Macro Techniques

[RossCampbell]

Hey Guys. This Is my first post, so I'll introduce myself, I am Ross Campbell, been photographing for a few months, interested in wildlife, landscape, macro, and bird photography.

Now for the question:

I've been wondering what macro techniques work best, whether its a reversed lens, extension tubes, bellows or just a macro lens.

Lately I've been using the reverse-lens macro technique to get my macro shots, which has its pros and cons. With my 18-55mm set on 18mm, reverse on my EOS 550D, i can get VERY close to my subject. The problem with this technique is that the lens is no longer communicating with the camera since it's in backwards.

I will be buying extention tubes soon, and i will be using it on a 50mm prime. I know i won't be able to get as close to my subject with this technique, but i will still be able to control my aperture because the lens is talking to the camera. Or should I just save up for a macro lens and reduce the trouble?

Some of my Macro shots here Ross Campbell Photography | Purchase Photos For Print On Canvas

Appreciate Reply's

 

[480sparky]

Folks have been taking macros and close-ups for decades with lenses reversed on a camera body and never worried about 'communication'. The simply learned how to shoot in manual mode.... something that's been around since Day One of photography.

I routinely shoot with a reversed 28mm Ai on my bellows. Not sure about Canon, but Nikon makes the BR-6, which allows me to control the aperture on the lens with either a lever or cable. I've also seen devices that fit between the body & whatever close-up method you're using that hace a cable running to a ring that attaches to the mount end of the lens to maintain communication.

 

[RossCampbell]

I routinely shoot with a reversed 28mm Ai on my bellows. Not sure about Canon, but Nikon makes the BR-6, which allows me to control the aperture on the lens with either a lever or cable. I've also seen devices that fit between the body & whatever close-up method you're using that hace a cable running to a ring that attaches to the mount end of the lens to maintain communication.

I have seen that you can change the aperture on Nikon lenses with the lever -Unfortunately Canon lenses don't do this. But I am fine doing the aperture manually. I am buying a Canon 100mm Macro soon, but I don't think I'll get the same results as my 18-55mm reversed.

Thanks for the reply

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts to consider:

1) Macro photography isn't about "how close" you get but rather about the magnification factor of the lens itself. True macro lenses (which is mostly all the macro prime lenses on the market) gain a magnification factor of 1:1 or
"Size of the subject reflected on the sensor by the lens is equal to the size of the subject in real life"
Focal length plays no part in this, the magnification of a 35mm true macro lens is 1:1 just as a 200mm true macro lens is also 1:1. Thus the amount of frame coverage will be the same. What changes are:

a) The distance between subject and the camera/lens - longer focal lengths give you an increased minimum focusing distance which also serves to increase your working distance.*

b) The amount of background blurring will change. The longer focal lengths will render the background more blurred than shorter focal lengths. Note that the depth of field (area of the photo that is in focus) is not affected, however with certain shots a short focal length macro lens can appear to have slight increases in depth of field because of the reduced nature of the blurring.


2) Quality results in macro photography are possible with a wide variety of setups, indeed its one of the few areas of photography where you can get very good results with some cheaper or very customised equipment. This is especially true when you start to go beyond 1:1 magnifications. Note that a regular 1:1 macro lens is nearly always in everybodies bag because most (if not all) higher magnification setups lose infinity focusing, making them useless for larger subjects or for any lesser magnifications. A 1:1 macro lens is always important for those times when you need just a little less.

3) If you want to boost the magnification there are several methods:
a) Reversing the lens as you are doing now.

b) Reversing one lens onto the front of another using a coupling ring. This uses the screw threads on the lenses to mate two lenses together; the rough maths for this being:
Focal length of the lens attached to the body - divided by - focal length of the lens reversed onto it : 1
So a 100mm lens on the body with a 50mm lens reversed onto it would be:
(100/50):1 which equals 2:1 (or twice life size).

Note you lose infinity focus and reduce your focusing distance via this method.

c) Adding extension tubes between the lens and the camera body with the rough maths of:
(Length of extension tubes in mm - divided by - focal length of the lens) + base magnification of the lens : 1
for example a 50mm lens on 100mm of extension tubes would be:
(100/50)+x:1 which equals 2+x:1 note I left the base magnification of the lens out (calling it x) since this will vary from lens to lens. Also note that its often a weaker value unless you're using a macro lens (which has a base of 1)

Note that using this method will lose you infinity focus and reduce the minimum focusing distance of the setup. It also has a limit in that each lens can only reduce its minimum focusing distance so far before the point of focusing moves inside the lens itself. At which point getting focus is impossible (and more importantly by that point getting photos is exceptionally difficult as the camera is right up to the subject).
Furthermore bellows work exactly the same as extension tubes, however most bellows setups don't have contact points to control the lens, whilst good quality extension tubes (eg Kenko brand) do. Very cheap extension tubes will lack the metal contacts and thus have no control over the lens. Also note Canon extension tubes are very very overpriced (most people get the Kenko which are built just as well and priced far more reasonably).

