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Macro Photography
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Macro Photography
"how to take close-up pictures of small
things"
by Philip Greenspun
macro \'mak-(.)ro-\ aj [macr-] 1: excessively developed : LARGE, THICK 2: of or involving large
quantities 3: GROSS
Taking close-up pictures of small things is called "macro photography." I have no idea why. Perhaps because
the small things in macro photography are generally larger than the things you are taking pictures of when
doing "micro photography". If you really want to be pedantic then you should say you are doing
"photomacrography".
What Kind of Camera
You probably want a standard 35mm single-lens reflex camera. You will see in the viewfinder what the film sees. If you have a lot of
money, you can get a 6x6 single-lens reflex such as the Rollei 6008. That's more or less the same idea. If you have a lot of patience, you
can do macro photography with a 4x5 inch view camera.
In the digital world, true macro photography is possible only with single-lens reflex cameras that take interchangeable lenses, such as
the Canon D30, the Fuji S1, the Nikon D1, and the various Kodak professional bodies. One nice thing about these cameras is that their
small CCDs effectively magnify the image captured by whatever macro lens you've purchased. Thus a 100mm macro lens mounted on a
Canon D30 effectively becomes a 160mm lens. And if the lens gives 1:1 magnification on 35mm film, you get 1.6:1 on the D30's
sensor.
Doing it all with a 50mm Normal Lens
In the good old days a 35mm single-lens reflex camera came with a 50mm "normal" lens. These
lenses were extremely light, rugged, and high quality so naturally the consuming public
abandoned them for heavy, fragile, low quality zooms. But that's another story... Anyway, suppose
that you are out in the woods with your Nikon and a 50mm normal lens and you want to take a
picture of the tip of a pine needle.
First, though, you want to take a picture of the moon. That's pretty far away, so you feel
comfortable setting the lens focusing helical to "infinity". The "nodal point" of the optics will now
be 50 millimeters from the plane of the film. [Note: exposure for the moon should be roughly f/11
and 1/film-speed.]
http://www.photo.net/macro/primer (1 of 8)15/11/2004 6:47:08 PM