Macro photography for a beginner. All about the intricacies of close-up photography

Macro photography opens up new horizons for you and your EOS.
Macro photography is great for capturing interesting photos during the fall and winter months, both indoors and outdoors, when the days are getting shorter and the weather is less predictable.

© Peter Schlegel

Training

If you're just getting started in the field of photography, you can use the standard zoom lens that comes with EOS cameras and then purchase a dedicated macro lens. Set the lens to telephoto for as close as possible to your subject, and rotate the Mode dial on your EOS to close-up. This will allow you to adjust the exposure settings and the picture style. As you shoot, you will notice that the closer you get to the subject, the likelihood of blurring caused by accidental camera movement such as shake or shake increases. In such a situation, it is best to mount your EOS camera on a tripod. You are now ready to shoot.

Depth of field and focus

When focusing on subjects close to the lens, the depth of field (the area in focus in front of and behind the focus point) is significantly reduced. Regardless of the aperture value set, the background of your photo will be out of focus. But by using a smaller (higher f /) aperture, more areas of your subject will be sharp enough.

For more precise control over the depth of field, switch the lens to manual focus mode. You will notice that small movements become more noticeable as the subject is enlarged. Even a smooth change in the position of the focusing ring greatly influences the choice of the focusing area. Use Live View zoom for more precise focus control.

Lighting

Very important during macro photography is played by correct lighting... If you are shooting indoors, then it is best to use natural light from windows first. Avoid direct sunlight ( a good option- soft light of a cloudy day) and use a sheet of white thick paper to bounce light onto your subject and reduce shadows. The angle of inclination and the distance of the sheet of paper to the subject of photography greatly affects the final result of the shooting.

Ideally, your light source should illuminate all parts of the subject for the best possible detail and accurate colors. Canon's optional Macro Ring Lite and Macro Twin Lite can be used to illuminate the subject as evenly as possible when shooting close-ups.

Cut tomato - © Katherine Watson, Canon EOS 7D

Composition and background

Macro photography is primarily about high detail, so it's best to take the time to compose your shot and background. The background is likely to be out of focus, but the color, brightness, and shapes of objects in the background can distract from the subject. Now that you've learned the basics, check out the guidelines on the next page to help you navigate to new level photography skills.

Transition to a new level of photography

Standard zoom lenses are great for getting started with macro photography, while dedicated lenses and accessories open up entirely new possibilities.

Macro lens

These lenses are specially designed for mark photography and offer a 1: 1 magnification ratio (1: 1 means the subject will be displayed life-size on the camera's image sensor). They can also be used for other types of photography, such as portraits. The Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro USM is suitable for APS-C sensors, and the EF 100mm f / 2.8L Macro IS USM lens for full-frame sensors The EF 100mm f / 2.8L Macro IS USM is equipped with a Hybrid IS for handheld macro photography. All of these dedicated macro lenses deliver edge-to-edge sharpness and clarity, high contrast and image quality.

Strawberry and chocolate - © Alejandro Ruiz, Canon EOS 7D

Optical converters for close-up photography

This converter can be attached to an existing lens to focus at a closer distance. The converter does not take up much space, so you can easily take it with you on a trip or trip. There are two types of Canon close-up optical converters: the 500D and the more powerful 250D.

Extension tubes

Another optional lens accessory is the extension tube. It fits between the EOS camera body and the lens to reduce the minimum focusing distance. There are two models of Canon's Extension Tube: EF12 II and EF25 II. The number indicates the length of the tube. The 25mm tube provides greater magnification than the 12mm tube. The glass extension is designed with no glass parts, so the image quality of the lens remains unchanged. However, to obtain the correct exposure when using this tube, the subject must be better lit than when shooting without the tube.

EOS advanced camera settings

If you've already purchased a macro lens or accessories, we recommend that you explore the following modes with additional options for controlling exposure: Aperture Priority (Av) or Manual (M). These modes allow you to control the depth of field. about these regimes

If you're using a tripod, check out a few ideas for making your camera more stable when shooting macro. Pressing the shutter button may cause slight camera shake. If shutter timing is not critical, set the self-timer with a 2-second delay to reduce the chance of camera shake when shooting. You can also use a remote shutter release connected to your EOS camera. This will allow you to start exposure without touching the camera.

