If you own an SLR Camera and an existing lens:

You can use magnification lenses for macro photography if you already own an existing lens. This is by far the cheapest possible solution to get macro shots.

Magnification Lens

Magnification Lens

The amount of magnification with this lenses varies with their power. The bigger the number the stronger the magnification. In the image example above I have the +1 lens coupled with a +3 lens which makes up to +4 magnification.

There are trade-offs when using these lenses however:

1. The more magnification lenses you put in front of your lens, the less light getting through the lens. Which means your camera speed will be lower than normal. Say in a certain condition you have 1/100s speed, when you screw on these lenses you might end up with 1/60s speed.
2. The depth of field will be shallower than a true macro lens. With these lenses its slightly harder to get the background of the object sharper without losing the speed.

As I said previously, this is the most affordable quality solution.

If you are planning and have the budget to get a new lens:

Dedicated Macro Lens

Then get the true macro lens. These lenses offer very high magnification and incredible detailed result. Depending on your budget, you might want to look at third party providers as well. I use Tamron macro lenses myself and to date I have been very satisfied with its results.

With this lenses, you will have full control of the aperture, speed and focus. Many of these lenses have fixed focal lens, meaning that you will not have an option to zoom in or out. That’s okay, considering you don’t get that far or close from your macro subject most of the time.

If you want to get a semi-slr:

Macro in Compact Camera

Don’t forget to consider and semi SLR camera with macro capability. My old DiMage A1 did very good macro before I switched to the SLR. It gave good details when printed up to A4, above A4 however we might start to see the compression noise. This is because of the nature of Semi-SLR that has smaller image sensor than the true SLR. Ont he other hand, as technology grows, the semi SLRs are getting better and better in its quality. Best way to find out is always to check out the sample shots for a particular camera.

Reverse lens technique:

This a technique that can also be explored if you feel adventurous. Basically you use the other end of your lens to be attached to the camera body, then you will get massive amount of magnification. Of course you will have to buy the converter to do this. The downside of this technique and why I never use this as my permanent solution is that you might get your bottom end of your lens (the body connector part) scratched.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to start doing macro shots. I wouldn’t recommend those macro settings in a compact pocket camera however because of their lack of control and their depth of field is never shallow enough.

Well, here’s some of the things that I have learnt over my time of taking macro pictures.

Knowing what you want to focus

is one of the most essential elements. Let’s take a look at the picture on the left. The flower itself was in good condition, lighting at that moment was ok. Yet something is lacking when you look at the picture as a whole (might help if you see it in full size, click on it). When you look at this picture, your eyes wanders, there’s no significant point of interest that points to the flower, instead some might see the bud behind the flower instead. Continuing on, let’s look at the picture on the right, there are much to improve, first its focus didn’t feel right and the composition is a bit “messy”.There is nothing that guides the eye into an interesting point in this picture.

So here’s a few points to consider when taking macro pictures: Play with you depth of field Choose your focus point Experiment with different angles Clear focus point This picture on the left (purple flower) is an example of clear focus point. In this picture I have chosen a very shallow depth of field, using around f 3.5. Notice that with the background blurred our eyes are drawn towards the flower and the sharpest part of the flower. If you are confused or unsure which part of the flower to focus on, then focus on the flower’s filament. This is because when you focus it properly, it should add some crispness and a sense of detail to your image. If in doubt, focus on the “filament” or the “pistil” of the flower as they look great when focused properly. One of the example of such focus is this picture on the right. This picture is also an example of choosing an entire different angle and depth of field. So you see, to take an interesting picture you don’t have to have the full view of the flower. Another important thing to consider to help with the composition is portrait format. By nature, a single flower is “tall”, hence like taking a person’s photo, it is easier to take it with portrait format as oppose to landscape. If in doubt, try portrait (vertical) format. Those tips on taking pictures of macro flowers can also be applied to different objects such as insects or even leaves. The most important thing to do is to experiment and think about what you want to show from your shot. The point of interest, depth of field, portrait vs landscape, different angles and lots and lots of shots (most of us shoot digitally anyway). Here’s some more example to give you some ideas! Stay tuned for the next post, i’ll post in some equipments that we can use to do  macro photography. insect shot (click for full view) different take on leaves yet another different angle