how to get crazy up close macro photos

[dannylightning]

A few thoughts and some ROUGH maths*
1 - Extension tubes. Work by reducing the minimum and maximum focusing distances of the lens they are attached to. They fit between the lens and the camera body and purely act as a spacer, they contain no optics (glass). However good quality ones (like Kenko) have metal contacts which let you retain lens control, whilst cheap ones (5$ kind) have no metal contacts and thus lose lens control.
The rough maths is:
Length of extension tubes in mm - divided by - focal length of the lens = magnification : 1
Eg 100mm lens with a 50mm tube gives
50/100 = 0.5:1 or half life size

or a 50mm lens with 50mm tube tives
50/50 = 1:1 or life-size or "true macro" (called such casually as that's the magnification standard for true macro lenses that manufacturers make).

As such you can see that they give the greatest magnification on shorter focal length lenses. Note that they can move the minimum and maximum focusing points to a point where they are so close its impractical to use and also where the lens can never focus; so whilst you can add more you have a limit.
Note - the base magnification of the lens is added to the magnification gained via tube use. This means that if you know the magnification of your lens you can simply add the value to the above result. This means if you use extension tubes on a macro lens youcan get beyond the 1:1 power of the lens.

2) Close up lens attachments/diopters/macro attachments/etc... (they have varied names)
These are like the Raynox DCR250 and come in various powers, with the diopter number denoting how powerful they are (higher number = greater power). They work just like extension tubes, however give greater magnification on longer focal length lenses. I don't know any rough-maths for them.
They come in two flavours - items like Raynox series or Canon 500D and 250D which are high grade multi-element and coated optics. And dirt cheap options that are often sold in kits and are generally single elements. The cheap kind are what most encounter and give a very poor quality result, they work but badly and thus many advise against their use at all. Options like the Raynox (which I also use at times) are great choices and more than capable of standing up to extension tubes or other macro choices.

3) Reverse mounting is what it says and is when you mount a lens backwards onto the camera or onto another lens. This is done by reversing rings which are attached to the screw-threads on the front of a lens (typically used for filters). You might need to use stepping rings sometimes if you can't find a reversing ring that fits your two selected lens choices for this.
The rough maths is - focal length of the lens attached to the body - divided by - focal length of the reversed lens = magnification :1

Eg a 300mm lens on the camera body and a reversed 50mm would give 300/50 = 6:1 (which is greater than the Canon MPE lens mentioned earlier).

Note you generally want the heavier lens on the body so that you're putting the least amount of strain on the screwthreads - of course remember to give your lenses proper support when shooting using this method.



Few other thoughts:
High magnification is very hard to do and I'd advise starting at around 1:1 and getting good and then expanding up from there to higher magnifications. 5:1 is very difficult and often you ned a small light (LED light on a flexi-arm is a good choice) to help give a focusing light that illuminates the subject to make it easier to focus upon (as you get some light loss for high magnifications no matter how you approach taking them).

*These are general rough guideline style maths so the actual magnifications might vary a bit; also due to the fact many lenses adjust their focal length as they focus at different spots so close up they might well have a shorter focal length than advertised (even primes).

great info, thanks. since i have a crop sensor and using tubes to find 1:1 i would probably need to add the 1.5X crop to my lens right. so a 35mm lens would be a 52mm lens after the crop factor. and if i thew 50mm of extension tubes on that 35mm lens and crop sensor body that would basically give me 1:1

 

[480sparky]

Crop factor has nothing to do with reproduction ratio. You can use the same lens on an 8x10, a 4x5, a 6x6cm Hassy, a full frame or a crop body..... the magnification will be identical.

 

[kalgra]

Forgive me if I am overstepping or incorrect but even though the crop sensor does not change the magnification in any way you do get a cropped image at a higher pixel density so in effect its almost like working at a higher magnification than a full frame camera. I use my APSC camera over my FF for this very reason when working with really small critters.

 

[Overread]

As Sparky said the crop factor has no effect on magnification. I forgot to mention:

1:1 means size of the image reflected on the sensor : size of the subject in real life.

Hence 1:1 being called life-size or true macro means that the reflected image on the sensor (no matter the sensor size) is the same as it is in reality. Meanwhile 0.5:1 would be half life-size and 5:1 five times life size.

Note that this now gets fiddly as crop factor "kind of" has an effect in so much as if you have the same magnification on a fulflrame and a crop sensor the crop sensor really does appear as if you've cropped out the middle of the image and then blown it up a little to fit the MP of the sensor.
So in a kind of way you do get more, although you could also say that you miss the edges (depends on how you want to compare it).