Sweet candy - © Luis Pineda Garcia, Canon EOS 500D

Close-up photography is shooting from a very close distance, in which you can capture details that are invisible to the human eye. This is a challenging type of photography that requires you to know the basics of macro photography and have the right equipment at your disposal.

The most popular macro objects are flowers, insects, human eyes and any other highly detailed small objects.

Macro camera

When choosing a camera for macro photography, keep in mind the following guidelines:

• The camera must have special settings for the macro photography mode;
• A digital camera must have good program turning on the macro mode. It is usually started with a dial selector;
• For macro photography, an SLR film camera is better suited. It is even better if the camera is not electronic, but mechanical. Only macro photography with a DSLR allows you to perfectly position the frame and assess the focus of the lens. It also makes it possible to use special rings that are installed between the lock and the camera lens.

Varieties of rings for macro photography

• Wraparound (reversible) ring. An inexpensive and easy-to-use device that allows you to work in macro mode. Before starting work, you need to wind it up instead of a light filter and attach the lens to the carcass reverse side. Advantages: low price, compact, does not degrade image quality. Minuses: you cannot change the macro scale, automatic functions do not work;
• Furs for macro photography... They are presented in the form of an "accordion" that allows you to increase the distance between the lens and the camera. Advantages: stepless zoom, no deterioration in photo quality, no need to remove the lens to zoom. Minuses: automatic functions do not work, the aperture of the lens decreases when the object being shot approaches, dimensions are not quite convenient;
• Extension ring set... Their work is similar to the work of bellows, but in this case it is possible to change the scale of the image only stepwise. Advantages: Image quality does not deteriorate, and the camera's automatic functions continue to operate. Minuses: the aperture of the lens decreases, to change the scale you have to remove the lens, high cost;
• Lens set for macro photography... The lenses are screwed onto the filter thread, so there is no need to remove the lens. Advantages: aperture is not lost, compactness, low price, automatic functions work, can be used with a removable lens. Minuses: Image quality deteriorates, especially with cheap lenses.

Macro lens

The macro lens features a close focusing distance and increased resolution for sharp, high-contrast images. If you are not really into macro photography, it makes sense to think carefully about whether you need a special lens, because portrait and landscape photography is quite problematic with it. Macro objects are expensive.

Armed with following tips and the rules, you can take stunning macro photography right at home.

• Focus on important subjects manually;
• Flash during macro photography will help you see very fine details in more detail;
• To prevent the blur effect, fix inanimate objects in motion with a regular clothespin or a professional macro tripod;
• Use high saturation color films with medium sensitivity;
• Try to avoid the temptation to shoot with maximum increase, since this significantly decreases the depth of field, most of the image looks blurry and indistinct;
• Use a lens hood when shooting against the sun;
• Use safety filters. They will protect an expensive lens from pollen and other particles;
• It is not worth doing macro photography in cloudy weather, since the play of light is important, perhaps the main thing in macro photography;
• Every part of the day is an opportunity for good macro photography. Use it! A sunny afternoon will open up the macrocosm in all its splendor for the camera, sunset will give you the opportunity to shoot with backlight or oblique light. In the early morning, macro photography of insects is most accessible, since insects are weakly mobile;
• Try to make the background neutral, monochrome. To do this, you just need to change the shooting angle or put a cloth, backpack, jacket;
• To create artificial dew, it is enough to lubricate the surface with glycerin and sprinkle with water. Beautiful effect created when shooting with the Star diffraction filter;
• Use a cable release, the self-timer function can replace it. Using the shutter button may result in vibration, which will ruin the photo;

Macro mode in inexpensive cameras

Some cheap digital cameras also have a macro mode. The button to turn it on is usually labeled as a flower icon. Of course, professional macro photography with such a camera cannot be achieved, but in this mode you can get much closer to the subject, which is impossible in the standard mode.

Conclusion

Macro photography is a rather complex branch of the art of photography. Before doing it, acquire the required list of equipment. Otherwise, all your experiments will inevitably end up with getting vague photographs. And armed with the secrets of macro photography described in this article, your shots will be much better.

Close-up photography of small objects is almost an integral part of any photographer's creativity. It can be anything - flowers and butterflies, wedding rings at a wedding, samples of manicure and pedicure, shooting goods for an online store, and so on. How best to do it - and will be the topic of this article.

