This article is part of the online
digital photography course.
With "macrophotography" is usually indicated the picture whose subject is captured on a sensor in scale 1:1 up to 10 times its original dimensions, this means that 1inch of the subject equals 1inch of the sensor. Macrophotography is usually linked to insects and flowers, but any subject can be interesting and original seen from a very close point of view. Close-up photography is a picture in which the subject is captured on a sensor big from 1/10 to 1/2 of the original dimensions of the subject, while pushing the focus over 10x you get into the field of macrophotography.
Simone Tossani, NPS (Nikon Professional Service) photographer, www.simonetossani.it, wrote a wonderful article about Naturalistic Macrophotography.
The pictures and the text below are exclusive copyright of Simone Tossani.
The butterflies, the bees and the mantises are fascinating colorful inhabitants of a world that only photography can explore. But which is the lens most suitable for macro? Better a long or a short focal? Is the autofocus necessary? And the image stabilization? Is it better a flash or the natural light? Here are some useful advices not to stay trapped in the spider net.
I wasn’t lucky enough to attend photography courses or specialized courses; I had though the privilege to have as master a great photographer that would have given a lot of work to do to the so-called specialists of the field, making them talk a lot about him.
My dear master (my Father) even before teaching me how to hold a camera in my hands, transmitted me the sense of the immortalize the great richness that is Nature, teaching me to respect it in all its forms, to observe it and classify it.
It’s thanks to the training I received that I decided to undertake the adventure of naturalistic photography (macro in particularly), with which I have literally fallen in love.
Unfortunately a beautiful picture doesn’t only come from emotions and technique; there aren’t many elements participating to a good result. The framing, the focusing, the exposure, the depth of field can’t be just sterile notions but have to be researched and experimented on the field, where we don’t always find the best possible shooting conditions.
This way I understood I had to renew my way of photographing, keep although the basic institutes I initially received. Digital photography brought more commodities compared to the film, which you can appreciate best during shooting.
The simple fact of being able to control the focusing and the exposure isn’t a little thing, especially in macro that requires the maximum clearness and legibility of details. All this without considering the saving and the control of waste: it’s not rare to be forced to discard all the 36 shots of a film because the result isn’t the wanted one.
WHICH LENS?
It’s the first question we ask ourselves when we decide to take macro photographs. The first consideration to make for the choice of the lens is about the possibilities of our wallet: in Italy prizes go from 300 to 1900 euros depending on the brand and the focal length. For starters it’s good to look for medium-low range one, aiming, why not, for the second hand market, that offers greedy occasions. Besides, going for an economic category isn’t the worst solution considering that for those who are approaching this technique for the first time it’s hard to find a macro that doesn’t suit for the situation.
Optics built specifically to work at high ratio of enlargement are never lacking, and sometimes we can get a few nice surprises. Apart from the costs, another consideration to make before any purchase is the result we want to get with our shots.
Shooting with a macro with a 60mm focal give as result a scene different from the one you’d get with a 200mm one; apart from this it’s possible to obtain very similar results using specific accessories like extension tubes; later we’ll see how this can be possible and what problems could we have.
In a macro scene, the luminosity of the lens, as it maximum aperture capability, isn’t very important since it hardly ever happens to have the entire diaphragm opened, on the other hand a luminous optics helps with the operations of focusing giving us a brighter image in the viewfinder, even if at reproduction ratio close to 1:1 we’ll lose approximately one stop.
On the market we can find zoom lens with the Macro denomination. Without doubting of their quality, we’d feel like saying: everyone should stick to its own job, they aren’t real macro lens; they let us reach a lower working distance compared to the normal usage, so to generate enlargements with reproduction ratio of 1:2, but it’s not enough to compare them to an optics designed for such purpose.
The best thing for all potential macro-photographers is not to look for an optics that can do everything, avoiding inappropriate investments.
Let’s use Live View
Almost all the digital reflex are equipped with the so-called LiveView that offers the possibility to frame through the backside LCD screen of the camera. This function, adopted very much on compact cameras, was introduced for the first time on digital reflex cameras by Olympus and became a standard for many constructors. A lot of people think it’s just a commercial trick and in many cases it’s true: can you imagine a sport photographer dealing with the slow focusing of LiveView? But in Macro, where the speed is relative, the unappreciated LiveView lets us focus manually with high precision, otherwise impossible to get: the focusing, in fact, is made directly on sensor’s plain appearing this way crystal clear.
Moreover, it saves us from back and rheumatic pain making us avoid uncomfortable positions while shooting and making us save money since there won’t be any need to buy specific accessories to arrange the eye position like angular viewfinders or similar.
