I thought I'd talk a little bit about macro photography today.

Shooting macro is one of my favorite 'recreational' types of photography.

What is macro anyway? Macro is generally defined as a category of lenses which have no reduction factor. In other words, the lens transmits an image to the sensor at a 1:1 scale. Actual size. As a result the subject appears much 'bigger' (hence, macro). There are even macro lenses that operate at 1:4, at that level of 'zoom' a grain of rice would fill up the entire frame of the image!

What's the big deal about all that? Well you can see some incredible things when you start looking at your world close up. Everyday objects take on a whole new dimension.

Let's take a look at an example (just snapped this today). The below image is a spider of course, one of my favorite subjects due to the lines & contrast. Apologies to the squeamish, but I warned you. ;)

Some things to consider when shooting Macro: 

• Lens: You don't need much to get started, just the lens. Macro lenses are relatively inexpensive (compared to most specialty lenses anway) and can usually be had for the same price as a 'standard' type lens. They are rated by focal length mm just like other lenses and the same general rules apply; a 90mm macro is going to allow you more distance from your subject than say a 50mm. Possibly an important consideration depending on the subject! ;)
• Depth Of Field: One common 'problem' when shooting macro is the lack of DOF, especially on longer lenses (notice you cant even see the web in this pic). It's quite common to shoot at very small apertures as a result. I took the above image at f20. That's all fine and dandy except at f20 I need a much longer exposure than I'd normally take or I need a lot more light (in this case I opted for more light via a speedlight). If you are working outside on flowers for example you may want to be sure you have good sun, and bumping up the iso doesn't hurt either.
• Focus Bracketing: This is a little more complex solution to the DOF problem above but I'd thought I'd introduce it for the advanced section of the group. If you have a subject that is fairly stationary you can set your camera up on a tripod, focus on the subject, snap a pic...and then refocus closer (or farther) and snap again...repeat until you get a shot of the whole object sharp (across several pics). You can then composite those images in photoshop to produce a single image that is sharp across the range.
• Lighting: As I mentioned above getting enough light on the subject can be difficult, especially if you are trying to handhold the shot. There is a special type of flash made just for macro photography called a ring flash. A ring flash is just what it sounds like it is, a circular flash that attaches to the front of your camera and goes completely around the lens (or sometimes just has multiple light points around the lens). These are pretty neat devices but they aren't cheap and i wouldn't suggest buying one unless you plan to be doing a lot of this type of photography. As often as not, a good fill like a speedlight will work just fine.
• Critical Sharpness: Have you ever noticed it's harder to get a steady image at telephoto distances? You aren't imagining it. As the image is farther from the sensor, minute movements register exponentially more. Many people report the same experience when shooting macro, especially at longer focal lengths. You can combat this with a tripod of course, but if you are chasing butterflies around that's not a very good option. Another solution to this problem is (and you'll need plenty of light) shoot at very fast shutter speeds. Due to space constraints i had to handhold the image above...as a result I shot it at 200th of a second. Much faster than I would typically choose. Plenty of light and a push of the exposure and it comes out looking fine (and quite sharp!).

Well, that's your introduction for the day. I'm currently working on a 'bug' series for the local kids (they love this stuff). I'll try to post more when the weather improves. :)

Cheers, -B