Howdy y’all, Richmond here!
Thanks to everyone who attended our meeting on macrophotography! I hope we provided some good information... and that my technical explanations didn’t put y’all to sleep. For those who weren’t able to make it to the meeting, here’s a quick intro to macrophotography.
Ha, get it? *Mac*rophotography?
I think I'm a lot funnier than I really am. - Richmond F.
When you’re talking about macrophotography, an oft-asked question is “well, what is it?” To answer that question, “macro” technically involves photography at a magnification of 1:1 or greater. “Cool, I guess,” you say, yawning loudly. In practical use, macrophotography is just any photography where the subject is very small. “But... wait a minute.” I give a silent nod of understanding, and you trail off. “Small things should be called ‘micro’?” You nod. “I have no clue either, that’s just the way things are.”
Now that the boring technical stuff is out of the way, we have... *checks notes* more boring technical stuff! Macrophotography is cool, but macro lenses are expensive. Just look at Sigma’s recent release of their new 105mm f2.8 Macro (seriously, Sigma, please sponsor us) - it’s $800! What if I’d rather spend $80? What if I’d rather spend $8? Luckily, there are options for everyone! For really cheap, you can pick up extension tubes, reverse rings, or close-up lenses that will turn any lens into a macro lens!*
*“Real” macro lenses are extensively corrected for aberrations, to prevent field curvature, the list goes on. These more affordable methods all degrade the image in various ways, though said degradation is often very slight.
So, how do they work? Well, optics are complicated, so it’s probably easier to just say “magic” and call it a day. Extension tubes are the easiest to wrap your head around and generally the best budget method, at least at the level necessary for use. I’ll use the Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM and a 25mm extension tube as an example. First, find the maximum magnification of your lens; in this case, it’s 0.21x. Then, divide the length of the extension tube by the focal length of the lens (25/50, so 0.5), and add it to your lens’s maximum magnification. Congrats, your Canon 50/1.8 is now capable of 0.71x magnification! That’s almost 1x, or “true” macro, so you should get some pretty good results.
Here's a photo taken with an Olympus 50/3.5 and a 25mm extension tube to ease the boredom of reading about extension tubes. - Richmond F.
I know, I know, macrophotography is a really technical subject, and you probably stopped reading halfway through the first paragraph, but unfortunately there is one little thing I have to note before moving on to the fun part. Using extension tubes increases the effective focal length of the lens. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know anything about this, but what you do need to know is that the increase in effective focal length causes an increase in effective aperture, which actually matters in use - at higher magnifications, your lens will let less light in. It’s unavoidable, unfortunately, and is one of many reasons why macrophotography often requires artificial light.
With this shot, it almost looks like I know what I'm doing! - Richmond F.
Anyways, now that you hopefully know how to do macrophotography, let’s talk why you would actually need to know any of this! Most wedding photographers carry a macro lens in their bag, which they use to shoot rings, silverware, jewelry, and other fine details. Then, of course, there’s nature - flowers and bugs are some of the most frequent subjects of macrophotography.
Finally, we come to my favorite use case for macro, which I call “meditative photography.” Meditative photography is about finding the beauty in the things around you, and macrophotography allows a unique perspective that can provide beautiful results. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I hope it’s been enough to get you thinking about how you personally could use macrophotography.
Some other stuff for those who are here for the first time…
Any Purdue student, staff, or faculty can join our club regardless of skill level or photography gear. We would like to build an inclusive community of photographers. We do not have membership dues, but we will gratefully appreciate any donations. It would really help us during this difficult time. In addition, if you want to have access to the studio or darkroom, the yearly fee is $20. If you pay for the studio and darkroom access, you should receive an automated email with the instructions on how to access our facilities.
Thank you for reading our blog posts of the Fall 2020 semester. We will continue to post in our blog throughout the semester to recap our meetings in case you missed it. Feel free to look at our past blogs as well. If you have not already, please sign up for our email list on our homepage. If you do not receive our weekly emails, please check your Cisco Quarantine and add our email to your safelist to make sure you receive future emails.
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Once again, thank you and see you next week!