What, how and why of macro photography?

Macro photography deals with photographing small things in their true form to make them appear larger than life, features that are often missed by the naked eye. This in itself can make things magical – making the mundane look wonderful! The flower you see from afar can be so captivating, the anthers, the pollen, the petals may make you reconsider whether botany class at school was really boring.

The pandemic had locked down much of the country, reducing human movement to a minimum. It helped us explore our backyard/gardens a little better. We wanted to take pictures to share with friends/family. More often than not, the image that will be shared bears little resemblance to actual existence, necessitating a detailed explanation of how that red blob was actually a beautiful ladybird.

If you are reading this, chances are you have sent or received such an image. Let’s take a look at what options are available for nature enthusiasts/budding photographers to showcase the wonderful world of macro photography.

Watching my daughter grow up has taught me to understand things with basic building blocks – what, how and why?

What

Nature photographers continually strive to show our unique perspectives to the world. This style brings endless possibilities around us with textures, hidden colors that can be sorted out.

photo credit: Hayat Mohamed

Insects, spiders, flowers, kitchen spices, a pot scrubber, soap bubbles, etc – you get the hints, all possible topics. A soap bubble close-up also made it to the list of wallpapers on Apple devices.

How

a) Magnification: The proportion of the subject that can be resolved on the sensor. It directly depends on the type of lens. A dedicated macro lens can go up to 1:1, a subject that the size of the sensor (varies depending on the format of the camera system) can fill the frame.

For DSLR systems, there are several options for achieving close-focus/macro capabilities. There will apparently be a dedicated macro lens, represented by a 1:1 reproduction ratio. These are corrected for close focusing and provide edge-to-edge sharpness. Specialist lenses like the Canon MPE-65mm 1-5x and Laowa 2.5-5x blur the lines of lenses and microscopes, with prices often reminding us of specialist tags.

Other lenses in the camera bag can be used with some extra gear to get closer focusing:

1. extension tube – These hollow tubes are fitted between the lens mount and the actual lens, reducing the working distance thereby increasing the magnification of the final image. Pros: Great for seeing if macro photography piques your interest without investing in a dedicated macro lens. Cons: May give some optical issues and result in loss of light. Loss of infinite focus. Limited focus range.
2. Achromats – These are short-focal lenses with high quality glass that fits into the lens’s filter threads. These work best on mid-telephoto lenses in the 55-300mm range. The longer the focal length, the greater the magnification. Pros: Can be easily toggled on/off to bring infinite focus back to the base lens. Cons: Will need narrow aperture > f16 to get proper detail.
3. lens reversal – A lens reversal ring fits the filter thread of the lens allowing it to be mounted in reverse on the camera. Works best with short focal lenses between 18-70mm. The shorter the focal length, the higher the magnification. Pros: Good option to use on indoor subjects. Most of the lenses in the camera bag will work with this. An often overlooked kit lens can be put to great use! Cons: Extremely close working distance. Rear element of lens and contacts left open.

For those willing to go down this rabbit hole, find out some more details in the old blog post,

Something that most of us carry in our pockets – smartphones. Modern smartphones come with pretty good close-focusing capabilities. Spend time understanding Pro Mode for controlling focus and exposure. If you find this limiting, there are snap-on macro lenses like the Achromat that fit over the top of the camera lens. These reduce the focus distance and provide greater magnification. There are commercially available options made from lenses salvaged from point-and-shoot cameras as well as indigenously made macro lenses.

b) Unveiling – How bright/dark is the overall image. This is determined by the camera if the mode is set to Auto, otherwise any mode programmable on a DSLR or Pro mode on a smartphone is used to set the exposure. Subjects should be properly lit for any detail or special color to show through. Natural light or artificial lighting with a variety of light-diffusion options can be used depending on the type of image.

Why

Nature lovers often turn to nature to unravel many mysteries, imagine being a powerful medium for this:

1. See how small a real ecosystem can be.
2. Understand how the structural makeup defines what the organism is capable of doing, how specialist interdependence works.
3. Generate ideas that lead us to questions with interesting and surprising answers.
4. Take a real shot at finding something really cool, possibly even new to science! Social (Facebook, Instagram) and specialist platforms (Unnatural, India Biodiversity) offer opportunities like never before for citizen science.

Hayat Mohamed is an IT professional who takes the help of nature to keep his level of prudence under control. Born and brought up in Bangalore, open areas fueled interest in insects and butterflies during the developing world.

He now uses macro photography as a means of exploration and as a way of showcasing the many wonders of the arthropod world to the human world.

This is an initiative by the series Nature Conservation Foundation ,NCF), under their program ‘Nature Communications’ To encourage nature material in all Indian languages. Join to learn more about birds and nature herd,