Basics of photography

Smart Photography has been continually receiving requests to start a basic course for beginners. With this in mind, we have asked a very knowledgeable photographer in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, to take over writing these articles. We have also requested him to be as jargon-free as it is possible so that newcomers to photography feel comfortable to pursue the hobby.

The author, Ashok Kandimalla has been in the photographic fi eld for over three decades and has extensive experience in both fi lm and digital photography. Being an electronics engineer by profession and a photographer, gives him a unique and deep insight into the technical aspects of digital photography and equipment. He has published several articles on photography and some of his writings have also been published in the well-known international magazine Popular Photography. He is an avid collector of photographic books and vintage cameras. Ashok is also interested in history of photography and has a passion of sharing his knowledge on photography through teaching and writing. His other interest is music and is presently employed as the Chief Technology Offi cer in Infotech Enterprises Ltd., Hyderabad. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In the ﬁ rst part of “Close-up and Macro Photography” you have seen various devices which allow you to increase magniﬁ cation of the image. There are several other accessories that are useful for execution of macro photography. We will look at these now.

Tripods for macro work: A tripod is really not an exclusive macro device, but nevertheless a key component for getting quality close-up and macro images. As you will be working at very high magniﬁ cations camera shake will be ampliﬁ ed. So, a very sturdy tripod is a must for serious macro photography.

Macro photography will involve work close to the ground that is, at low levels. For this purpose it will help if you have a tripod that has a tiltable center column to position the camera close to the ground. (Please see Basics of Photography Part X—Tripods, SP, November 2009, for more details). Such a feature will also be useful for copying work and for photographing stamps, coins, jewelry, etc.

Many advertisements claim that their tripods support a reversing center column for macro work. In the author’s opinion they are very difﬁ cult to use unless you are a gymnast! Also, any careless loosening of the center column will bring your camera and lens crashing down.Avoid them!

Right Angle ﬁnder: Another useful accessory (for D-SLRs) is the right angle ﬁ nder. This slips on to the eye piece and allows you to look though the viewﬁ nder from top. This will help you to view when the camera is at a low level. (See February 2010 issue of Smart Photography for a picture). Most right angle ﬁ nders also have a built in magniﬁ er. This helps in critical manual focusing. Fortunately, these days many cameras are coming with an articulated (tilt and swivel) LCD monitor (e.g. Nikon D5000). With this feature you can easily position the monitor at any angle eliminating the need for a right angle ﬁ nder.

Focusing Rail (also called focus slider or macro slider or macro focusing rail):

This is a gadget that is essential when you are doing macro photography that demands fixed magnification—that is, you need to take images at a particular magnification, say 2X. When you need to do so, you need to fix the focus of the lens (or extension) and then move the camera back and forth to get perfect focus. Due to the extremely limited DOF this is a very difficult task as the slightest error in focus will result in unsharp images. Most focusing rails have two lead screws that allow you to move camera back and forth as well as left and right, very precisely, by turning two knobs. A focusing rail is typically mounted on top of the tripod head.

Flashes and Flash accessories for Macro Photography:

The built-in ﬂ ash (or shoe mounted ﬂ ash) of your camera is practically of no use for lighting a very close subject as the lens will obstruct the light, casting a shadow. Hence if you need to use a ﬂ ash, which is often needed in macro photography due to the small apertures needed, you need to think of a way where you can direct light on to the subject. The most popular ways are:

Off Camera Flash:

You can put your shoe mounted ﬂ ash to good use if you move it away from the camera. This will help you to light a close by subject quite well. To do this you need to either use an off camera cord or you should use wireless technology. Both these have been explained extensively earlier. (Refer to Basics of Photography Flash Parts I and II, SP December 2009 and January 2010 issues)

Ring Flashes: These are circular in shape and are screwed to the front of the lens (like a ﬁ lter). They give shadow-less lighting. Ring ﬂ ashes can also be fully dedicated to provide the same level of automation as the dedicated shoe mounted ﬂ ashes.

Macro ﬂ ashes: Ring ﬂ ashes were used extensively once for macro photography. However, shadow-less lighting does not give tonal depth (a three-dimensional quality) to a photograph. The result is that the image looks ﬂ at. Hence, of late a new breed of macro ﬂ ashes have been introduced. These are small units that are mounted on a ring, which is ﬁ xed to the front of the lens. Normally two ﬂ ashes are used and the power output of each of these can be varied independently. Their position can also be changed.

This ﬂ exibility gives much better control over light. These too can be dedicated providing full automation. Examples of such units are—Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite and Nikon R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight Flash System. Please remember that these are expensive and unless you are heavily into macro and product photography they may not be worth the investment.

