A “Macro” Lens

A “Macro” Lens

by William Lulow

Macro photography refers to making images of objects that are life-size or larger. It uses lenses that are designed to focus at very close distances to their subjects in order to achieve an image that is the same size as the object itself, often referred to as “1:1.” This is because the lens’ elements are positioned to allow really close up focus. Macro photography is often used in photographing jewelry or other objects that are relatively small. I use my Canon 60mm macro lens for much of the product photography I do. There are other macro-type lenses as well, such as a 100mm lens with macro focusing ability. These lenses are often used for same sized reproductions of objects the photographer cannot get very close to, like insects or parts of them.

I like this lens for still life photography because it has a very small aperture (f/32) which can provide extreme depth-of-field when used at normal distances, but it can also render images extremely sharp at macro distances:

This image was made with the 60mm f/2.8 macro lens stopped down to f/32 for maximum depth-of-field. Because of the extremely small aperture, some additional light had to be added.

Canon’s 100mm f/2.8 macro lens:

When using a macro lens at close distances, it is always best to have your camera on a tripod for greater stability. Also, if you are stopping the lens way down, you will most probably have to use a much slower shutter speed. So macro photography will also necessitate the use of a CABLE RELEASE  to minimize any camera movement:

Flowers are good subjects for macro photography, but when photographing outdoors, movement caused by wind conditions is something every nature photographer needs to prepare for. Therefore again, the tripod becomes an essential tool along with higher shutter speeds. This then requires one to use a higher ISO setting or wider lens aperture. If these conditions cannot be met, the photographer then must add artificial light to the scene to achieve a proper exposure.

Here are a couple of examples of MACRO IMAGES:

The two images below were shot with my Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro lens, camera on a tripod. Distance was about 6 inches, exposures were ISO 400, f/16 @ 1/8th of a second, lit with all natural daylight. It is also important to know which PICTURE STYLE to use if you are shooting digitally. I usually use the “Faithful” setting and have adjusted it with a couple of sub-settings. Here are the results:

I made a 5×7 inch print of the tomato just to check for sharpness and acuity. Since the object was only lit with available, ambient light, it is not as sharp as the shot of the flower below, which was lit with an external light. The ISO setting of 400 probably contributed to this. As the ISO is increased, the overall sharpness of the image tends to become degraded little by little. It is acceptable, but not quite as sharp as it could be. I might add, that it is important to make prints more than once in a while because it is the only way you can tell if your images are really sharp. Screens just cannot do a good enough job of showing all the detail you need to see.

Another shot with the 60mm macro, this time with the added SIDE LIGHT:

The addition of some artificial light enabled this shot to be made with an exposure of f/20 at 1/250th of a second with an ISO of 100 using the same 60mm macro lens. The light was on approximately one-half power (100watt/seconds) and it was placed about 18 to 24 inches from the subject. This made a big difference in sharpness and acuity.

Lighting for macro photography should be basically soft enough to render all important parts of the object visible with little or no shadow. The image above, however was lit with one strobe light placed in a SIDE LIGHT position to render as much texture as possible of the flower petals. In this case, the shadows serve to highlight the flower itself.