting when viewed from a different perspective, and a macro lens will certainly provide that to you. Here’s some fun things to do with your new macro lens:
- Explore your house and get a bugs-eye view of your furniture, carpet, and surfaces.
- See how the lens expands your creativity by shooting common items in your neighborhood or house
- Set up a small space and see if you can duplicate “catalog” type images of small products like shooting an image of an ornate picture frame.
Macro lenses can have a great impact on how you see the world and provide you with a versatile alternative to shooting with a regular lens. You never know when it may come in handy to get a picture of something really small. It’s also fun to take pictures of common objects at super-close range and see if your friends and family can figure out what the item is. Macro lenses can turn grass into green bladed mountains or ants into scary creatures that make your imagination run wild.
While the cost of a dedicated (separate lens) macro can run you $200-400, you’ll find that the options it gives you and the inspiration it can provide are well worth the cost. Making mountains out of molehills may not work out for us in our jobs or personal relationships, but in photography it can be great fun. Besides, they always say it’s the little things that matter.
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Filed under Amateur Photographer, Photography by JamesJ
