Winged Power Photography

Tis The Season To Be... Photographing!

Okay, that is most likely one of the worst title lines I've written. However, the holiday seasons really are more than just a time to be stuck at a mall, fighting with relatives, or wondering for the N'th time, why EVERYONE ELSE is so annoying. It's also that special time of year to reflect and take in the smaller things.

In this case, it's a great time, to grab your camera slap on the macro or extension tubes, and take a closer look at things.

It's time for a little creative holiday close-up/macro photography!

Is It Macro... or is it Close Up Photography?

LED holiday light decorations, shot handheld with 70-210mm lens and 12mm Kenko DG Extension tubes. As always, love the bokeh on that lens.

For the majority of folks out there, there is really no difference. You are using your camera and lens to get in REAL close to your subject. To the point of dust showing up VERY clearly and you can make out disturbing details... you would have otherwise wanted to ignore.

For others, most of what folks call Macro Photography is, in actuality, Close Up Photography. That is, you're capturing images at a scale that is more likely somewhere in the 1:16 - 1:2 ratio scale. For Macro Photography, you're diving in deeper and it really only just starts at 1:2. 1:1 means that what you're shooting is being reproduced, millimeter for millimeter, on the surface of the sensor. 1:2 means that you're only getting half, 1:4 only 1/4th, and so on.

Rutilated quartz crystal illuminated by my Sony Ericsson w810i's LED lamp. Shot with 70-210mm lens, with 12mm Kenko DG Extension tubes. The round structure the crystal is sitting next to is the lens of the camera phone.

Photomicrography, that which ventures into the realm of microscopic levels, you're now talking some 2:1 and greater levels of photography and some serious financial investment in lens and setups.

For the purpose of general close up and macro photography, you can get some great results with fairly inexpensive gear.

Subject Isolation

More hanging lights shot with the 70-210mm and the 12mm Kenko DG Extension tubes. The distance between lights is around 4", but the use of a longer focal length allows very effective subject isolation!

The use of anything macro results in a very shallow depth of field. In the case of creative photography, this is great, especially where there are lights involved. The blurred out of focus highlights, or Bokeh, are a great way to add fill to empty space, without being too distracting. Note, though, that the size/shape/quality of bokeh is governed, in a great part, to the quality of the lens. Some lenses produce very harsh bokeh, others, rings and wobbly forms. Owning a lens that produces pleasing bokeh is a good reason to hold onto it, even if you come into possession of a better lens.

Lining Up Focal Planes

Rutilated quartz crystal illuminated by my Sony Ericsson w810i's LED lamp. Shot with 70-210mm lens, with 12mm+36mm Kenko DG Extension tubes. The lens was shot straight at the flat surface of the crystal facet to maximize the area which ended up being in focus. Show handheld... not a great way to produce a high percentage of sharp images.

To get more powerful macro, you can stack extension tubes. I bought the 3 ring Kenko DG Extension Tubes set, which includes a 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm tube. These let me get VERY close to a subject, but also results in extremely shallow depths of field. I'm talking 1-2 mm of variance, and you are out of focus. The upshot of this is that... you can take nice photographs of flat items, with anything else too far back or too close to be pleasantly blurred out of existence and thus serve as less a distraction.

Note that lighting, with these settings, becomes problematic. My celphone's twin LED "flash" serves as a great way to light up translucent and transparent subjects. It also serves as a fairly decent overhead source of illumination.

Rutilated quartz crystal illuminated overhead by my Sony Ericsson w810i's LED lamp. Shot with 70-210mm lens, with 12mm Kenko DG Extension tubes. The shot was from overhead. Without the high intensity light shining through the crystal, the golden color of the crystal, caused by the rutilation, makes itself visible. Show handheld.

Note that while others would insist on a macro ring light or twin light souce mounted on the lens, I'm too cheap and/or lazy to make use of such a setup. I've got a bright LED in my pocket, in the form of a celphone. I've got keychain LED(s). They all work great for illuminating subjects, if used with some thought.

My only regret was that I didn't make a "soft box" out of a tissue roll and some tissue. :)

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