OST OF THE IMAGES in this book are not true macro images. Most are between 1/2 and 1/10 life size, while a few others are as little as 1/20 life size! So, they are close-up images. This is the main reason I didn’t use the word macro in the book title. Close-up photography encompasses a much broader range of work.
Of course, adding to the confusion of the terminology in this area are camera manufacturers, who have led many consumers to believe that they’re getting a macro lens when they buy zoom lenses that have a “macro” setting on them. It’s marketing at its finest, for sure, and it obviously works, as countless shooters have walked out the door of many a camera store beaming about their newly purchased all-purpose lenses. Many photographers have said, “It’s not only a really nice telephoto zoom but also includes macro! It’s like getting two lenses in one!”
But here again, the “macro” functions on all of these zooms (whether they are 24–85mm, 80–200mm, or any number of other variable-zoom lenses being sold) offer up about a 1:4 ratio of magnification, and that means our 1/2-inch honeybee will appear to be about 1/8 of an inch in size when photographed at a 1:4 magnification. You’ll need to make no less than a 4 × 6–inch print to get back to the original 1/2-inch life-size subject, and then, before you can really impress your friends, you might want to grab a pair of scissors and cut the 1/2-inch honeybee out of the 4 × 6–inch print to make it into a 1/2-inch print to show off as a life-size image of a honeybee. Yeah, right. Now, I’m not suggesting that the zoom lens with macro that you bought is a useless tool. Heck, not at all! It’s a great lens and can be used in countless situations when you wish to record some terrific shots, but these shots will not be macro shots; they will be close-ups.
FOCUS MANUALLY—EVERY TIME
One very important note: When shooting any close-up or macro composition, turn off your autofocus function and manually focus every shot! If you don’t, you will lose far too many shots. Your autofocus lens will seem to experience “seizures” when it’s asked to focus on close-up subjects; this is because it can’t seem to differentiate between the front or back of that flower, for example, and it sure can’t tell if you wanted that bee in the middle of the flower in sharp focus either. If you absolutely must rely on autofocus due to poor vision, then get ready to have your patience tested, or resign yourself to shooting only close-up subjects that are 100 percent parallel, from edge to edge, top to bottom, to your film plane or CCD.
As I mentioned, and you may have already discovered, your telephoto zoom with macro is not really a true macro lens, but that certainly doesn’t mean you can’t shoot some close-ups with it. In fact, a telephoto zoom lens with a macro feature does allow you to focus closer than a telephoto zoom without one. The trick is to find subjects that are large enough to fill the frame, since with most close-up and macro compositions, filling the frame is paramount.
An early Sunday morning found me out and about the quiet streets of Lyon, France, and it wasn’t too long into my journey that I came upon one of many telephoto “macro” opportunities I had that morning. With my Nikkor 75–300mm macro zoom, I was able to focus within 3 feet of the reflection on the hood of this small car. To achieve maximum impact, I moved a bit right, left, up, and down until the reflection was filling my frame in the most pleasing way. Not a true macro shot, but certainly an eye-catching close-up!
With my aperture set to f/22 to assure top-to-bottom sharpness, I simply adjusted the shutter speed until 1/8 sec. indicated a correct exposure and then fired off several frames, tripping the camera’s shutter with my self-timer to eliminate any possible camera vibrations that could have resulted from pressing the shutter release with my finger.
Nikkor 75–300mm macro zoom lens, f/22 for 1/8 sec.
