Macro Photography Is Like Magic!
– By Allon Kira
Since I held, somewhere in early 2000, my first Olympus digital camera, I was attracted almost inexplicable to macro photography.
Macro photography (by definition): An extreme close-up photography. Photo at close range … and sometimes so close until suddenly it revealed a whole new world, full of color and so rich, that really we had no idea that it is under our nose.
No, no need to go to Antarctica or to distant Savannah in Africa to see the wild nature. Right here, in your home garden, in the park, or a field at the edge of your neighborhood you can find ferocious predators, sophisticated animals, and other creatures that look like they just came out of a disturbed science fiction movie.
I must admit I was seized by the macro world. The beauty of nature combined with the latest technology, a variety of photographic techniques and equipment range, make this area so fascinating to me. And perhaps most importantly – almost infinite possibilities to develop in. The ability to get the most detailed resolutions and achieve virtually unlimited wealth of information from not an everyday perspective, they are the ones who make macro photography a field where you can get a unique vision of life and the natural world around us, near and far.
Therefore, macro photography is like magic to me. Suddenly, the little becomes giant, Marginal becomes main. Suddenly hidden things discovered in unusual dimensions, diversity and beauty!
As mentioned before, I started my way in macro photography with my simple Olympus digital camera. In order to make it a camera that lets you shoot macro with decent magnification and quality I had to use some optical aids such as various Close-Up lenses. Pretty quickly
I realized that it was not really enough and the next step was
a DSLR camera and a macro lens.
Today I take pictures with a variety of macro lenses: As of 60 mm, 100 mm up to 180 mm macro lens, allowing for magnifications up to a ratio of 1: 1. for significant magnifications I use the Canon Mp-e 65 mm lens that enables magnifications up to five times actual size.
Macro photography is mainly technical. In addition to using dedicated equipment in order to achieve magnifications, it is necessary to overcome a variety of other problems such as: lack of light, focus precision,
a very shallow depth of field and more.
In order to overcome these problems often require use additional techniques or additional equipment, for the desired result.
1/ Special macro flashes – essential especially in situations that require a particularly large magnification. Macro flashes are flashes that connect to the edge of the lens and bring light from the lens directly at the object. There are two main types of macro flashes: the twin flash and the ring flash. A large number of my macro photos photographed at magnifications greater than 1: 1 are made with macro flashes.
2/ Macro shooting using a lens in reverse position – in order to achieve a significant magnifications (greater than 1: 1) you can use the technique of shooting with a lens in reverse position. This technique uses a 50mm lens usually, attached in reverse directly on the camera body or another lens using special adapters. shooting with reverse lens enables larger magnifications than those obtained with most standard macro lens.
3/ Focus stacking technique. Macro shots have shallow depth of field. Very shallow. Sometimes so shallow that even the subject itself is not entirely sharp. The shallowness of the depth of field in macro photography is as a result of the short distance between the subject and the camera.
Read The full Article On Israeli Lens Magazine Issue#13 Super Macro Photography
