Extreme%20Macro%20Photography

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Greater than 11

by Meyer Franklin
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Extreme Macro Photography

• What is 11?
• Macro image magnification is often defined in
  terms of a ratio (a.k.a. fraction).  
•  
• A ratio of 11 is considered the standard minimum
  magnification for true macro images.  These
  images are also called "life size", where the
  size of the image of a subject on the sensor
  (numerator) is the same as the actual size of the
  subject (denominator).

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courtesy www.earthboundlight.com
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Extreme Macro Photography

• How are images of 11 or greater achieved?
•  
• Reverse mount 
•  
• A reversing adapter can mount to your camera
  body, then a lens can attach to the adapter via
  the filter thread.  A wide angle lens is designed
  to capture a huge landscape that is at infinity
  focus onto the camera image sensor.  When
  reversed, a tiny subject at about 1 - 2 inches
  away is projected out to that huge landscape
  sized image... but it is cropped by the image
  sensor.
• Example A reversed 28mm f2.8 lens can get better
  than 21.

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courtesy www.nikonians.org
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Extreme Macro Photography

• Increasing "extension"
• The Tamron 90mm, Sigma 105mm, Nikon 105mm, Pentax
  100mm, etc. are examples of macro lenses that are
  capable of 11 macro images.  The design of a
  macro lens builds in sufficient extension to
  attain the capture of 11 images without any
  additional components.
•  
• There are other ways to increase extension of any
  lens.
• Extension Tubes and Bellows are common components
  for increasing extension of a lens.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Extension Tubes
• Extension tubes are simply fixed length spacers
  that fit between your camera and lens they
  contain no optics. They may be stacked together
  to provide more extension for longer focal length
  lenses and can also be used in conjunction with
  teleconverters to provide closer focusing than
  possible with a lens/teleconverter combination.
•  
• Reproduction ratio focal length of lens/amount
  of extension
•  
• Example 100mm lens/50mm extension 12 (or
  half life size) - the same extension for a 200mm
  lens would yield 14.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Bellows
• Extension tubes generally come in fixed lengths. 
  Bellows by there very nature provide variable
  amounts of additional extension. Due to their
  construction, most do not mate electronically
  with the attached lens, limiting functionality on
  many camera bodies.

courtesy www.earthboundlight.com
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Extreme Macro Photography

• Diopters (Closeup lenses)
•  
• A diopter is a magnifying lens element that
  mounts by screwing it into the filter ring of
  your existing lens.  They are inexpensive and
  easy to use.  Diopters may be stacked on top of
  each other for added magnification. When stacking
  diopters, always place the strongest diopter
  closest to the lens.  Diopters involve the
  addition of extra layers of glass so they may
  marginally affect image quality, but on the
  bright side they do not cost you any light loss.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Stacking Lenses (Macro couplers)
•  
• Lens stacking has the same effect as using
  diopter or closeup lenses.  A longer focal length
  lens is mounted on the camera and a shorter focal
  length lens is reverse mounted to it's filter
  ring using a lens stacking ring (macro coupler).
•  
• Magnification factor Focal length of main lens
  / Focal length of reversed lens
• Example
• 200mm / 50mm approx. 4X magnification (41)
•  

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Depth of Field
• The greater the magnification used, the shallower
  your depth of field becomes. The old rule of
  choosing the smallest aperture possible stands
  true, but only to an extent. At apertures of f/22
  or f/16, a loss of general image sharpness can
  occur through diffraction.
•  DOF (2cf (Ml)) M2
• Where
• c circle of confusion (0.026mm for 35mm format
  )
• f aperture and
• M magnification

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Working distance
• The distance from the end of the lens to the
  subject is known as the working distance.  The
  working distance can be increased by using higher
  focal length lenses.  It is decreased by adding
  extension (tubes or bellows).  A reversed lens
  will set the working distance to a fixed (very
  short) working distance.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Lighting
• Most techniques for increased magnification will
  also result in a huge loss of available light. 
  In addition, to improve depth of field, you will
  need to set a higher f-stop, which further
  reduces the available light reaching the sensor
  or film.  
•  
• For proper exposure, you will need to reduce the
  shutter speed or increase the light on the
  subject.  When your subject is moving, adding
  light is your only choice.  The quality of the
  light will make a difference on the quality of
  the images.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• Putting it all together
• Teleconverter extension tube lens stacked
  lens
• Bellows reversed lens
•  
• Try different combinations to see what works best
  for each image opportunity.

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Extreme Macro Photography

• References
• http//www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/macro_adapter.ht
  mreversinghttp//www.beautifulbugs.com/beautifu
  lbugs/howto.htmhttp//www.earthboundlight.com/ph
  ototips/closeup-macro.htmlhttp//www.nikonians.o
  rg/html/resources/nikon_articles/other/close-up_ma
  cro/macro_1.html
• http//www.flickr.com/groups/macro/discuss/

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smaller ladybug is 135mm on bellows probably
between 11 and 21
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larger ladybug is 50mm reversed on the end of the
bellows probably over 51
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butterfly is 50mm reverse stacked on top of
18-55mm (at 55mm) andcropped slightly probably
around 21
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black butterfly is 135mm on bellows probably
around 11 note thedual flash reflections in
the eye - needed better diffuse light.