 

[480sparky]

Forgive me if I am overstepping or incorrect but even though the crop sensor does not change the magnification in any way you do get a cropped image at a higher pixel density so in effect its almost like working at a higher magnification than a full frame camera. I use my APSC camera over my FF for this very reason when working with really small critters.

No. If you were to photograph, say, a US quarter at 1:1, the projected image would be the same diameter as the actual coin........ 0.955". The size of the sensor makes no difference. It's just once you get below a sensor or film size of less than 0.955", you will start to crop off parts of the image of the quarter. But the magnification will remain the same.

 

[jake337]

Just reverse an old-fashioned 28mm that has an aperture ring.

or reverse that 28mm at the end of a 100mm macro with 127mm of extension tubes. Although at this much magnification you will need a way to focus stack of you want anything in focus.

 

[kalgra]

Forgive me if I am overstepping or incorrect but even though the crop sensor does not change the magnification in any way you do get a cropped image at a higher pixel density so in effect its almost like working at a higher magnification than a full frame camera. I use my APSC camera over my FF for this very reason when working with really small critters.

No. If you were to photograph, say, a US quarter at 1:1, the projected image would be the same diameter as the actual coin........ 0.955". The size of the sensor makes no difference. It's just once you get below a sensor or film size of less than 0.955", you will start to crop off parts of the image of the quarter. But the magnification will remain the same.

I think you might be misunderstanding what I am saying or I am just not explaining myself very well (most likley the later). I was not stating that the sensor changes anything with the reproduction ratio. What I was trying to say is the exact the same thing that @Overread said right after me. He just said it much better than I.

 

[dannylightning]

edit. i just looked up the filter size of my sigma lenses and one is 82mm and the other is 72mm and so is my nikon 18-200mm lens so the raynox things wont work


check out this photos, Jumping Spider since i have extension tubes and say i get one of these things here could i get about as close to something as they did in this photo.

the raynox 150, 4.8-Diopter people say this is easy to work with, some folks seem to think its not enough magnification others say it is.

the raynox 250, 8-Diopter, some people say its very hard to work with and you cant hand hold it because there is so much magnification i would prefer to be able to hand hold my camera,

the hoya close up kit that comes with a the 3 screw on (+1,+2,+4) filters. with this it would only work on lenses with the filter size that i buy. but the raynox should work on all of my lenses which would probably be a plus

I would be happy if i could get that close to something on my budget. those are the 3 things i am considering at the moment, when i have some money that i can spend maybe ill get a real macro lens but for now i think i want to find a inexpensive way to get a descent close up of something small. the extension tubes alone are not doing it.

 

[480sparky]

You can put any size filter on any lens with filter adapters.

 

[Overread]

The DCR 250 can be used hand held without trouble; though depends somewhat on what lens you put it on (a very heavy very long focal length lens might be more difficult). Note that for macro you really have to try yourself; for many magnifications you can shoot handheld with the right method; but some fnid it too hard and need a tripod.

 

[Streets]

Just reverse an old-fashioned 28mm that has an aperture ring.

or reverse that 28mm at the end of a 100mm macro with 127mm of extension tubes. Although at this much magnification you will need a way to focus stack of you want anything in focus.

View attachment 127275

That is proof that if you can get enough magnification, no one can tell what the subject is. That is not photography, it is science.

 

[480sparky]

Just reverse an old-fashioned 28mm that has an aperture ring.

or reverse that 28mm at the end of a 100mm macro with 127mm of extension tubes. Although at this much magnification you will need a way to focus stack of you want anything in focus.

View attachment 127275

That is proof that if you can get enough magnification, no one can tell what the subject is. That is not photography, it is science.

 

[dannylightning]

that's definitely a close up

 

[petrochemist]

even with the extension tubes on a lens at 200mm its not getting any close .

Extension tubes work better with shorter focal lengths. On a 200mm lens you need 200mm extension to reach life size (some of this will typically come from the lenses focusing range).
Using your 18-35 with ~30mm added extension should allow you to focus from just under life size (zoom at 35) to around 2x. But you'll have to get pretty close to focus at all, focusing is usually done by moving the camera & lens relative to the subject - generally rocking back & forth to fine tune the focus.

If using a long lens the Raynox you mentioned above will work better than extension.

Sorry I see Overread & others beat me too it!

 

[petrochemist]

That is proof that if you can get enough magnification, no one can tell what the subject is. That is not photography, it is science.

It's still Photography, which IMO is both an art & a science. Sometimes people can only tell what it is if you use extreme magnifications