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Chapter 12 - Extending Your Reach: Close-up And Macro |
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About Macro and Close-up
Why are photographers endlessly fascinated with capturing close-up and macro images? The answer is simple: the camera lets us go places we can't normally go and see things we can't normally see. There are whole worlds that lie beneath the normal gaze. Tiny worlds with almost infinite detail. And within those endless worlds lie innumerable interesting and beautiful subjects for photography. Once you've spent time shooting the close-up world, you'll see the larger world in a different way, knowing that all that beauty and life and subjects of endless interest lurk beneath the surfaces we take for granted as we go about our everyday lives. We do close-up photography because the following mundane, even bleak urban scene
harbors this extraordinary, beautiful, tiny blossom within it:
We are drawn to macro photography because it reveals, within this ordinary grass,
the astonishing color, detail and composition of a photo like this:
Because we can take a simple game, like this chess set,
add a closeup lens and a little bit of lighting, and it see it morph into a lush life-size allegory, drawing you into the scene.
This topic has so many possibilities it deserves a book of its own, not just a couple of chapters. And, indeed, there are many books on macro photography. Within the limits of these two chapters, I can introduce you to macro photography and close-up photography. That's all. I can't tell you what to shoot, or even how to shoot it. Each photo is a unique experience that requires and deserves its own unique approach. Just as there's an infinite variety of subjects and light, there's an infinite number of settings styles, perspectives and techniques in all kinds of photography - but particularly in macro photography where each new subject presents its own special challenges.. In this and the following chapter, I'll tell you how macro and close-up photography work. I'll define the extremes - how close you can get to your subject using different lenses and combinations. I'll even offer some suggestions on techniques to capture detail and blur your backgrounds. But macro photography is so sensitive that a fraction of an inch will put your subject in or out of focus. A slight move to the left will reveal a whole new perspective. Adjusting your zoom will dramatically alter the relationship between your subject and your viewer. Composition will become more than esthetics - it will become a way of defining (or obscuring) your intent. So, as we begin, I wish to encourage you to experiment. Hopefully, these two chapters will give you a basis for understanding how and why things work in macro and close-up photography. But the true learning only happens in the field, as you capture your perfect shots or fail utterly. Fortunately, failure is often the better teacher. One of the great things about macro and close-up photography is that they provide not just an infinity of subjects, but an infinity of ways for you, the photographer, to express yourself. Hopefully, I'll get you started. The rest is up to you.
The degree is the degree to which your subject fills your frame. The frame is your sensor. Let's assume your H-Series sensor is about 1/4" high (not far off). A subject that is 1/4" high (or less) filling the entire frame constitutes the minimum true macro shot. That's a 1:1 shot. For the closest macros, you'll really want a better ratio, like 2:1, where the image on your sensor is twice the size of your subject, or more.
A photo of a subject that is larger than your sensor is called a close-up shot. That's assuming you've actually shot close-up. Landscapes and portraits are much larger than your sensor, but they can hardly be described as close-up shots.
The shot illustrated above is a close-up shot (not a macro) with a ratio of 1:10. Do these ratios matter? Not much. When you buy a lens for a DSLR or film camera, you need to know how "macro" you can shoot with it. In that case, these numbers matter. How else could you compare the macro abilities of lenses? But the H-Series cameras sport a fixed lens. You cannot replace it with another, so the ratios are not all that important. What is important to know is that the relationship of the subject to the frame of your photo is critical to getting effective macro and close-up shots. Note: To me "macro" is more subjective than any mathematical ratio can adequately express. It's one of those "I know one when I see one" things. When I'm looking at an insect shot and I can see the facets in its eyes, that's macro enough for me. When I'm looking at a photo of a lily and I can see the entire flower (and parts of the garden behind), I know that's not a macro. But it's still a close-up. When I see just the top portion of the pistil and stamen on the same flower, it's a macro. When I see a farmyard a mile away, it's neither! There's another rule of thumb I use to define "macro". If I can see the subject plainly with my naked eye, then it's probably not a macro. If I can't see it, in detail, without a lens, then it probably is.
And that's the problem: photography is two dimensional. It has no depth. It has no dimension to represent closeness. So the viewer's brain has to interpolate it - from cues built into this flat image we call a photograph. Closeness is an illusion, a magic trick. And you're the magician. Your job is to communicate the closeness of your subject without use of the critical third dimension! To accomplish this feat - to fool the viewer into thinking three-dimensionally - you really need to understand the hints and cues that cause the human eye and mind to interpolate that third dimension. You can't build them into your photos if you don't know what they are and how they work. So here's a simple list of some of the ways you tell your viewer: "look how close you are!"
Tip: As a creative choice, you may not want your viewer to understand what they're looking at, but instead, to appreciate the image's forms and colors and shapes on their own merits. It's perfectly valid to disorient your user if that's your artistic intention. Fig.12-18 one of my shots that I particularly like:
It's a photograph of the inside of a tulip. No entourage, no isolation, just a kaleidoscope of colors and forms and shadows. Almost an abstract. I don't really care if the viewer "understands" what he or she is seeing, as long as they are fascinated by the light and the shadow, the colors, shapes and forms. The bottom line: Some of the best macro shots are the ones that appear to be close, fill a great deal of the frame (or go beyond it), have great detail, are isolated in front of a blurry background with beautiful, creamy Bokeh and provide a context so the viewer knows what he or she is looking at. Think of the macros you like. What is it you like about them? Try to duplicate those qualities with your own particular subjects. Eventually, this may morph into a personal style and perspective unique to you as a photographer - a signature of sorts.
