Quick Start

When I started to write about macro photography, I quickly got bogged down in a  mass of detail. There are huge amounts to say about cameras, lenses, lighting, subjects, special image processing, and on and on. That type of information is useful, but taking pictures is the fun part, and you can get started with just a little information. This chapter will get you started. When you're ready, dive into the rest of the book, but first, make some photographs.

The first challenge in macro photography is getting close enough so your subject looks like something more than just a tiny blob in the middle of the shot. There are a couple of ways to do this, depending on your camera. If you have a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex), you’re in luck. There are lots of options. But first we'll discuss cell phones and pocketable point-and-shoot cameras. The great thing about these cameras is that most people have one with them at all times. If you happen across an interesting critter by chance, you can make a photograph.

Let's start with cell phone cameras. The first thing to do is to test your cell phone to see just how close you can focus. You'll need to get closer for an ant than for a grasshopper, of course, so whether it's close enough depends on your choice of subjects. If the native focusing ability of your phone won't get you close enough, you'll want a close-up lens attachment. There are lots of these on the market. I haven't seen much difference between the very expensive ones and the under $20 variety found on Amazon and other 

If your point-and-shoot camera or cell phone camera won't focus close enough, there’s a solution. You’ll need a close-up attachment. Sometimes called  “close-up filters” they are simply magnifying lenses designed to fit a camera. The one you need depends on your specific camera. These are also available for DSLR lenses, and are the easiest way to add close-up focusing ability to any camera.

There are so many variations of pocket cameras that it’s impossible to give advice for all of them. The more expensive cameras often have screw threads for mounting lens attachments. Check the front of your camera lens. If it has screw threads [todo – photo] then all you need is a close-up lens with the right size threads. Less expensive cameras and cell phone cameras usually don’t have threads for attachments. This is where ingenuity and masking tape come into play. If you have a close-up attachment that’s about the right size to fit over your lens, you can just tape it into place, or, in a pinch, hold it with one hand while you use the other to take the picture.

With a close-up lens in place, your camera will focus closer than before, but won’t be able to focus distant subjects. The exact range of distances that can be focused depends on the camera and the strength of the attachment. To get more strength (closer focus) than one close-up lens provides, you can stack them, one in front of another. However, the more lenses you stack, the worse the image quality will get. It’s better to use a single, stronger lens to begin with.

There are two measurements to look at when buying a close-up lens. The first is the thread diameter in millimeters. This should either be the right size to fit your camera, if it has threads, or big enough to cover the front of your lens. If the camera has threads, the size will usually be marked on the lens with the symbol Ø, so Ø52, for instance, means a 52 millimeter thread size. The second measurement is the strength of the lens, measured in diopters. A higher diopter rating is stronger and lets you get closer. Inexpensive sets of close-up attachments are available for under $20. These typically have lenses rated at 1, 2, 4, and sometimes 10 diopters. More expensive close-up lenses give somewhat better image quality. [todo photos of +diopter attachments][todo photos made with +diopters]

Some close-up attachments are also available for cell phone cameras. In particular, a number of units designed for various iPhone models are widely available. I’ve seen two general types, and tried both. One uses a magnetic attachment and a metal ring that is supposed to adhere to the camera using a peel-and-stick adhesive. [todo photos of both types of iPhone accessories.][todo photos made with iPhone accessory] My experience with this type was poor. The adhesive didn’t stick for more than a few minutes, and an attempt to use superglue almost wound up coating the camera lens itself. A second type, a little more expensive, uses a plastic clip that slips on over the phone to hold the lens in place. This works much better. When I look at the actual lenses in these kits, it appears that they are all identical. The only difference is the added clip or magnetic ring.

If you are using a DSLR, you can still use close-up lenses over your main camera lens. But you have two additional options. Instead of increasing the lens strength using a close-up lens, you can focus closer by mounting an extension tube between the lens and the camera. Lenses focus close by moving away from the camera. The farther they move, the closer the focus. An extension tube is just a tube, with a lens mount on one end and a camera body mount on the other. It adds a fixed amount of distance between the lens and the camera, so you can focus closer. If you need more extension than one tube provides, you can add more tubes. Just as with close-up lenses, you lose the ability to focus on distant objects when the extension tube is in place. The big advantage of extension tubes is that they don’t put additional optical elements between the subject and the camera sensor. Each close-up lens adds a little bit of distortion, color fringing, etc. to the image. That’s unavoidable, though the more expensive ones do better. The extension tube, though, just adds air to the light path, and that’s as clean an optical path as possible.

The second option with a DSLR is to use a specialized macro lens. These are lenses that are designed for very close focusing. Typically, they’ll let you get to a 1:1 magnification – that is, the image on the camera’s sensor is the same size as the subject itself. This is great for a whole range of subjects. Macro lenses (with one notable exception) will also allow focusing on distant objects, so they are quite versatile. The main disadvantage is cost. A good macro lens might cost between $500 and $1000, or even more. But if you’re doing a lot of macro photography, a good macro lens will make your life a whole lot easier.[todo photos of DSLR with macro lens][todo photos made with macro lens]

Lighting is something that many casual photographers never think about. Either the existing light is fine, or the camera has a built-in flash. Even then, there is a lot that can be done with light to improve the photo. But with macro, lighting becomes a very important element. You might get by with ordinary daylight or room light for some photos, but if your subject is alive and moving, you’ll need to add light.

The light source is the camera’s built-in flash, or, if your camera doesn’t have a built-in flash, an accessory camera-mounted flash. Unfortunately, at very close distances, the lens barrel is very likely to be between the flash and your subject, so that the flash doesn’t help. There are a couple of ways to fix this. The easiest is to take a sheet of white paper and make a sort of visor over the flash, extending out over your subject. [todo photograph of this setup][todo photos made with this setup] [todo photo showing flash shadow effect] The result is that the light from the flash bounces off the paper and onto your subject. Bouncing the light does something else. It softens the look of the light and improves the appearance of your subject. In [todo reference] we discuss a lot of additional flash and non-flash techniques for lighting.

That’s about enough to get started. Go out and find some critters, and make photographs!