We must say that there are no other digital reflex cameras with interchangeable prisms like the glorious Canon F1, Penrax LX or the Nikon F3 that had a series of interchangeable viewfinders depending on the type of shooting. The LiveView replaces then become kind of a digital ground glass without the disadvantages of the straight framing with inverted sides like in the cockpit. Besides we can also focus the framed subject up to 40x, choosing a precise point in our scene and observing this way with extreme precision the focusing and the depth of field depending on the aperture we set.
AUTOFOCUS? NO THANKS!
We must forget about all the multipoint and sophisticated autofocus modules, assisted by ultrasonic motor incorporated into the lens, because they don’t reach the precision required in macrophotography. The manual focusing is the best choice when we have a static subject; unlike for dynamic subjects we we’ll need to be equipped with a good autofocus, without pretending the same accuracy of the manual focusing. For the stabilized lens we have the same situation: their utility will give greater satisfaction in other applications.
Pay attention instead to the minimum distance of focus of which the camera lens is capable, whereby the distance is considered as the one between the subject and the film plane or sensor. Consider that in equal ratio, the more the focal length is shorter the smaller this distance is, and vice versa, the same will increase with a longer focal length, thereby increasing the probability of capturing the decisive moment. A greater working distance allows you to not have the person glued to the front of the lens causing scare, avoiding the risk of getting an empty perch!
The macro kit I used for all the shots that you see in these pages is composed of four different focal lengths: the Micro Nikkor AF-D 60mm f / 2.8, the Micro Nikkor AFS 105mm f / 2,8 VR, the Sigma 150mm f / 2.8 EX DG HSM Macro and Micro Nikkor AFD 200mm f / 4. Although they all are autofocus lenses to maximize compatibility with digireflex generation, I run the focus always on hand. Among these focals my favorites are the 60mm and 200mm which I consider personally the champion in the field of macro lenses for their excellent sharpness and the excellent micro contrast that helps return the minute details of insects.
Given the cost of about three times lower than the Micro Nikkor 200mm f / 4, 150mm f / 3.5 Sigma is a superb lens in terms of sharpness, it has nothing to envy to the original image but returns with a significantly colder gradation, forcing a post-production to find a more accurate color rendering, faithful and brilliant.
YOU TUBE...
The use of a Tele has its advantages but it forces to put and on our wallet, we consider that a Micro Nikkor 200mm f / 4 costs new around 1800-1900 euro, looks very far from our resources. But do not despair: we can get very good results by combining a special 50-60mm extension tubes putting them in front the camera and the lens to increase the draft. That means removing the lens from the rear focal plane / sensor by increasing the ratio and getting the blurred effect in the second floor like using a long lens.
To better understand the effect of the draft of a lens it’s enough to perform a practical test. Take a sheet of A4 paper (about 20x30cm) and a flashlight for illumination.
The sheet will be our sensor, the torch our goal and the light beam the projection of the captured image. Light the torch and put it with the lamp facing the paper at about 10cm, you will notice that the projection of light forms a circle of diameter X, now gradually move away from the torch more about 5cm from the sheet. We observe that, by increasing the distance between the torch and the sheet of paper, the size of the circle formed by the light projected increase. So we see that by increasing the distance between lens and sensor, consequently increases the ratio.
The extension tubes are commercially available from the originals of some of the best known manufacturers of reflex to various manufacturers of photographic universal accessories. Among these, my choice fell on Kenko for the possibility to maintain all the automatisms of the machine. The pipes are not the worst thing in the world, but they have their pros and cons. In favor of the tubes it must be said that reducing the minimum distance of focus of the lens in relation to the draft, you do not degrade the image quality and maintain all the automatic exposure and focus. On the other hand you lose infinity focus, brightness in the viewfinder decreases and the depth of field is reduced drastically.
THE DEPTH OF FIELD
The shallower
depth of field, following the adoption of the extension tubes proves to be a double edged sword: on one hand increases the focus, eliminating distracting elements in the second floor and giving the background a blurred appearance in order to bring out the subject, on the other forces us to pinpoint accuracy in focusing to showcase all the details.
That's why the manual focus is so important.
Also forces us to use small apertures. But be careful, do not overdo it! There is a limit beyond which each objective suffers of the phenomenon of diffraction, which manifests itself in a loss of sharpness and a softening overall image, sworn enemies of the macro.