There are three basic ways to get closer to your subject or bring your subject closer to you:
Each of these close-up options has its own special uses, unique results and daunting challenges. To deal with them, you'll have to become familiar with the challenges of the H-Series lenses and the tools and skills you'll have to acquire to meet those challenges.
All lenses have a minimum focus distance - the minimum distance at which the lens is able to acquire focus. Asking a 432-465 mm lens to shoot one subject that's four miles away and another that's touching it is just asking a bit too much, even from the most expensive glass. The more telephoto the lens, the longer its minimum focus distance. The H-series lenses are truly remarkable. The H1, H2 and H5 sport a minimum focus distance of 34" at full telephoto, the H7 and H9, about 41". They will focus as close as 3/4" ( 2 cm, 1 cm on the H7 and H9) at wide-angle. In between those extremes, the minimum focus distance increases proportionately as you zoom from wide-angle to telephoto.
Just remember, when you're below the minimum focus distance at telephoto zoom, you can't focus at all. No macro, no picture. Though the minimum focus limitation is much less severe in the H-Series cameras, it's still there. Unless you cope with it by adjusting focal length or using add-on lenses, you'll never get close enough to achieve true macro shots. Wide-angle macro is not much of a problem. At wide angle, you can focus very, very close with the H-Series cameras. Even closer with Sony's VCL-DH0758 wide-angle adapter. But you pay for this very small minimum focus distance with other limitations, such as the exceedingly wide field of view you get at the lowest wide-angle settings. It becomes difficult to isolate a single subject. And the subject doesn't fill the frame as much as it does at the other end of the lens. Telephoto is another story. At the full telephoto focal length of the H-Series cameras, the 34" - 41" minimum focus distance is severely limiting. For close-up shots, it's just about right. For macro shots, it's like hitting a wall. You can bring your subjects relatively close optically, but you can't get close enough physically to fill your frame with the smallest objects. You can shoot a lily very successfully at 432-465 mm and 3+ feet away. Shooting the forget-me-nots shown in figs. 12-11 and 12-12 is not so easy. To create true macros using the telephoto end of the lens requires additional hardware: some kind of close-up lens. (More on this in the Tele-Macro section). Because of the radically different magnifications and limitations of the opposite sides of the huge H-Series zoom range, the equipment, strategies and techniques for shooting macros at wide-angle and telephoto are markedly different. Let's start by looking at the shared challenges of macro-shooting. Then we'll take a detailed look at the differences between wide-angle and telephoto macro.
If you're going to shoot up-close (wide-angle or tele), you're going to have to learn how to focus. Or, perhaps more accurately, re-learn how to focus. Forget everything I've suggested elsewhere in this book about "focusing -recomposing - shooting". That's great for normal shots, bad for close-ups and macros. Remember, you're shooting a very small subject in a very small depth of field. Therefore, the only mode you should use for autofocus is Flexible Spot. It's the only focus mode small enough to grab your subject without grabbing the surrounding objects. And you want to use Flexible Spot because you can change the focus target within the frame. Unlike other types of photography, you don't want to half-click and move the camera. In fact, you don't want to move the camera at all. Why? Because of depth of field. The closer you are to a given subject, the smaller the depth of field. The higher your focal length, the smaller the depth of field. Combine the two and your depth of field can become almost infinitesimally small when shooting tele-macro. And because your depth of field is small (wide-angle) or tiny (telephoto), any motion of the camera after focus can put your subject completely out of the available depth of field, and thus, completely out of focus. Just the arc of rotating to the right to focus, then back to the left to compose can change the distance from the lens to the subject enough to ruin the shot (see the following illustration).
In a normal environment (non-macro), you generally have enough extra depth of field that the "focus - come-back - recompose" method doesn't make any real difference to the sharpness of your images. In the extreme environment of macro photography, everything makes a difference! Forget focus-and-compose. When you shoot macro, you mash! The instant you get focus, either auto or manual, mash the shutter and get the shot. The time it takes to take a breath is enough time for your body to move the depth of field enough to completely miss your subject. Note: Now when I say "mash", I don't mean to slam the button. In fact, you have to press it reasonably gently to avoid camera-shake. What I mean is don't hesitate - don't hold on a half-click. Don't think about the composition. When you've got focus, hold your breath and shoot! If the composition doesn't work out, just shoot again. The hardest part of macro photography is acquiring focus. The most discouraging part is that you will fail over-and-over again. You won't believe how many blurry shots you'll get! If you get 1 keeper out of 20 shots, you're doing extremely well. There are some days I don't get any keepers at all. Just relax. If you tense-up while focusing (and there is a tendency to do this - as if the whole world depends on this particular bumblebee shot) you'll blow the shot. You will move. You will move the camera. You will press the shutter button too hard. Something will jiggle enough to turn your brilliant tiny insect into a not-so-brilliant tiny blur. I find I get the best shots when I'm relaxed and "tuned in". I find the same happens when I'm tracking a bird in flight. If I get nervous about losing the shot, I usually do - a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I tense up too much, my timing goes haywire. But when I find the "zone" and become one with my camera, I have no problem clicking the shutter, calm-as-can-be, at the very instant of focus. It's a great experience. And you only get there by practice. You learn to get the good shots by shooting bad ones. You learn by your mistakes. In most cases, it's not a big deal. With the rare exception of those special once-in-a-lifetime moments, you can usually go back the next day and try again. Note: What about image stabilization? Well, it helps. I'm too much of a coward to try my hand-held macros without it. But when you consider how many hundreds of blurries you get with IS turned on or turned off, you'd have to say that the effect of IS on macro shooting is minimal. Better than not having it, but it won't save a shot if you can't get the focus nailed.