There is a misconception that macro photography- a very simple genre of photography, or even not a genre at all. All that is required for this from the camera is the ability to focus from a few centimeters to the subject. This formed the basis of the myth that soap dishes have much better macro capabilities than devices with interchangeable lenses. Indeed, manufacturers of photographic equipment have made a clear progress in this - most compact cameras are able to focus from a distance of 1 centimeter or even less. But it turns out that this is far from all that is needed in order to shoot high-quality macro. Especially soap dishes ...

Scale

First of all, let's first understand what is macro photography and how does it differ from simple close-up shots... It is believed that the border between macro and close-up is at a scale of 1: 2.

In general, what is scale in macro photography? After all, this value is almost always indicated in the characteristics of the lens. Its meaning is simple. At a scale of 1: 2, two "linear" millimeters of the object are projected onto one "linear" millimeter of the matrix. That is, if the device has a 22 * ​​17 mm matrix (typical value for cropped zerkalok) and a lens that allows you to shoot at a scale of 1: 2, then a 17 mm coin will be projected into a circle with a diameter of 17/2 = 8.5 millimeters, that is, the height will be half a frame. If the lens can give a 1: 1 scale, then the coin will turn out in height in the entire frame (if the matrix is ​​APS-C).

Based on this, we come to the conclusion that the main indicator of the macro capabilities of the lens is not the minimum focusing distance, but the macro scale. At the same shooting scale, different lenses can have completely different focusing distances - from 20 centimeters to 1.5 meters or more. Why is that?

Focal length, focusing distance, perspective

We know that one of the main characteristics of a lens is its focal length. The larger it is, the smaller the angle of view the lens has and the more it "brings" the object closer. Accordingly, the more the lens "zooms in", the more distance it can provide shooting at the required scale. The most typical focal lengths for macro lenses are between 50 and 180 mm. What is the difference between these lenses, if they give the same macro scale?

It's all about the transfer perspectives... It is known that the closer a photograph is taken, the more the subject's image is subject to perspective distortion. Below is an example in which the same subject is photographed at approximately the same scale, but with different focal lengths. For simplicity, a rectangular object is used:

The difference is obvious! If, when shooting from a long distance with a long-focus lens, the rectangular object retained its shape, then when shooting with a wide-angle lens at the same scale, we received significant perspective distortion, uneven lighting (due to the fact that the flash was too far from the lens), a high probability of hitting a frame of unnecessary objects in the background.

There is a rule in photography - in order to prevent the appearance of noticeable perspective distortions, you need to photograph an object from a distance at least 10 times greater than the "depth" of the object. That is, if we are photographing an object 10 cm in size, then this must be done at least from a meter distance. The focal length of the lens should be such as to provide the desired zoom without getting closer to the object closer than this critical distance.

How is a macro lens different from a regular lens?

Lens marked with the word Macro usually have the following features:

• Fairly long focal length- as mentioned above, to reduce perspective distortions of the object's shape when shooting close-up - to shoot not point-blank, but a little from afar. The more critical the issue of transferring the shape of the object, the longer the focal length (and, accordingly, the focusing distance) should be.
• Zoomed in macro zoom compared to conventional lenses... If for a standard "fifty kopeck piece" Canon 50mm 1: 1.4 the scale is 1: 4, then for CANON EF 50 mm f / 2.5 Compact Macro it is 1: 2, that is, it allows you to photograph an object 2 times larger. Macro zoom can be determined by either minimum focusing distance or focal length. Macro lenses with a long focal length (150-180 mm) allow you to shoot an object from a greater distance (useful for shooting, for example, fearful butterflies) and more "stretch" and blur the background.
• F-number range shifted towards small apertures... While most conventional lenses can hold the aperture up to 22, the macro lens allows you to do this up to 36 or even 45. This is done to provide a larger DOF, since when shooting at close range, even at f / 22, the depth of field is a few millimeters.
• Optical design optimized for shooting close objects... Any optics has distortions (aberrations) - chromatic, spherical, coma, astigmatism, which negatively affect the picture quality. When zooming and focusing, the lenses inside the lens shift and the optics manufacturer needs to compensate for aberrations throughout the zoom / focus range. In macro lenses, focusing on foreground... That is why such macro lenses provide "razor sharp" in portraits and draw the skin in every detail, often emphasizing its defects. For this reason, many photographers do not recommend using a macro lens for portraits - softness is appreciated in portraits, especially womens portraits.