d) Close up lens attachments. The good quality close up attachments (Eg the Canon 250D and 500D as well as the Raynox brand series) are multi element attachments which reduce the minimum focusing distance and remove infinity focusing. Like extension tubes they let you get closer and thus magnify the photo. Note however that whilst extension tubes (per mm) give you more magnification on shorter focal length lenses, extension tubes give you more magnification on longer focal length lenses.
They also have different powers as shown by their diopter number - the greater the number the more powerful the attachment is. Sadly I don't have any rough maths to hand for these; however I will say that for boosting the native magnification of a true macro lens beyond 1:1 the close up lens attachments are my favoured option. This is because they provide a quick and simple attachment which is easily used in the field without having to add and remove the lens all the time. Furthermore they are potentially more powerful since you can add greater diopter powers to increase the magnification - whereas with extension tubes you generally don't want to add too much extension (the setup becomes hard to use once you go past around 65-100mm of exension tubes/bellows).

Note that the are cheap brand close up lens attachments/macro filters on the market - these are almost all single element constructs and are very poor in image quality. They will work but do so badly and as a result do earn these attachments a bad name in the common talk. Quality options like the mentioned Raynox series or Canon series are high quality optics and have very negligible effects on image quality.

e) The Canon MPE 65mm f2.8 macro lens - this is a speciality lens that only Canon makes and which is a pure macro lens. It works from 1:1 through to 5:1 magnifications only (it cannot focus beyond around 6cm or so infront of it). It has no auto focusing either (though it has camera controlled aperture blades). It's a speciality lens and one only suited to those who have experience of higher magnifications and a need for it.
It is a great option though and as an all in one simple approach provides a great option to consider; of course other methods detailed above can get to similar or even greater magnifications and it should also be noted that some can do so better than the MPE lens (indeed one test I've seen used a +12 diopter Raynox close up lens attachment with a few other components to give a higher image quality than the MPE).
A common cheap way to get a similar lens is using a 70-300mm zoom with a 50mm reversed onto it (giving you up to 6:1 magnification if you follow the maths listed above). Though the MPE still retains a bit of an edge over those kinds of setup.



In the end the best method is to practice and see what fits your budget as well as your needs. There are many approaches, as you can see, and many of them can give a good level of image quality to work with. Also one tip is that if you increase the magnification consider using wider aperture settings. Generally speaking the effective aperture increases as the magnification increases and as a result (even on lenses like the MPE) the effective aperture will become very small. This, of course, increases the diffraction effect which softens a photos ultimate sharpness and thus means that you can end up setting an aperture setting of around f5.6 when at 5:1 magnification to get a good sharp shot.





*Minimum focusing distance is the distance from the sensor/film to the subject whilst working distance is from the front of the lens to the subject.

Note - with canon lenses there is a trick to forcing the aperture blades shot for reversed setups or extension tubes without contacts. For this you put the lens onto the camera as normal, select the desired aperture and then press and hold down on the depth of field preview button. This closes the aperture blades on the lens, with the button held down you then remove the lens from the camera. This will not damage either unit and will mean that the aperture blades remain shut on the selected aperture. This will remain the case until you connect the lens to an off camera and turn the camera on, at which point the blades will open up as normal.
Note that the downside to this is that focusing is harder since the blades are shut and admit far less light into the camera to work with.

 

[RossCampbell]

Thank you very much for your detailed response. It helped me alot!
Just out of curiosity, would it be a good idea to reverse a 100mm macro onto extention tubes? I know i won't need the extention tubes with the contacts, as the lens will be backwards. But would this give increased magnification + less focusing distance?

 

[480sparky]

.......Just out of curiosity, would it be a good idea to reverse a 100mm macro onto extention tubes?...........

You won't gain much in terms of magnification.

 

[Overread]

Honestly I have no idea, I've never tried it.

My own method for boosting magnification with a regular macro lens (and one I neglected to mention before) is to use teleconverters. A 1.4TC gives you a maximum magnification of 1.4:1 without changing any of the lenses other properties. A 2*TC gets you up to 2:1, though can be more difficult because you've doubled the magnification thus handholding it can be more tricky (I tend to prefer shorter working distances with higher magnifications as you can brace yourself against the same surface the subject is or use methods like the right hand brace technique to hold the subjects surface).

I've also used close up lens attachments to good effect, often with teleconverters, a Raynox DCR 250 and 1.4TC were a good combo - though honestly any of the Raynox brand items are a good choice (Their MSN 505 and 202 are much more powerful).