In regular photography, tripods and monopods serve a different purpose than they do in macro photography. In regular photography, you use either one of these to support the camera and hold it still to prevent camera shake. It's not camera shake you're going to worry about in macro photography (well, you will worry about that, too - a smart photographer worries about everything). The main issue is focus. The slightest little motion and you're out of focus. I do believe in tripods, and own several. But I almost never use them with macros. By the time I set up my tripod and lean it into a bush with 50 bees investigating the flowers I'm about to shoot, the shot is usually gone. On the other hand, a monopod can be invaluable. The monopod has much more flexibility than a tripod. There's only one leg and it's easy to move around. Unfortunately, most people don't really know how to use a monopod and they end up moving the camera as much as if it were hand-held. There are two problems that monopods are meant to address: camera weight and camera motion. There's no weight issue with any of the H-Series camera - they weigh very little. On the other hand, camera motion is a major issue. If you just stand your monopod in front of your feet and shoot, it won't help much with camera motion. The monopod is still free to move in any direction but down. The secret to using a monopod is to use it as a single-leg tripod. Lean it against something solid so it can't move. If you happen to have a car door exactly the right distance from your bee-in-flight, that could work. Or you can make a "logical" tripod using the monopod and your own feet. Plant the base of the tripod away from you (not between your feet). Place one foot ahead of the other, separated by the width of your shoulders. Then grip the camera or the tripod so that you create a pyramid of sorts, comprised of your two legs and the monopod. Either lean in close to the camera and press your face tight to the viewfinder, or stiffen your arms and hold the camera tightly, as in the illustration below, and use the LCD for composition.
Then there's the most inexpensive tripod of all, your camera strap. You can use the camera strap at full length and pulled taut to steady the camera. This technique is surprisingly effective. Set your camera to use the LCD display. Step back a little from your subject. Now push the camera as far out as the strap allows, hold tight and focus. Unless you're really unsteady on your feet, this will produce a pretty solid base for your shot.
Tip: I must have a half-dozen of those flexible tabletop tripods. You know, the ones they give away with a new camera as a part of a "kit"? The ones you never use? As it turns out, there is a good use for them. If you're shooting flowers, plants, or insects close to the ground, these tabletop tripods are really easy and fast to set up and position. They can be a life-saver when you're lying on your side in the mud desperately trying to get that perfect macro shot without burying your face, or more important, your camera, in the mess!
Prior to the H2 and the H5, manual focus was nearly impossible with digital cameras and their electronic viewfinders. The small, relatively low-resolution LCDs used in the EVF are almost useless for focusing. You look through the viewfinder, everything looks really crisp and sharp. You snap the picture. Then you get home and discover that none of your shots are in focus. That's because the cameras' viewfinder and display show such a small fraction of the pixels in your sensor that everything looks like it's in focus. You're sampling the pixels, not seeing them, and you can't trust that the few pixels that make up your EVF image accurately represent the millions of pixels in your final picture. They usually don't - especially when it comes to focus and sharpness. Some people seem to have an intuitive knowledge of exactly when the camera is dead-on in-focus. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them, and it's likely that you aren't either. So one of the biggest challenges of manual focus is to determine when your shot is dead-on. And when it's not! Fortunately, some of the H-series cameras offer you two tools to make recognizing focus much easier. One tool is in all the H-Series cameras: Expanded Focus, wherein the view in either display is automatically zoomed whenever you focus manually. Using this zoomed view, you can look "closer" at the subject to better judge focus. Tip: Expanded Focus is turned on in your camera's Setup menu. The H2 and H5 offer an even more powerful feature for visualizing focus: Manual Focus Peaking (MF Peaking). MF Peaking uses the exact same system your camera uses to determine autofocus to display blue lines in the LCD and EVF to show which edges are in focus. To use MF Peaking, click the focus mode button on top of the camera until you get to Manual Focus (the sliding scale on the display). Then use the up and down buttons on the 4-way switch to turn MF Peaking on. Initially, set it to normal, not to "high". Since the H-Series cameras use contrast to determine focus, a high-contrast image will produce so much blue that it overloads the subject. If, on the other hand, you have a soft flower petal with little detail, you'll want to turn the MF Peaking up to high. Look for the blue lines. Blue lines indicate edges that are in focus. You can tell, without guessing, whether you're focusing on the stamen or the petal of a flower, on the wings or the head of a bee. You can easily visualize your depth of field based on how much of your scene shows blue. For more depth of field, increase the aperture or back off on the zoom. The blue lines will show the change.
