Macro Lenses

ONESTLY, THE AMOUNT of close-up and macro gear available for purchase is a testament to the interest in this area of photography. You can buy inexpensive close-up lenses or expensive close-up lenses (aka close-up filters). You can buy a single extension tube or a set of three. You can buy a reversing ring or bellows, and these purchases are soon followed by the need for a much more versatile tripod, a focusing rail (or focusing stage, as Nikon calls it). And yes, I do know that, for all of you married folks out there, buying more gear may put a strain on your marriage. But hey, look at it this way: The money you spend on equipment will save you thousands of dollars in marriage counseling. Who needs counseling when you’re a happy spouse?

If shooting life-size images and beyond is really your passion, then a true 1:1 macro lens will, in all likelihood, be part of your future in photography—perhaps even the amazing Canon 65mm macro lens that offers up 1X–5X magnification. Today’s macro lenses, without the aid of additional equipment, allow you to focus from infinity all the way down to that honeybee, recording it as a life-size image. Or in the case of the Canon 65mm macro lens, you can get a full-frame view of the honeybee’s eyeball.

Macro lenses are commonly available in the 50–60mm, 90–105mm, and 180–200mm focal lengths. Plus, Nikon used to make a terrific 70–180mm macro lens, but it’s now discontinued; if you should ever come across a used one through eBay or KEH Camera Brokers in Atlanta, you’ll have to put on your Speed Racer costume and act accordingly to increase your odds of becoming the lucky buyer.

The world as we know it would be a hostile place if not for flowers. Not only are flowers a sign of the seasons, a reason for hope, but they are often fragrant and, no doubt, a welcome spot or splash of color in the landscape, a garden, or a vase on the dining-room table. And not surprisingly, they are one of the most photographed close-up subjects, by amateur and professional photographers alike.

    Springtime blooms are reason enough to get out and shoot. This small wild grape hyacinth was one of many along a slope in the countryside of the south of France. I was quick to place my Micro-Nikkor 200mm lens on the camera and isolate this one flower. After checking my depth-of-field preview, I concluded that an aperture of f/8 best rendered the background out of focus while still recording a sufficient area of sharpness on the flower. It was a few moments later that I felt compelled to add some contrast to the background, and I didn’t have to look far, as to my left were several dandelions. Yellow has always been a great contrasting color to the purple hues, and it didn’t disappoint this time either. I took the picked dandelion and simply placed it approximately 8 inches behind the grape hyacinth. As you can see, this spot of yellow really livens up the overall composition.

Micro-Nikkor 200mm lens, f/8 for 1/160 sec.

Considered by many horticulturists to be one of the top five blooming trees in the world, the silk floss gets my vote, as well. Every September it puts on quite a show with its large crimson blooms and the daily activity of the hummingbirds that nest in it. But just like the rose, the silk floss tree is not without its thorns or, shall I say, spikes, as in yikes!

    It was the spikes of the silk floss tree, however, that compelled me to take a much closer look. Within minutes, I was all set up with my camera, Micro-Nikkor 200mm lens, and tripod, having sought out the composition you see inside the white box in the image at the top. Not surprisingly, and to my delight I might add, this macro shot generates a host of varied responses from students when I rotate it 90 degrees clockwise (bottom) and ask, “Any idea what this is?” The most common response is, “Some kind of cave with stalagmites?” Of course, having the benefit of the larger view, we know it’s not a cave of stalagmites. (The original, horizontal orientation is the center shot in this series.)

So, back to the 180mm. There are several reasons I’m so keen on using this focal length in the field: Your lens-to-subject distance is greater without sacrificing image magnification. You can record life-size magnifications and still have roughly 12 inches of space between you and your subject versus having only 2–3 inches of space between you and your subject when working with the macro lenses in the 50–105mm range. In other words, you’ll be able to record a life-size image of that butterfly or salamander or garter snake from a safe distance. You can go about your business and they can go about theirs, and nobody’s getting all stressed out.

In addition, after photographing that salamander, you can just as easily turn your attention to the rustle in the bushes behind you and focus on that white-crowned sparrow without having to stop and remove an extension tube or close-up lens, since all macros have continuous focus from infinity down to life-size magnifications. And because of that continuous-focus feature, this same lens doubles as your primary portrait lens (for all those times you get called upon to make head shots of the wannabe models living on your street).

And although these are good arguments for the 180–200mm macros, the best argument, to my mind at least, is this: Macro lenses in the 180–200mm focal length all come with tripod collars, and if you currently own a zoom lens with a tripod collar, you already know how easy and seamless it is to change from landscape mode to portrait mode (i.e., from horizontal to vertical orientation). Just loosen the collar, rotate the camera, and voilà, you’ve changed modes. Considering the often tedious task of most macro shots (we do want to be precise, after all), imagine the hassle that awaits you without the benefit of a tripod collar, when you now wish to shoot a vertical composition of that same horizontal close-up: Yikes and ugh, along with a few swear words, are the norm!

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also address another unique feature of all macro lenses. Optically, a macro lens is “corrected” for flat-field viewing, allowing one to record sharper-than-normal images at all apertures. In simple tech-speak, you’ll record edge-to-edge tack-sharp images of any and all objects that lie within that plane of focus without the normal edge “falloff” found when shooting that same subject with a single focal length or zoom lens in combination with extension tubes and/or close-up filters (close-up lenses).

