Nikon Macro Lens

Good photography, whether it’s using digital or conventional film, relies on a number of basic things – a camera body, a lens and you! All three of these things can be top quality or just plain average. Which would you prefer?

One of the things I’ve preached to my photography students over the years, especially the techno-files, is that yes the camera body is important, and never more so than in this day and age of CCD chips and many mega-megapixels, but even more important than the body is the lens or lenses you put on it.

I cannot emphasize enough how crucial good lenses, and unfortunately expensive lenses, are but there is no substitute for good glass and good construction.

And when it comes to Macro/Micro Photography add another 20% to the crucial factor. Do yourself a favor if close-up photography is your thing, buy yourself a brand name, 1:1 Macro lens. Both Canon and Nikon include 1:1 Macros in their stables, they’re not cheap, but they’re absolutely worth it.

The latest Nikon 105 f2.8 Micro AFS lens is a great example of this quality. It has an incredibly shallow depth of field* when working close up which adds an edge to the creative effect. It can transform the mundane, average reality shot into an emotive art piece in an instant – experience this once, and you’ll keep coming back for more, and where needed it produces perfectly sharp, precise images as well.

Macro lenses are expensive but the quality of the lenses speak for themselves and long term the investment is worth it, especially when you consider the huge gain in creativity and enjoyment of using such a precise tool.

Remember one thing though when working really close-up, the shift in focus from in-focus to out-of-focus is so rapid at wide open apertures that it’s sometimes hard to be sure the point of focus or the subject you are focusing on is enough to hold the picture together creatively. If in doubt, shift your focal point to several positions on your subject and shoot 3, 4 or even a dozen shots.

One of the fantastic things about this digital revolution is that shooting many frames at a time on one subject has no inherent cost. Experiment! Try different apertures, bracket (taking more than one shot at a time at different exposures in order to get the best exposure), try with flash, try without flash …

The list of possibilities is endless. It’s worth shooting extravagantly in the beginning to find a look and feel that you like. Remember in focus or out focus, with movement and without, they all have merit. If you like crisp clean images, then I advise always using a tripod – the amount of camera shake you get is generally exaggerated the closer you get to the image. Furthermore, because focusing is so critical close up, a tripod is a really useful tool, it also slows you down a bit, allows time for reflection, a bit of time for pondering, weighing up options. Of course this doesn’t mean that your subject is necessarily going to stay still, but then you can’t have everything.

If you are like me, and you enjoy taking a lot of flower pictures you’ll know all about trying to keep flowers steady on a windy day! I’ve taken pictures in the past where the flower has almost completely left the frame by the time I took the picture. Frustrating and yet even then I’ve found that sometimes the effect of a flower moving out of frame is gorgeous… a bit blurry, a bit odd but cool nonetheless. Serendipity at its best.

*For those of you who are new to serious macro photography with a DSLR remember that the aperture of the lens is always set to its widest open position to make focusing easier and only shuts down to the aperture you selected when the shot is taken – hence the sometimes annoying difference you see between the final image and the image you see while focusing.

Copyright 2008 Patrick Heathcock

Patrick Heathcock – sometime commercial photographer London, fulltime flower art photographer and web designer living in the southern semisphere, seeing the beauty. Co-founder of A Flower Gallery, Food and Family and A Hosting Review

Article Source: ArticleSpan

To take great macro photography, you will need to invest in the appropriate equipment. To just buy a lens and focus on close hoping for a good shot is not the way to do it. You will need to have a good camera, like a Canon or Nikon, and a good macro lens with a good zoom factor. A good camera to use is a Canon 1DS Mark III with a 110mm macro lens

Choosing a subject can be quite tricky. It can sometimes be difficult to get a good depth of field with macro photography, especially if you are shooting a part of an object in an abstract sense.

For example: if you are shooting part of a candlestick that is ornate, it’s important to get the lighting right as well as having the vision to begin with. Often this can work out quite well whereby DOF is lacking allowing for high magnification and originality.

However, when shooting insects and such alike, magnification is important. Therefore, DOF is also reduced but makes up an integral part of the image.

Without being too technical, to increase your DOF you will need to set your camera on a higher F number, the F-stop. The highest is likely around f22. When increased, the aperture of the lens becomes smaller prohibiting the amount of light that reaches the light sensor. To compensate for lighting, you must either use a flash; extend your shutter times or other sources of light. For still subjects, extended shutter times normally suffice, however, if your subject is on the move you will need to use a flash to prevent the image from blurring.

Using a tripod can also help, especially if you are waiting for you’re subject to appear or you are shooting still. This will prevent movement, which can be detrimental when working in macro photography. You will also need a release on your tripod. This will also allow you to move your camera around while securely attached.

Macro photography can be a real art form if executed properly. Subjects/objects are explored that are normally difficult to see with the naked eye and your vision for what makes a good image is heightened. There is an abundance of subjects and objects to choose from, whether it’s in your home or garden.

Firstly, you will need to think about what would make the subject/object interesting. Consider the texture, colour and shapes as well as a particular feature that would make a great shot. There are many ways to take a good macro image, and experimenting with angles that encompasses varied lighting can produce outstanding images. You can also build your own mini macro-studio in a simple box that is open at the top and at the front. You can drape it in any colour you like, for example; using black would marry well with objects of colour.

For your lighting you can simply clamp to reading lamps on the side, but make sure you use GE Reveal bulbs, these are not as harsh as normal light bulbs.

Macro photography is all about trial and error. You will bin most of your images until you get the hang of it. However, the results can be greatly rewarding, an art form that will allow you to explore your creative side that will be unique to you and you only.

Happy shooting.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents a number of UK businesses. For exclusive Macro Photography as Canvas Wall Art, he recommends Shapes of Virtu.

Article Source: ArticleSpan