Once you get used to MF Peaking and learn to read the blue highlights, you'll be able to easily determine not only focus points, but depth of field as well. Note: When I first shot the test photos above, I had set the aperture to f/7.1, which delivers one of the deepest depths of field possible for this focal range. I knew immediately what I had done, because both coins were liberally sprinkled with blue. MF Peaking can be confusing because it has a "use" mode and a "set" mode like many other functions in the H-Series cameras. To make MF Peaking active, you need to be in "set focus" mode. To get there, just tap the center button on the 4-way controller switch. As soon as you half-click the shutter, or touch the center button again, the MF peaking will disappear. There is good news for macro-shooters in Sony's implementation of MF Peaking. It's live. As long as you are in "Set" mode, changing either the focus or your distance from the subject will change the display of blue highlights. So you might want to set the focus to infinity, aim at your subject and then move back and forth a tiny bit at a time and watch the MF Peaking change. It's really quite remarkable, though it's not as useful with low-contrast subjects as it is with high-contrast subjects. Note: Unfortunately, we may have already seen the last cameras to offer MF Peaking. The H7 and H9, successors to the H2 and H5, do not offer this feature. What a shame!
Some people prefer to pre-focus for a whole series of close-up or macro shots. There is an extremely small range in which your lens will focus close-up at any given focal length. You can preset the lens to that sweet spot by doing an autofocus and then quickly hitting the focus button on the top of the camera to switch into manual focus. The H-series camera will retain the autofocus focus setting after being switched to manual. Tip: R2D2 recommends just setting manual focus to infinity and using your body to fine-tune - it's not a bad idea. But again, you need to be able to recognize when you have focus. MF Peaking works with infinity as well as it does with any other focus setting! Once you've locked in this preset focus point, you can acquire focus by moving a slight distance I still use autofocus for most of my shots - whenever I can. But perhaps more experience with R2's "focus to infinity" will eventually convert me. Try the various options and decide what works best for you.
Let's make some assumptions. Let's assume that you want to get as close to your subject as you can. And that you want the image to be in the sharpest possible focus. And that the closest point at which the camera will focus will be decided by a physical distance of just a few millimeters. How can you possibly find that point without running complex geometrical calculations? The answer is simple: bobbing. As crude as it sounds, the key to successful macro shots (particularly telephoto) is bobbing. It may look strange, it may hurt your back, but it's pretty much the only way to find that closest little sliver of focus when you're very, very close to your subject. If you're shooting telephoto, set your zoom to full telephoto. If you're doing wide-angle, set your zoom all the way out. Those are the extremes of both kinds of macros: the widest of wide-angle macro, the most telephoto of tele-macro. Make sure your camera is in Monitor Autofocus mode (which continually tries to acquire focus until you half-press), or half-press the shutter repeatedly as you bend from the waist (or rock on your heels). Move ever-so-slightly back and forth until you acquire focus. The bobbing actions lets you tune the camera-to-subject-distance in very small, gentle increments. Note: Do not use Continuous Auto Focus! You want the camera to stop hunting once you acquire focus.
You will probably have to do this several times. As soon as you acquire focus, mash! Click the shutter the rest of the way without hesitation. I've treated this subject fairly lightly because it is reasonably strange to observe and can make you feel just a bit ridiculous. But trust me, this is the traditional and best way to get macro focus when hand-holding a camera. OK, now that you know the basics of shooting macros : why you want to shoot them, how the brain interprets them, the difference between wide-angle and tele macro and how to acquire focus, let's look more specifically at the different types of macro approaches and how to use them to get brilliant macro and close-up shots.
Shooting a macro with the built-in wide-angle capabilities of the H-Series cameras is much easier than shooting a tele-macro. Your field of view is so wide, and your depth of field so deep (relative to telephoto) that you've got all the advantages on your side. It's actually pretty hard to miss the shot. However, it is difficult to get extreme close-ups or isolate your subjects using wide-angle macro. That's why so many macro photographers shoot primarily or exclusively in telephoto-macro. But if you need (or want) to include a lot of width in your shot (remember, this is wide-angle) and you wish to show a lot of the detail in front of, or behind your subject, this is definitely the way to go. It is crisp, it is sharp, it is an easy way to get close-up shots. There are a few things you need to be aware of, however, when shooting wide-angle macros.