It is important to specify that the depth of field increases at large values of f / stop (for example f/11-16, etc..) and decreases setting small f/ stop values (for example f / 2.8 to 4 etc..). If we try to take a shoot with a very closed aperture (f/22), we’ll have a very large depth of field that would suggest a sharper view of all the elements that make up the subject. Actually this is not true, because we have diffraction. Unfortunately when we close the diaphragm to values between f/16 and f/32 the resolving power of the lens decreases.
This phenomenon will be visible only when looking to the photos on your computer or via the monitor of our cameras, so be careful because the reflex’s sight can’t perceive any deterioration in quality.
Do not be alarmed though. If it is true that the diffraction is inevitable it’s also true that a macro lens worthy of the name comes designed to give maximum apertures, unlike the rounder objectives who showed a dramatic drop in quality for smaller apertures. The right light, as it may seem trivial, is the essential element of any photograph whatever is kind of recovery in which we are venturing.
There is no noble goal or super stratospheric SLR flagship in the world that can save a shot captured with the wrong light. My experience has led me over the years to experiment with lighting techniques based on the use of multiple flash units. But I have always obtained the greatest satisfaction with natural light, mostly grazing, the best to enhance the shapes and beautiful colors of the tiny inhabitants of the woods and meadows.
Not using the flash means raising the ISO sensitivity. If the film is unthinkable to take a picture macro 800-1600 ISO because the results are poor, with the latest generation of digital SLRs we can take revenge on the grain buckshot and mushy details. I am fortunate to use a Nikon D3 but there are in commerce reflexes mid-ranged that can boast a containment of disorder that competes with this super flagship. We take into account also that the printing photographs forgive many of the flaws that we see on the PC monitor, so we can sleep tight.
Although I consider the subjective choice of shooting modes, I work constantly in aperture priority, but the most difficult cases or when I want to give special effects I switch to completely manual one. The automatic priority aperture allows you to set the desired aperture and let the camera automatically calculate the best time according to the available light. There is a special diaphragm which could be used constantly, however, there is a precise value for which the aperture usually gives its best regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves.
This value ranges from an aperture of f / 8 and one of even f/16. A smaller apertures will give problems related to diffraction, even if we increase the depth of field. The choice to work in ambient light imposes a rule: wake up early in the morning to be on the spot to photograph before sunrise. An advice: always carry with you a small flashlight that while waiting for the sunrise will be useful to find subjects among the vegetation. Keep in mind that early in the morning, following the lowering of the temperature occurred during the night, we could take advantage of the complete immobility of insects due to the slowdown of their metabolism. As the air warms up we will have more and more difficulty to approach them.
THE TRIPOD
The rough and micro rough are the biggest enemies, in macro sharpness and clarity is everything.
There is no discussion: we need to buy a tripod. Constantly carry it around as a burden, having to position it each time you will have to take a picture, it’s not easy to bear, but the experience will teach you that the tripod is the only friend that allows you to perform any footage that would be impossible to make by hand.
If you are thinking of something as light as carbon fiber tripods you are wrong.
Apart from the very high cost, in macrophotography they weren’t proven useful because they are unstable and subject to vibrations. The function of the tripod is to constitute a solid support to avoid occurring phenomena of micro moving and only its weight can overcome this drawback.
In short, the more the tripod is heavy, better it fulfills its function. For a compact digital camera a light and versatile tripod as the Manfrotto 055 Pro will do the thing. But with the reflex it’s better not to compromise. Everything depends on the weight of the equipment but if you want to make a good investment you should pick one that weighs around 4.5 kilograms: the tripod is not subject to fashions and stay ours for many years to come.
In addition to a good tripod it’s necessary to have a head that guaranties the necessary stability of your camera / lens.
It’s better to avoid the ball heads because if it is true that they are quick to perform a recovery, they don’t facilitate the accurate control of the frame being in free movement in all directions. One of the many solutions, although not the most effective, is constituted by the heads to 3 movements, even if they have the defect to move the image in the direction of rotation of the knob while we provide the clamping of the axis of movement. Of course, you can always crop the picture with Photoshop, but if we want to have absolute control of the frame the best alternative is represented by the expensive rack heads for the Manfrotto 410. The latter allows by rotation of knobs to perform accurate shots without having to intervene in the tightening of the axis. It also allows movements in 3 directions with micrometric displacements so as to make easier the search of an effective parallelism with the subject.
If you like to go overboard like me, you can add a slide micrometer like the Manfrotto 454, which ensures the micrometric movement across the field of view allowing us to make the focus by moving the entire optical unit. Weight, size and cost are high, but still proportionate to the level of sharpness obtained.