Common Macro Problems

Object falling out of the depth of field

The essence of the problem is that the photographed object is not completely sharp, but only partially:

The given example is just a strong crop of a photograph taken with an "ordinary" lens. When using a macro lens, the problem can be much more pronounced.

Suppose we have a 100 mm macro lens, the aperture is 1: 2.8, the minimum focusing distance is 30 cm.If we try to shoot from the shortest possible distance with the aperture open, the depth of field will be less than 1 millimeter (calculated in the depth of field calculator, for full frame). Naturally, under such conditions, in most cases, it is difficult to count on a successful photograph - the leading edge of the object will be sharp, the rest will quickly go into the blur area. Of course, this can be part of the creative idea, but, for example, for product photography, this approach is not acceptable. The depth of field must match the "depth" of the subject.

To increase the DOF, cover the diaphragm. If you close the aperture to 45 (!!!), then the depth of field in this case will grow to 1.3 centimeters - this is quite acceptable for shooting a medium-sized object. But we know that when the aperture is clamped, the shutter speed increases proportionally. When you clamp the aperture from f / 2.8 to f / 45, to maintain the exposure level, you need to increase the shutter speed by 256 (!!!) times. That is, instead of 1/250 seconds, it takes 1 second! There is nothing to do without a tripod.

To check the depth of field, many cameras have an aperture repeater button. On Canon cameras, it is located on the left under the lens.

When you press this button, the iris is closed to the selected value. In this case, the picture in the viewfinder darkens, but at the same time you can see the real depth of field, which will be obtained in the photograph. In LiveView, this function is more convenient to use, since the picture on the screen is displayed at the same brightness.

Shevelenka

If during normal shooting with a shutter speed of 1 / 20-1 / 50 of a second, the shake is expressed in image blur ("transverse" shake, it is partially compensated by the stabilizer), then in macro photography with low depth of field, a "longitudinal" shake is still possible - when, when the shutter button is pressed the unit accidentally moves closer to or further from the subject. As a result, the subject either falls out of the depth of field (if the camera moves away), or the focus area is not where the photographer intended, for example, on the back of the subject.

The most reliable remedy from shake during macro photography - tripod. It is practically a panacea for shooting stationary objects, the main thing is that its height allows you to correctly position the camera.

If you have to shoot moving objects, for example, flowers swinging in the wind, here the easiest way out is to reduce the shutter speed to at least 1/250 second and take continuous shooting. According to the theory of probability, at least one in 10 frames will turn out to be sharp.

Autofocus misses

Even if the lens does not have front / back focus, you should not rely 100% on autofocus assistance for macro photography. It is best to use manual focus in LiveView with focus area magnification enabled. Only this guarantees that the object will be sharp as a whole, or that part of the object on which we want to focus will be sharp.

Normal flash does not illuminate the subject properly

When shooting from a close distance, the parallax of the flash begins to make itself felt. The farther the flash is from the lens, the more uneven the illumination will be, since part of the subject may not be in the flash range. Let's go back to the earlier example:

While this is not macro photography, it is easy to see that the flash illuminates the subject primarily from the left. The right side of the photo is in the shade. To obtain uniform illumination during macro photography, special ring macro flash units are used:

Such flashes allow high-quality illumination of objects even at the minimum focusing distance, for example, like this:

Source - macroflash.ru

Lack of scale

Even a powerful macro lens is not always capable of achieving the desired image scale when shooting very small objects. In this case, you have to resort to the help of auxiliary equipment - a macroconverter, extension rings and more complex devices.

A macro-converter is a lens that screws on in front of the lens and acts as a magnifying glass. Macro rings are placed between the lens and the body - in this case, the focusing area shifts towards smaller distances, that is, we can get closer to the object. The price to be paid for this is a decrease in the aperture ratio, the loss of the ability to focus on "infinity", and a decrease in image quality due to aberrations is possible. Nevertheless, it becomes possible to photograph very close-ups even with an ordinary (not macro) lens.

An interesting article about the use of macro rings can be found on the website radojuva.com.ua

Is it possible to shoot a normal macro with a soap dish?