First, be sure to turn on Macro mode on using 4-way controller button. The Macro Mode icon is a small white flower. Macro Mode has an interesting purpose. The H-Series lenses are built to focus all the way from 1-2 cm to infinity. But, in normal shooting, their very close-up focus is turned off electronically. Why? To improve autofocus speed. Why waste the time to have the lens hunt all the way to 1-2 cm when there's a better than 90% chance that the current shot is not in that range. Note: If you don't turn the macro mode on, you will not be able to focus close-up at wide-angle focal lengths. If you accidentally leave it on, it won't have any effect as you zoom toward telephoto except, perhaps, for a barely noticeable slowdown of AF performance. Telephoto-macro does not need Macro Mode. You're never close enough to the subject to challenge the very close focus limits of the camera. Another issue in wide-macro photography is camera shadow. It's a major challenge getting enough light on your subject without the camera, only a few centimeters away, casting its shadow on the subject. Your camera is big, your subject is small. It can be really difficult to avoid casting a shadow unless the light is behind and above the subject. You may have to shoot at unexpected (and undesirable) angles. In the image below, the shadow on the daisy is from my H-5.
Tip: You can (and probably should) combine a little bit of telephoto zoom with your wide-angle macro shots to maximize the magnification of your subject. The H-Series cameras allow focal lengths up to 2X zoom (62 to 72 mm, depending on the model). This will let you get a markedly tighter field of view and improve the isolation of your subject and background bokeh.
Figure 12-30 Wide-Angle Macro Shot at Full Wide-Angle
There is one effect you can get only with wide-angle macro: an enormous wide field of view using Sony's wide-angle adapter (VCL-DH0758 or VCL-DH0774 for H7 and H9). This camera-adapter combination can deliver a stunningly wide-view from within 0 cm - actually touching the subject. It is as crisp as a picture gets, though your image will appear considerably farther away than it will in a simple wide-angle or tele-macro.
Nonetheless, as you can see from the image above, the wide-angle
adapter combined with the H-Series cameras' innate macro abilities can deliver beautiful shots with a special character
you simply can't achieve any other way.
A wide-angle Macro shot takes advantage of the physical proximity possible at the wide-angle end of the H-Series lenses. You can get within 1- 2 cm of your subject. But you don't get any optical magnification, so it also has its limits (see the examples in Chapter 13, Comparing Macro Lenses). First, do your settings: Aperture Use the widest apertures (f 2.8 - f/4) to achieve the smallest depth of field, the smaller apertures (f/5.6 - f/8) to get the deepest focus. Tip: Depth of field is determined by several factors, but given that you'll be shooting at (or close to) full wide-angle and right up close to your subject, we can discount focal distance and distance to subject - they're fixed (with one exception: zooming wide-angle macro). That leaves only one significant variable: aperture. However, there's not a lot of impact you can have on depth of field in wide-angle macro with the other two variables locked down. You can get a little background blur, or a nearly-infinite background by varying your aperture setting. But that's the two options you have. If you want more aesthetic control over your macro or close-up shots, you'll need to shoot tele-macro. Shutter speed can depend on several factors. If you're shooting a bee in flight, you're going to want to use a fast shutter (1/500th or higher) to stop the wings. Unless, of course, you want the wings to appear as a blur. Also, make sure to increase your shutter speed when you're shooting flowers or other plant life in the wind. The wind is a very special cause of neurosis among macro photographers. If you're shooting a flower on a calm day, there really is no limit to what shutter speed you can use. Use whatever you need to get the aperture you want, at the lowest ISO, for the best image quality and the least noise. Within reason, of course. You don't want to set the shutter so slow that you can't manage camera shake. Considering focus, depth of field and subject motion, there's more than enough different blurs to ruin your macro shots without adding camera-shake. 1/60th or above should work if you're careful. If you need to shoot slower, use a tripod or monopod. Exposure Mode Entirely your choice, except for Auto Mode, which is way too vague for macros. Auto is not likely to recognize your subject and you may end up with the background in perfect focus, but your subject completely blurred out. Use Program Mode to choose combinations of aperture and shutter, Aperture Priority Mode if you want to lock the depth of field, Shutter Priority Mode if you have a movement issue (wings flapping, wind blowing), or Manual Mode for total control or if you'd like to hone your skills. Note: I always shoot in Manual Mode. That doesn't that mean you should. I like to determine my exposures myself and I don't like the camera doing my thinking for me. Whatever mode gets you the picture is the right mode to use Macro Mode Don't forget to put your camera's lens into Macro mode (left button on the 4-way controller). Zoom Once you've set the camera into Macro mode, zoom all the way back to full wide-angle (6 mm, 36 mm equivalent when using the H1 - H5, or 5.2 mm, 31 mm equivalent when shooting with H7 or H9). Once you're at full wide-angle, feel free to zoom up to 2X for more magnification. However, if you go beyond that, you won't be able to focus at a short distance. Get very close to your subject. Bob and focus. Mash the shutter. You'll have a great macro shot. Wide-angle is so much easier than tele-macro because you don't have the infinitesimal depth of field associated with high focal lengths. After a few sessions, you'll do the settings without thinking, concentrate on your subject and produce pictures that will sometimes amaze you. The H-series cameras do great macros!
You can shoot close-up shots with the native H-Series lens at full telephoto. But not macros. Your lens is farsighted. At its full telephoto focal length, your lens cannot focus closer than 34 inches (41" on the H7 and H9) from your subject. To capture true tele-macros with the H-Series cameras, you need to get close to your subject. For that, you'll need to purchase and use a close-up lens.
