Close up and Macro photography is a very exciting way to extend your interest in photography. Bugs look like monsters and your garden can be turn into a mini zoo with little creatures that you never bother to examined before. Your watch face shows up intricate lines you never knew existed. In order for you to go into Macro or close up photography, the easiest route would be to get a dedicated Macro lens. True macro lens have 1:1 magnification, meaning that the image captured on the sensor is life size to the object. Some even goes 5:1 but alternatively there are other ways to do close up even with your regular lenses and I have tried them both. First is the addition of extension tubes. These are basically hollow tubes that joins between your camera and your lens thus extending it. Now your MFD (min focusing distance) can drop down to 3 inches depending how much you extend your tubes. However you cannot focus on infinity and you can't use you AF. What I usually do is to to move my MFD till I get my object in focus. You'll have to crank up our ISO and have steady hands. The other way is to use close up filters which are basically a magnifying glass. Inherent to all macro lenses is slow AF and you usually have to revert to MF. The other problem is shallow DOF, so you will have to close up your aperture. Doing so will reduce the light going into the lens and you may need high ISO to stop camera shake. So you will need need to use flash but because MFD is so close on camera flash or mounted flash don't do a good job an you need a dedicated macro flash. Now that flash cost even more than your regular flash. So what can you do? You improvise,like me. All I need is to light up the area I wish to shoot and don't want it too harsh. So my contraption is using those clip on led lights and mount it on the hood. You can use as many as you want. Be forewarned that you will be walking around with a camera that looks like a weapon from Star Trek!!!!