Let's take a break from interchangeable-lens devices for a while and turn our eyes to soap dishes. The characteristics of most compact devices indicate the possibility of macro shooting from 1-2 centimeters or even less. Yes, it looks tempting! In fact, it turns out that focusing at such a close distance is possible only in the wide-angle position of the lens. If you "add the zoom", the macrozone dramatically moves away into the distance and the scale decreases at the same time - I have had a lot of soap boxes in my hands, but they all had such a feature. What will come of this can be judged by this "portrait" of a beetle, taken with a Sony soap dish from a distance of about 1 cm (in wide-angle position):

It is noticeable that the proportions of the insect's body are significantly distorted. Now let's see another photo of a beetle of a similar size, but taken with a device with a "large" matrix and a long-focus macro lens:

If in the first example the head of the beetle and its whiskers seem huge in comparison with the body, then in the second the insect looks quite proportional.

Also, due to the fact that the lens is wide-angle, unnecessary semi-blurred objects in the background will often fall into the frame. This "masterpiece" own production I have been storing for over 13 years:

This photograph was taken in the early 2000s with an Olympus point-and-shoot camera with a fixed wide-angle lens. The minimum focusing distance was 10 cm. It seems that when shooting flowers 1 cm in size, there is no perspective distortion, but the background is simply deadly :)

Thus, we can conclude that a good macro on a point-and-shoot camera can theoretically be photographed if the ability to focus on a very close object is preserved throughout the entire focal length range. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen such devices yet.

Now let's digress from macro photography and touch on the topic a little. subject shooting, since many are worried about the question of how to make it efficiently at home.

How to get along with the means at hand in order to perform high-quality subject photography?

I regularly need to photograph something for this site, but I have no macro lens, no ring flash, no external light. The same situation regularly arises with the owners of websites and online stores - you need to photograph some small object (for example, a product) so that this photo then fits into the design of the website. It is logical that for this the object must be on a uniform background, for example, in this way:

Or on a completely white background:

How do you think this car was photographed? Was the special box used for the subject shooting? Or a macro flash? Or some other "device" with a difficult to pronounce name?

The following photo will probably make you smile:

Yes Yes! The white background is a sheet of an old calendar. The smooth bend makes the transition of the "floor" into the "wall" invisible.

Another thing is that an external flash was installed on the camera, and its head was turned back. The back wall and part of the ceiling were used as a reflector. This produces the softest and most uniform lighting, even better than from the ceiling.

Below is a table of the results of the experiment. Since my Canon 5D does not have a built-in flash, I used the Olympus E-PM2. Then he took a DSLR and took a photo with a flash from the ceiling and from the back wall. See the results for yourself.

Built-in Flash Photography (Olympus E-PM2) It turned out badly - glare, reflections from shiny parts on the background, the image is "flat". Moreover, the diaphragm is not clamped, the depth of field is not enough (I was shooting in auto mode).	Flash from the ceiling (Canon 5D + Canon Speedlite 430 EX II). Aperture 18. Better, but the background is not evenly lit
Flash from the back wall (Canon 5D + Canon Speedlite 430 EX II) background issue resolved. You can stop there!	Flash from the back wall (Canon 5D + Canon Speedlite 430 EX II), level adjustments in Photoshop And a completely white background is easy to make in Photoshop - either by levels or by "color swap".

What if there is no external flash? For lighting, you can use the usual desk lamp... Only, it is desirable that a powerful energy-saving lamp with cold light (4000K) be screwed into it. Using "warm" light (2700K) for lighting can cause white balance problems. By moving the lamp relative to the subject, you can achieve the optimal result so that the subject is well lit and the shadows from it do not interfere.

(On click, as always, Yandex.Photos, where there is a horse-size for the curious)

So how is it done. While the victim of art awaits his sad fate, I hope you have already tried the tripod on a domestic cat, bought the rest of the equipment and even spent a sober evening for once. If you haven't done any of this, then first read again my articles about and. I also recommend it for blondes. You will need it. And what about those who are ready and have already learned the whole theory by heart?

The first step is to reversely connect the whale lens, with a pre-set aperture. Turn off autofocus and optical stabilizer first, if you have one. Unscrew all the filters from it if the sellers sold you these useless UV glasses. If you have a really useful polarik there, you will have to take it off too. Now it's time to screw the reversing ring by 58 millimeters in place of the filters. Connect the lens to the camera in the usual way, not through a freshly installed adapter. Set the focal length of the lens to 18 mm by turning the corresponding ring.

