Macro Photography
I love shooting macro but don't get around to doing much - especially "true" macro. What I mean by "true" macro is that most people believe the final image must be "life-size" (1:1) or better. A true macro lens can be quite expensive and most "macro" zoom lenses might get you in the area of 1:4 - nice but not true macro.
I've never owned a macro lens but back in my 35mm days I would use a technique that gave me life-size and better; I would remove the lens, turn it around and hold it against the camera body. When shooting with the lens reversed, you would achieve different levels of magnification depending upon the focal length of the lens. Doing this mean that you lost all camera-to-lens communication and were shooting totally manual and your focusing was essentially achieved by moving back and forth until you achieved focus.
A couple weeks ago I received a lens accessory from Vello called the "Macrofier". It allows me to reverse-mount my lens AND maintain full auto-exposure and auto-focus. It can also be used as a set of auto extension tubes. I played around with it right after it arrived and had some fun but over the weekend I decided to do some more serious work. I set up my tabletop studio - light cube and lights - and spent a couple hours shooting some coins and a golf ball. These images were made to support an upcoming YouTube product review I am working on - I will announce it when published.
I'm not going to get into much detail here, I just wanted to present some of the images I made. I am going to write a full product review here on the blog in the coming weeks and will have the YouTube video up some time in the next week or so. The will also be an installment of "Improve Your Photography" in which I will dive into the world of macro photography but for now, just check out the images.
Notice how shallow the depth of field is for the first two images, that is something you will always battle when shooting macro and is one reason I like using a tripod in a controlled environment.
What are your experiences with macro? Do you have a dedicated lens or do you use some other technique? Leave me a comment below - I would love to hear from you.
All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com
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