Macro Photography Basics - Part 1

The basics of  Macro Photography - An introduction 

What is Macro:

Macro or Micro, whatever you call it, is about capturing subjects that are small.
Essentially, for something to be classified as a macro photo, the usual impression is that the camera was brought quite close to it.
Though its not mandatory that the lens be in the subjects face, that is what the usual implmentation of macro photography starts off as.

Thats why, if you take a photo from a good distance & then crop it to death, that 'zoom' doesnt necessarily qualify as macro photography.

Forget about zoom, cropping & dslr crop ratio, true macro is about getting your hands dirty with the subject from as close to it as possible in most cases :)

Its about capturing detail that would otherwise be impossible with other techniques or equipment.

How do I start - Macro Equipment

Do I really need a macro lens:

Well folks, the great news is, No, you dont!
You dont need a macro lens, but it makes life easier than using other contraptions.
I recently came across cheap lenses like a Promaster Spectrum 7, which provide excellent image quality for an entry level price.

AF is not always that big a deal. Its nice to have but quite often useless.

f2.8 on a macro lens is practicaly useless for true macro.
With closeup macro photography, your depth of field is already not deep enough, because you're so close to the object that at any given point, almost everything behind the focal plane is significantly out of focus.
So more often than not, you will need to stop down to f10 or lower, even f16, before you get sufficient depth of field to capture details.

Yes, f2.8 lenses are great because you can then use them as your everyday prime lens instead of carrying your other prime lense around, but personally, I would not be overly concerned by a macro lenses maximum aperture.

A good macro lens will give you a sharp precise picture, especially when its closer to the minimum focus distance of the lens.

Macro lenses have very small minimum focus distances usually, ie the closest your lens can be to your subject in focus with average lenses today is around 50cm, with a macro lens, its often close to 5cm. Thats just an example, because back in the old days when most lenses had minimum focus distance of 200cm, a lens with 50cm was considered macro too! How the times change... :)

If not macro lens, then what

My favourite is the lens reversal concept.
Investment cost: 0 You dont need to spend any moey.
Almost every photographer has at least 1 lens that can be reversed & will act like a very simple macro lens.

The best option for that is a 50mm f1.8 type cheap simple prime lens.

For a start, just detach the lens from your camera, turn it around, & hold it against your camera.
Viola!

Yes its manual focus, manual metering, manual everything - welcome to the 1950s.
But hey, its free & works a treat :)

Find macro interesting, please read more in my Macro Photography Part 2 article here.

Was this first part of the article useful, & was it easy to understand?

I write these articles in the hope of them being better than other complex content out there so please let me know if this was useful, or not so that I can make them better in the future.

Happy Shooting :)