Then select Manual (M) or Aperture Priority (Av) by turning the DSLR wheel. Set the aperture to F8.0. As you already know from mine, this value for a whale is optimal when shooting a stack. If you open the aperture wider, the image quality will not improve, and the depth of field will decrease. If you close it even more, then the diffraction effect will appear.

After that, press the depth-of-field preview button, and without releasing it, unscrew the lens from the camera. Let me remind you that for the Canon 1100D, the depth-of-field preview function must first be set to the SET button in the menu settings. Now your lens is disabled, the aperture is forcibly set to F8.0. If you screw the lens back onto the camera in the normal way, the iris will open fully, so be sure to repeat the previous step again when detaching the lens.

Voila, a tuned lens can be connected back to the DSLR through the reversing ring. The macro monster is ready. Look through the camera's viewfinder. Can't see anything, one dark dregs? So you did everything right.

By the way, the victim of art can already be put in the freezer, if it is not there yet.

Now let's start setting up the "setup". Unfortunately, there is no Russian word yet for describing a scene with properly installed props, lights and a camera. Take a nightstand or small table, place a tripod next to it and adjust its height so that the camera mounted on it is slightly higher than the table.

Bring Grandpa's old desk lamp and place it on the table. Do not forget to plug it in. Connect the lens to the camera through the reversing ring, if you have not already done so, and mount the latter on a tripod. Connect the cable to the camera. Set the focal length of the lens to between 24 and 35 mm. Turn the wheel to the manual settings mode (M), set the ISO to 100 (or whatever your minimum is), set the white balance to room lighting, this is important. Turn on Live View. Darkness? Well, what did you want, it is not for you to shoot on the machine. Set the shutter speed to about two seconds, then the black haze should turn brown (or so). If this does not happen, the exposure meter will tell you how to adjust the shutter speed correctly. And if these two words are abusive to you, just turn the second wheel of the camera left and right. Once the blackness is gone, it's time to stop. You have set everything up as it should.

Now you can get the victim out of the refrigerator and fix it on a needle. With beetles and cockroaches it is easier, they can shove a needle under hard elytra, with softer insects it is more difficult. It all depends on your disgust and craving for art. You can try stationery glue, hammer on a needle and cling to the animal's wings or legs with tweezers wrapped in an elastic band, or you can not be afraid and bravely pierce the insect with a needle. The holder of the photo model must be fixed in a structure that allows six degrees of freedom. A piece of plasticine taken from the child is perfect for this. By the way, the light reflected from it will make a pretty noticeable contribution to the final picture, so if you don't want special color effects, choose gray. If the height of the model holder itself is too small, a piece of plasticine can be hoisted onto the stand. Here's how it looked for me:

Now we need to focus on the model. Where did your hands reach? No, you don't need to touch the lens rings, it still won't help. Move the tripod so that there are about five centimeters from the tip of the lens to the insect. And, lo and behold, in the Live View mode his slightly vague silhouette should appear. Hooray! You can play a little. Take your first hazy megamacro photos, dance and dance. Well, the truth is, what a cool shade! Don't be shy, everyone does it. Having played enough, you can start to come up with a composition. Twist the model holder in the lens, straighten the insect's paws with the second needle, and at the same time, remove large specks from it and adjust the exposure on the camera so that there are no overexposures. By the way, you can change the magnification by turning the lens focal length ring only in the range from 24 to 35 mm, otherwise you won't be able to remove it without a rail. Here are the options I got:

Whatever you do at this stage, the lighting will leave a lot to be desired. The light from the lamp is quite hard, the contrast will go off scale. A cylindrical reflector, or paper "", will save us from this. Put it on the table, under the lamp, prop it up with Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, and place the long-suffering insect inside it. Sight the model again. Now, I think you have guessed why I recommended setting up the composition in advance. In a pipe obstructed by a camera, this will be much more difficult. In general, you should get something like the following construction:

The model is not visible in the photo, but it is there, inside, right under the center of the lamp. The light in this case will turn out to be much softer, although some correction of the exposure time may be required. Compare to my third option without a pipe:

Everything should be fine with the light, but the background is likely to be terrible. To correct this annoying misunderstanding, put some dark clothing or a rag behind the pipe. Black jeans, as opposed to white ( Promych I'm sorry) will do, although I used ski pants. Place something non-glare and colorful in front of your background clothing, such as a washcloth. I have four different ones.