With some degree of prodding, most macro/close-up shooters will eventually allow their own curiosity to take hold, and they will turn their macro lenses away from flowers and nature subjects and toward the man-made world. Years ago, after several years of shooting mostly flowers, butterflies, and bees, in fact, I had an epiphany. I was involved in one of those really minor fender benders in a mall parking lot, and as luck would have it, my camera and Micro-Nikkor 55mm were in the trunk. I say luck because the accident was not my fault, and I wanted to be sure to take a picture of the small but still noticeable damage to the right front fender of my bright red Volkswagon Jetta. I had intended to only take one shot, but I was soon immersed in the “beauty” of the damage, small as it was. Not only was some new texture revealed (the shiny metal now exposed by the paint that had been scraped off) but some nice added color appeared (a deep yellow color from the other car, which had left its mark atop what red paint remained in the area of my damaged fender).

    Later that evening, I began to think more about other macro possibilities beyond the natural world, and within a few days I paid what would become a number of visits to local junkyards and wrecking yards. Thus began my constant journey of always placing these locations on my annual list of places to shoot. Several years ago, a handful of students and I came across a wrecking yard in Petaluma, California. After seeking permission from the owner to enter, all of us were soon immersed in the joy of shooting “industrial abstracts.”

    I came upon an emblem, a hologram in fact, from a Honda. Soon, I was over the top of it with my camera and Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, focusing as close as necessary to record the letter H. Since I was parallel to the emblem, I had no depth-of-field concerns, so I chose the critical aperture of f/11 and simply adjusted my shutter speed until the camera indicated a correct exposure of 1/160 sec.

    What happened next is vitally important. I knew when photographing the letter H that I had yet to focus as close as my lens would allow. I knew I could still focus even closer and perhaps record another close-up image, one that would be far more abstract than the letter H. I mention this for one good reason: Most amateur and even professional shooters get so excited when they get their first macro lens that they fail to fully realize its close-focusing potential. In countless workshops, I’ve been invited by students to check out a close-up image in their viewfinder. More often than not, I like what they’ve done, but when I ask if they’ve considered looking at that subject even closer, they remark, “How can I do that?” I simply reply, “Keep focusing until you can focus no more.” To their surprise, they discover just how close—really close—they can focus, and thus opens up the real world of macro.

    So in my second shot, I simply focused as close as I could get, which in turn rendered a much more abstract image of this Honda emblem. Since my point of view was still parallel to the emblem, I again chose an aperture of f/11, but now my light meter indicated the need to change my shutter speed from 1/160 sec. to 1/100 sec. The reason for this is simple: The lens was now extended farther; the light that would be traveling down the lens and onto the film or CCD took longer to arrive, so a slower shutter speed was in order.

Left: Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, f/11 for 1/160 sec.; right: Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, f/11 for 1/100 sec.

Once you’ve made the discovery that most any subject is worth at least taking a look at with your macro lens, you can expect to garner an odd stare or two when shooting in areas where people are out and about. Such was the case when I came upon this downspout between two houses on the most colorful island in the world, Burano, Italy. If you’ve been to Burano, you can understand why my interest in a silly old downspout would cause some unusual glances if not outright stares. For sure, there’s so much more that one can find to photograph in Burano, but obviously, at least on this morning, I couldn’t move on until I had framed up what were some of the most colorful reflections found on this downspout.

    Due to the height of the subject I had in mind, I had to extend the center column of my tripod, which is something I don’t recommend or like to do because it has the potential to introduce “wobble” since the camera is no longer as secure as it is when the center column is not extended. Fortunately, the concrete sidewalk underneath the tripod was as stable as any concrete sidewalk could ever be. There was also no wind, and to be safe, I chose to use the mirror lock-up feature on my Nikon D2X, thus further reducing the possibility of any vibrations. Due to the pipe’s cylindrical nature, I needed to use a really small aperture to achieve sharpness throughout, especially near the side edges, where the downspout curved away from the plane of focus. With my aperture set at f/32, I adjusted my shutter speed until 1/4 sec. indicated a correct exposure. With my camera’s self-timer engaged to fire the shutter 10 seconds after I tripped the shutter release, I felt I had done all that I could to assure a tack-sharp image, and sure enough, I was happy with the results.

Nikon D2X, Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, f/32 for 1/4 sec.

—FRANÇOIS RABELAIS

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, man cannot live without a spiritual life.

—BUDDHA

Genius is initiative on fire.

—HOLBROOK JACKSON

Love is the fire of life; it either consumes or purifies.

—UNKNOWN

So much has been written about fire, and its use as a metaphor endures, as the quotes show.

    I remember the movie Quest for Fire, as well, and although the dialogue was limited to grunts, groans, and screams, the message of fire’s importance was made clear. And of course, without fire (the sun) we would not have the most essential ingredient for image-making: light. So what better way to pay tribute to fire than with a single wooden match and a macro lens?

    With my camera and Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens mounted on a tripod, I lined up a row of matches stuck in a small mound of putty. The idea behind shooting a row of matches was to convey the idea of “catching fire,” but it just wasn’t coming together to my liking. I soon realized that once again, in art, less is more, and soon I was shooting a single lit match.

    I also noticed, while reviewing the row of matches, that the extinguished match tips looked like the remnants of skulls. So this time, with my camera, 105mm lens, and the addition of three extension tubes, I was soon making a 3X magnification of a burnt match head. Heck, who knows? If you can sell a Frosted Flake in the shape of Illinois on eBay, maybe there’s a market for burnt matches that look like skulls!

    In terms of lighting, I used two Alien Bees from the company White Lightning, one on each side of me and pointed at 45-degree angles to the match. First, without benefit of strobes and with my camera in Shutter Priority mode set to 1/125 sec., I lit a match and noticed that the camera indicated f/11 as a correct exposure. Keep in mind, however, that this was the exposure just for the flame and not for the wood of the match itself. I then turned on the strobes and took a flash meter reading, setting the power on both strobes in order for the flash meter to indicate a correct exposure at f/11. When the flashes fired, this enabled me to record a correct exposure of both the flame and the wooden matches.

Left: Micro-Nikkor 105 mm lens; right: Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, three extension tubes