Think of close-up lenses as "reading glasses" for your camera. In fact, that's exactly what they are. Reading glasses don't expand the range of your vision. In fact, they narrow it and move it closer to your eyes. It's the same for close-up lenses. And, just as reading glasses are measured in Diopters, so are close-up lenses.
In fact, one of the many names for close-up lenses is "Diopters". Others are macro lenses (not accurate, your H-Series lens already is a macro lens!) and close-up filters, though they are really lenses, not filters. The most appropriate name, and the one you'll find listed in online stores and catalogs is "close-up lens" Each close-up lens is rated according to its magnification. The more diopters, the closer you can focus.
Close-up lenses can be stacked to multiply their effect. The better lenses have two sets of threads: one to attach to the camera's lens, the other to receive another lens. Some manufacturers sell a full stack of three or more lenses as a single product. Don't compromise on lens quality. There is no free lunch in macro photography. You get pretty much what you pay for. All three of the lenses I recommend in the next section are of extremely high optical quality - high enough to match the brilliant Carl Zeiss or Sony lens on your camera. You wouldn't believe the dreadful results you can get with an inexpensive alternative. B+W is a great lens maker, at least most of the time. But their close-up lens is only a single element lens. I bought one and kept it for three days. I couldn't live with my pale pink mums coming out orangy brown and blurry at the edges. One inexpensive no-name eBay lens I tried turned everything into a whirl. I thought I was looking down the funnel of a tornado. What were they thinking when they designed that cheapie? Raynox is reputed to have some good glass, but I haven't tried it, so I can't comment. One member of the Sony Talk Forum on DPReview bought a real inexpensive lens from Jessups (UK) and it produced pretty good pictures. But that's pot luck. The good close-up lenses are not so expensive that it makes any sense to buy inferior glass. It's up to you what you buy. Just remember that macro photography is difficult, exacting and brooks no shortcuts. You may luck out. You may spend weeks taking lousy pictures and wonder whether it's your camera or your skills - when, in reality, it's just an inexpensive, poor-quality close-up lens.
Figure 12-35 -Close-up lenses that I
own and recommend. The chart above is a list of the three tele-macro closeup lenses that I own and that I recommend enthusiastically. I use all three depending on the need. They are all high-quality multi-element lenses from top-tier manufacturers.
All three of these lenses are of superb build and optical quality. Each is a two-element lens. One element is for the close-up adjustment, the other corrects distortion and color aberrations. Unlike most DSLR close-up options, none of these lenses lose any light. You will have the full aperture-range of your H-Series camera even using the most powerful of them. If you're a beginner, I suggest that you start with the 500d or the Sony lens. I fear that if you have difficulty focusing and don't get many keepers, you might get discouraged long before you manage to learn good macro-shooting technique. There's no loss if you decide to upgrade down the road. You can stack any (or all three) of these lenses together to combine the diopters. They all have threads on both sides of the lens. So keep that original lens and use it stacked with your new one when you want to get incredibly close to your subject. R2D2 often points out that you can always back off the more powerful lens by reducing your focal length. That's true. But in my experience, it doesn't yield quite the same image and bokeh that you get when you use the right lens for the job. Check out the next chapter for much more in-depth information and samples of the various close-up lenses and their combinations. Use it to evaluate which lens or lenses will be most appropriate for the kind of macro or close-up shooting you intend to do.
The capabilities of wide-angle macro pale by comparison to what you can do at the telephoto end. The wide-angle macro lets you get very close. The telephoto macro lets you magnify. Add on a close-up lens and you get both. Plus, you get enormous flexibility that you can't get with wide-angle. You get control over the proximity of your subject, the degree of isolation, the depth of field (and hence, the bokeh), not to mention your subject's relationship to the frame. That's because telephoto is, by its very nature, much less sensitive than wide-angle. At wide-angle, a difference of 10 - 20 mm makes a huge difference in the field of view, sharpness and depth of field. Go from 24 mm down to 12 mm and you've gone from wide-angle to fisheye. Go up from 36 or 31 mm to 50 mm and you're completely out of wide-angle and into "normal" range. On the other hand, that same 14-19 mm range probably wouldn't even be noticeable at the telephoto end of your zoom. That means that you have a huge range at the telephoto end of the lens (perhaps 130 mm to 432 mm) in which to play. Is that a good thing? Yes, a very good thing. There are many critical factors that depend on focal length: the ability to acquire focus, depth of field and field of view, among others. If you can't get focus easily at 432 - 465 mm, back off to 400 and try again. If the depth of field is still so small that you can't get all of the insect sharp, back off to 350 mm and try again. Aperture and Depth of Field If you haven't already read the chapter on depth of field, this would be a good time to read it. Macro photography sometimes seems to be all about depth of field. Think about it for a moment. Focal length is a major factor in determining depth of field. The longer the focal length, the shorter the depth of field. Closeness to subject is a major factor in determining depth of field. The closer to the subject, the shorter the depth of field.Aperture is the third major factor in determining depth of field. The lower the f/stop, the shorter the depth of field. Unfortunately, all