Macro Photography

[Klaushouse]

So thanks to you handy people here, I decided pretty surely that I want. I am going to go with the Canon Rebel XSi (450d). Now that I have that settled, I'd rather move to a new thread for my next question. Sorry if you guys hate me now haha!

So anyways, I am really interested in also doing macro photography, as in really small things like insects and plants real close up! But I don't know what I need to get to do it properly, I have searched online and places differ in answers from needing tripods to flashes to strobes to everything! Just wanted a clear answer on what I really need to do this properly. As in what kind of lens and such. And what else I would 100% need to do this, and how hard it is to start learning?

Thanks again for your help. Sorry for the questions I am just really curious and don't actually know anyone in real life to talk to about this!

 

[Josh66]

Well, the first thing you're going to need is a macro lens. I like the 100mm f/2.8 Macro.

You're going to need to stop the lens down some to get good DOF on insects and stuff like that, so you'll need a lot of light too. If the subject is not moving you can use a tripod and longer exposures. If you're trying to shoot living insects you'll probably need either good sunlight or a flash.

The 100mm Macro will not make a shadow (without hood attached, I haven't tested that with the hood...) with the pop-up flash (some long lenses will block some of the light from the flash), for best results you might want to get a ring lite flash though.