The setup should look something like this:

By tinkering with the location of the sponge, you can remove something like this:

"Wait, wait, what kind of crap is so white, sticking out of the tube in front of the camera in the previous photo?" - an attentive reader will mentally ask me. And this is an additional reflector. It seemed to me that the lower part of the insect came out a little darkly. And I lit it up a little, with the light reflected from the paper. So it seemed to me better:

In general, everything is ready to shoot the stack. To make the last dash, turn on the mirror pre-lift on the camera. Owners of very budget DSLRs can sigh sadly and skip this point. Then turn on Live View and scroll the lens all the way to the right, but not completely all the way, but only by moving the focusing ring. The focal length of the lens should not change. Move the tripod towards the model so that the part closest to you is slightly out of focus. This is because if you make a mistake in the initial focusing, then after shooting the stack it will not be possible to correct it. Therefore, it is better to under-twist a little at first than to twist. Then rotate the lens to the left until the farthest part of the insect is in focus. Remember this position, and turn the lens back all the way to the right. Check the exposure again. The main thing is that there are no overexposures. With them, too, alas, nothing can be done about them.

Next, a titanic work begins, which will educate the patience of a monk in you. Turn off Live View, put the remote on the floor. Click on the remote button. The camera mirror will rise. We are waiting for about five seconds until the vibration dies down and press the button again. For those who simply do not raise the mirror, they get by with a single press of a button, and prayers so that everything will turn out abruptly. Congratulations, the first shot is taken. Now we rotate the lens to the left by a quarter to a third of the risks of the focal length ring. Better under-twist than twist. More frames - no less, if you skip part of the object in depth of field, the entire stack will have to be reshomed. Happened? Okay, we press the button, wait five seconds for the vibration to go out, and take the shot again. Again we rotate the lens by a quarter of the risk, take another shot, and so on, and so on. Until you rotate the lens in this way to the final position, which you should have remembered. This is how the process looks through the Live View:

And this is how it looks from the outside:

As a result, flipping through the obtained pictures on the camera screen, you should get something like the following:

Do not be alarmed that the size of the model decreases with every frame. Stack building programs are aware of this feature, and they correct it perfectly. But more about that, sometime next time.

Until then, watch the whole process of taking the title photo of the post, accelerated twenty-five times... As they said in my youth, in 3D (actually not) and in true color. What can you do, I had to eat a couple of bread crumbs from

Macro photography is a close-up shot in which details are visible in a photograph that are invisible to the naked eye. The macro standard is considered to be an image of an object in a photograph at its full size - 1: 1. Let's try to choose the best camera for macro photography for lovers of miniature wonders of nature and planning to take pictures for photo stocks or online stores.

No. 1 Camera

In theory, the larger the sensor, the better: many guides advise taking a full-frame macro camera. But do not discount the crop: it is not surprising that sometimes the result of a macro shot with a camera with a small sensor can surpass the full frame. Some photographers buy the compact in addition to professional equipment for shooting in some modes, including macro.

However, no matter what you choose - mirrorless or mirrorless, full-frame or not, you will not go wrong, since which camera to buy for macro photography is not the main thing here!

# 2 Lens

The main thing in macro photography is the lens, because, in fact, the degree of approximation of the object depends on it.

• Between fixed and variable focal length lenses, it is worth giving preference to the first one - due to the design features, the fix is ​​more aperture.

• For amateur macro photography, it would seem that lenses with the shortest possible focusing distance are best suited, but there is a "but" here: with a lens that can be used to shoot close to the subject, it is convenient to photograph only static. The living creatures will fly away, run away or otherwise prevent them from taking a photo if the camera is brought closer to its nose. In addition, lenses with longer focusing distances offer more photography options.
• A wide-angle macro lens (with a short focus) is optimal for shooting close-ups of fixed details, subject shooting. For everything movable, that is, macro photography of wildlife, a long-focus lens is better. But, if you really want to do both, it will not be a mistake to purchase a macro zoom lens.

No. 3 Display

If your choice is leaning towards a DSLR camera, it is advisable to support Live View - using the screen as a viewfinder.