of these depth of field factors seem to conspire against you when shooting tele-macros. You'll use the longest focal length you can to get as close as you can to your subject. You'll also get as physically close to your subject as you can. In the endless contention between aperture and shutter speed, you'll often need to have the aperture open as wide as possible (lower f/stop) to get the shutter speed you need to stop action and avoid camera shake. This combination of factors seems designed to make macro photography as difficult as possible. All the things you want to do to get a good tele-macro conspire to deliver the tiniest depth of field you can imagine. Unlike "normal" or even telephoto-closeup (without an adapter), you're going to be fighting for depth of field every step of the way. And everything you do to get closer to your subject will make the depth of field situation worse. Aperture is the key in the battle for usable depth of field. The higher the f/stop (the smaller the aperture), the deeper the depth of field you'll get. Instead of the insect's eyes, you may get the whole insect's body (or at least the front legs). At the highest f/stops (f/71 to f/8), you'll get some diffraction effect that will tend to cause a small loss in sharpness. Don't worry about it. Compared to not having enough depth of field, it's a very minor issue. Sharpen the image in post-processing. But the higher the f/stop, the less light is coming in the camera, and the higher ISO you'll have to use to boost the light. Tip: In the H-1, don't go beyond ISO 200, or you'll lose your detail to noise. The H2, H5, H7 and H9 easily go to ISO 400, so you can eke a bit more depth of field out of those cameras. I don't recommend ISO 800 for macro. It's almost usable, but it sacrifices detail to noise reduction. And a macro without detail does not look like a macro. To get the best macros, I recommend using the lowest ISO possible for the circumstances. The lower the ISO, the lower the risk of losing detail to noise or noise-reduction. Just one more challenge when trying to get decent depth of field in macro photographs.
Focal length makes a huge difference in depth of field. As you decrease your focal length (zoom out), your depth of field magically grows. The difference can be huge. Focal length alone can save a really difficult shot. It can determine whether you get focus, it can determine whether you have sufficient depth of field. At the same time, you get less magnification and less "apparent closeness" to your subject. One more dilemma. Get the shot clear and sharp, but when you do, you're no longer close enough to get a decent macro! The solution? Zoom out and crop. Do what you have to do to get the picture and get it sharp - including backing off the zoom. It will immediately increase the available depth of field. If the subject no longer fills the whole frame or doesn't look close enough? Crop the picture in post-processing and bring it back up to the size and "closeness" you want. Fill more of the frame with your subject by shrinking the frame instead of increasing the size of your subject. To me, that's the greatest advantage of the H7 and H9 over the earlier H-Series cameras.. Don't get me wrong, all the H-Series cameras are wonderful cameras and take great macros and close-ups. But the newest models, with their high pixel density, give you the most latitude to crop while retaining enough resolution for high-quality prints. In my studio, five megapixels is the minimum image I can deal with. I often do enlargements for exhibit or sale, and five megapixels just about makes the cut. Four megapixels or three megapixels does not. The H2, at six megapixels, leaves me one full megapixel to crop. The H5, two. The H7 and H9 let me crop out up to three megapixels. Note: Pixel resolution is important because the more pixels in the image, the more detail you can capture. Though cropping decreases the overall pixel resolution of your image, it doesn't lose much, if any, meaningful detail. Cropping is not like resizing. When you crop, you're not throwing away any pixels from your subject, just from the entourage. The combination of zooming out and cropping can be a highly effective (and sometimes the only effective) tool for getting a difficult macro. This approach may also dramatically increase the number of "keepers" you get. Here's a picture of a local specie of Mountain Skipper butterfly. No matter what I did, I couldn't get enough depth of field, in any position (either me or the butterfly) at 432 mm. The depth of field was just too small for this medium-size insect.
But it still wasn't close enough for me. If I were willing to crop a little more, "uprez" a little (upsize with interpolation) and sharpen a bit when done, I could fill more of the frame with a subject that looks closer than my original 432 mm shot and still have a five megapixel image.
Go ahead, click on the image above and look at the larger size. It has an amazing amount of detail despite the awful hack of upsizing with bicubic interpolation. But it came through remarkably well. That's because the H-Series cameras deliver an impressive amount of detail in macro shots. So, if I lose 10% of the detail to the bicubic enlarging, I've still got plenty left for an impressive macro shot. Unfortunately, the H1 just doesn't have near the amount of detail that the H5 does and its resize/crops won't make it through as well as this one does. But still, this technique can salvage a picture that wouldn't work otherwise. Note: My minimum resolution is five megapixels. That doesn't mean it has to be yours! You can get a very nice 5X7 out of three or four megapixels. Matte it and put it in an 8X10 frame and it makes a beautifully intimate macro on the wall. Tip: This series proves something else: that closest is not always best. Personally, I prefer the intermediate picture to the last, closest one. I like the composition better. I like that it has more entourage, and that the scale is more clearly defined. The last image has a bigger "wow" factor, the one immediately before it is, in my opinion, just a better, more esthetic photograph.