It's great if the camera has a rotary display - this will help to avoid awkward positions for macro photography.

No. 4 Accessories

Close-up photography requires a flash and a tripod, particularly when shooting indoors.

For amateur macro photography, the built-in flash will suffice, a ring flash located around the circumference of the lens is a good option. Thanks to this design, there will be no shadows from the lens and other parts of the camera in the photo. In many compacts, such a ring is built-in, but it can also be purchased and installed separately on the lens.

For professional macro photography in the studio, in addition to a camera with a flash, you will need a subject table, light, reflectors, diffusers, but that's another story.

Which camera is better for macro photography: interchangeable lens models

If you're serious about getting into photography, get an interchangeable-lens camera. And it is worth starting to choose with ... a good macro lens, to which we then select a carcass, preferably from the same company. This will help a small list of macro lenses from Price, compiled from optics available in Ukrainian online stores with good reviews and supplemented with recommendations for suitable cameras.

A lens with a minimum focusing distance of 20 cm, a minimum aperture of f / 32 and a weight of 335 grams. This is a fix, which is already remarkable, plus users praise the lens aperture, sharpness and color rendition, object detail and high-quality background blur. Controversial reviews about autofocus, but nitpicking about its speed and the absence of an image stabilizer begins when using optics as a universal one, so they do not concern macro.

The disadvantages include a narrow "specialization" of the lens - it is only for crops, it is not suitable for full-frame cameras, as well as the lack of a hood in the kit.

Camera: semi-professional Canon EOS 50D, Canon EOS 7D, Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EOS M mirrorless (you need an adapter for installing a lens).

A full-frame counterpart to the first lens, compatible with EF and EF-S mounts, with a closest focusing distance of 31 cm, a minimum aperture of f / 32 and a weight of 600 grams. It costs and weighs more, but lacks an important drawback of number one.

Camera: previous models or Canon EOS 6D , as one of the most affordable full frame Canon DSLRs.

With a short focus, a closest focusing distance of 16.3 cm, a minimum aperture of f / 22 and a weight of 235 grams, this lens is one of the most inexpensive alternatives for the budding macro photographer. Allows you to shoot objects at an extremely close focusing distance, besides macro, it is quite good in universal application - portrait and landscape photography. Suitable for crop cameras and some Nikon full-frame cameras.

Camera: amateur Nikon D5500 , more advanced Nikon D7200 or high-end full-frame model Nikon D750 ... But for the latter, this micro-lens is more of a trial, in order to buy something more serious over time.

The next lens with a longer focus, aperture up to f / 32, a weight of 335 grams, internal focusing, so the lens length does not change in the process, as well as a minimum focusing distance of 28 cm.Bonus - there is an optical image stabilizer, which is responsible for the quality of handheld shooting ... Due to its compactness and stabilization, the lens is good for those who travel with a camera at the ready. Suitable for Nikon DX sub-frame.

Camera: the same models as in recommendation number three.

A decent full-frame prime weighing 440 grams with a minimum focusing distance of 22 cm, a minimum aperture of f / 32 and no built-in focus motor - autofocus will only be available if the camera has one. The front lens noisily extends during focusing, which can be uncomfortable when shooting live macro.

A macro lens with a focal length of 60 mm (91 mm film equivalent), a minimum aperture of f / 22 and a minimum focusing distance at a macro of 27 cm. The mount is Fujifilm X-Mount, respectively, the optics are designed for proprietary mirrorless cameras. The lens weighs 215 grams.

The lens is the fastest of the proposed - f / 2.4, it is distinguished by high sharpness and soft blur. But his ability to approach is low: 1: 2, which, however, is enough for close-up shots of little things.

Camera: Nikon D610, Nikon D750.

In general, if you want a telephoto lens, or you want a wide-angle one, for a full frame or crop, a mirror or a mirrorless camera, with or without stabilization, the rating contains a lens and the best camera for macro photography for every taste and color.

Which camera for macro photography to choose from models with fixed optics

For the amateur macro, it is worth highlighting the superzoom, which has steep optical zoom capabilities and is much cheaper than interchangeable-lens cameras - it's not so bad to damage them on hikes and trips. We will look for a camera for macro photography among the popular models of cameras with a small matrix, a stationary lens and a strong optical zoom available on the Ukrainian market.