Another option is to slow down your shutter to allow your camera to gather more light over a longer period of time. Shutter speed doesn't directly affect your depth of field, but it does give you a little wiggle room to increase your aperture without sacrificing detail to noise at the higher ISOs. There are, however, risks to slowing down the shutter speed. If your subject is moving, you may lose it to motion blur. For a slow-moving subject, 1/125th may suffice. For a faster subject (like an insect in flight), you may have to go to 1/250th or even 1/500th. Those shots are really, really difficult. This constant conflict between aperture, shutter speed, camera-shake and subject motion is no different than it is when shooting a child playing an indoor sport in a poorly lit gym. But again, it's a matter of degree. You have so little forgiveness in tele-macro shots that the slightest variance from a near-perfect setting can kill the shot. The solution? There isn't one. It's always a compromise. I can't tell you what settings to use. You have to try, and to fail until you find the right balance of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and post-processing that yields the image you're trying to create. There is no substitute for experience. Tip: "Keepers" are the shots that you don't delete from your computer, the ones that might someday hang on your wall, or at least are too good to discard. Well, don't expect many in tele-macro shots. Two or three out of a hundred can be a good day. Don't get discouraged. Tele-macro is not for cowards. Practice makes perfect. You'll get there. And you'll be so proud of getting a shot that evokes a gasp. There's no feeling quite like it.
Macro definitely does not like Auto Mode, and you probably shouldn't fool around with any of the scene modes, either. They were designed for more traditional shooting. Nor will normal matrix or center-weighted metering work well with macros. The subject is so small, and the dynamic range of the scene often so large, that the combination of spot meter and spot focus is my only recommendation for any kind of macro photography. Now as to exposure, you have a wide latitude depending on your shooting style. I prefer Manual Mode, but then I always prefer Manual Mode. In macro shots, I like to play with the aperture, shutter speed and ISO separately so that I can make adjustments to all three to maximize my depth of field without producing a dark image or one with blown highlights. Some people prefer Aperture-Priority Mode to control depth of field. In macro, that would definitely be a good choice. Depth of field is much more important than shutter speed. Unless the shutter speed gets too low to stop subject motion, let it fall where it may. Just use a tripod or monopod or brace the camera real well to make sure you don't ruin the shot with camera-shake. And, of course, always make sure Image Stabilization is turned on if you're shooting hand-held at less than 1/500th shutter speed.. For moving subjects, your choices are more limited. You need to set a minimum shutter speed (1/250th, perhaps) and play with aperture and ISO until you can get a good exposure. Using Manual Mode makes that easier.
Yes. Very few digicams (indeed, very few DSLRs) come close to the H-Series' 1 - 2 cm, virtually distortion-free wide-angle macro. All the H-Series cameras deliver startling clarity and little distortion at full telephoto. The various close-up lenses rob no light from your images and the H-Series cameras can produce a gorgeous, creamy bokeh not often seen in inexpensive digicams. Tip: Many people believe that the beautiful soft bokeh that you get when you use a close-up lens is a product of the close-up lens. Not true. The bokeh you're seeing is the camera's bokeh. All the close-up lens does is let you get closer to the subject, which diminishes the depth of field. The shallower the depth of field, the faster your image blurs both in front of, and behind, your subject. The closeup lens makes it easier to achieve bokeh. But the look of the out-of-focus blur is strictly a product of the Zeiss lens on your H-Series camera, not of the close-up lens you attached to the front of it. The built-in image-stabilization helps. But the best, most important macro feature in the H-Series cameras is the image quality. Macros love the saturated, beautiful colors of the H-Series cameras. They love the sharpness of the lens. They love the beautiful transitions between shadow and light. Check it out yourself. Browse through some of the hundreds upon hundreds of H-Series macro and close-up shots on the Sony Talk Forum on DPReview.com or in the galleries on The White Paper web site. It's amazing what even total "newbies" have been able to produce on their first outings with their H-Series cameras, telephoto macro and a relatively inexpensive close-up lens.
Shooting macros is not a competitive sport. There is no macho involved. Getting the closest picture doesn't get you points unless you're illustrating a textbook. Getting the best picture is all that counts. Some subjects want to be seen very close, some from the middle distance. Some subjects want to stand alone, some need entourage to thrive. Find the best sizes and distances and lenses to shoot what you want to shoot and you (and your viewers) will be very happy. Your pictures will be gorgeous. Only an expert needs 10 diopters in stacked close-up lenses (some go even further and use reversed 50 mm lenses). Most of us don't. If we try, most of us will end up with a memory card full of blur and a head full of discouragement. Start close-up and work up to macro. Or don't. Some of the prettiest up-close pictures I've ever seen (or done) were not macros. They were close-ups, like this one, which is one of the first I ever shot with my brand-new H1 when it first came out in Spring, 2005.
Dedicate your time to discovering and revealing the exquisite world beyond your vision, not to acquiring focus. As you learn more about macro and close-up, post your results to share with others and help them to get where you are. Let me tell you what most impresses me with the H-Series cameras: the beautiful, beautifully-shot macros I see posted online from rank beginners who never shot a macro in their lives. I don't know any kind of photography that's so hard, so frustrating, yet so rewarding. Enjoy it.
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