Flash Brackets: These help you by providing a sort of “third arm” to hold the ﬂ ash units. Of course you can have someone hold the ﬂ ash for you to achieve the same. In any case, since the ﬂ ash is off camera, you need to have an off camera ﬂ ash cord or you need to trigger the ﬂ ashes wirelessly. For the latter it will help if the built-in ﬂ ash of your camera has the ability to function as a master ﬂ ash. Several types of ﬂ ash brackets are available commercially. If you are interested in buying please look for those which have been speciﬁ cally designed with macro photography in mind (a good example is Manfrotto Model 330B Macro Flash Bracket). You should be aware of this as not all ﬂ ash brackets are useful for macro photography.

OTHER ISSUES REGARDING MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

Macro photography being a specialized ﬁ eld, has some idiosyncrasies that you need to be aware of. These are:

1. Reducing camera movement and vibration

2. Focusing

3. Off-center Compositions

4. Depth of Field

5. Keeping planes parallelReducing camera movement and vibration: Due to the high magniﬁ cations (around and greater than 1X) involved, even

the slightest shake or vibration will reduce the sharpness of the image drastically. Here are a few techniques that help you to reduce these problems.

Keep the camera steady:

It has already been mentioned in this article but let me say this again. At high magniﬁ cations a tripod is a must, even if your lens or camera has some sort of shake reduction mechanism.

Release the shutter carefully:

Do not release the shutter by hand. Best is to have a remote release as you can control the exact moment of release. Unfortunately most new cameras do not have a provision for a simple inexpensive cable release. You will need to use an electrical cable release which can be quite expensive. Check if your camera has a wireless infrared (IR) port. If this is present an inexpensive IR remote can be used to release the shutter. An alternative is to use the self timer. The only disadvantage is that you cannot control the exact time of release. This can be a problem in the ﬁ eld as at the time of shutter release a gust of wind can move a ﬂ ower for example. This will result in an unsharp image.

Reduce the mirror vibration:

If you are using a D-SLR then the movement of mirror can cause vibrations, reducing the sharpness. This vibration is most prominent at a certain range of shutter speeds. This range varies from camera to camera, but is generally 1/4 to 1/15sec. Try as much as possible to avoid this range of speeds by varying aperture and ISO.

If your camera has the mirror lock-up (MLU) feature, use this as it will raise the mirror and keep it static when the shutter is released, thus greatly reducing the vibrations.

In case your camera does not have the MLU, you can use the Live View mode which will also raise the mirror and keep it there when the shutter is released. However, there is a small complication here, in case you are using Live View with auto-focus (AF) as some cameras offer two options.

One option achieves AF through the normal phase detection method and will involve mirror ﬂ ipping up and down. (This mode is called Quick mode by Canon and Handheld mode by Nikon). Avoid this mode as it will involve mirror movement. The second option uses the contrast detection method to achieve AF. This uses the image sensor itself for AF. This is the one you should use since it does involve any mirror movement once you enter Live View. (This mode is known as Live mode in Canonese and Tripod mode in Nikonese!)Last alternative is to use what is called the “Mirror pre-release” or “Exposure Delay” mode. In this mode, the mirror rises when you press the shutter release, but the shutter will open only after a short delay (about a second). This delay will ensure that the mirror induced vibrations have died down before the shutter opens.

Focusing: This is one of the most critical issues in macro photography. This is due to the fact that magniﬁ cation is high and consequently the depth of ﬁ eld is very shallow. In fact it is insigniﬁ cant as you will see shortly. Hence, any error in focusing will result in an unsharp picture. Also as you go in for high magniﬁ cations, the image becomes very dark due to extensions and other factors. Consequently the image in the viewﬁ nder will look very dark making focusing even more difﬁ cult. Autofocusing is also not possible many times due to the low light reaching the autofocus sensor. Hence you must use manual focusing. Here are a few ways of overcoming the focusing problems mentioned.

Focus bracketing:

Take a series of images each with slightly different focus. Later you can pick the best one or you can stack them together as you will see shortly. There is nothing you will lose with this as you can simply discard those images that you do not want. In digital photography this costs nothing! Use a focusing rail: Many photographers ﬁ nd that moving the camera back and forth is an easier way to focus compared to using the focusing ring. Use this method if you have a focusing rail.

Use Live View Mode:

An LCD monitor presents a brighter view compared to the optical ﬁ nder of a D-SLR. If needed, you can even turn up the brightness of the monitor. Make sure you switch on the magniﬁ er option and select the area of interest before you do critical focusing. Use of Live View also helps you in off-center composition. Use a viewﬁ nder magniﬁ er: These are small devices that slip onto the viewﬁ nder eyepiece and help to magnify the image and thus make critical focusing a bit easier. Most right-angle ﬁ nders also have built-in magniﬁ ers.

Off-center compositions:

The guide lines of composition recommend that for a good impact the subject of interest should not be placed at dead center. Unfortunately, that is where the main autofocus sensor is positioned, though modern D-SLRs have multiple AF points that help off-center composition. You will be ﬁ ne if you are in a situation where AF works and the subject of interest falls under one of the AF points. If not, you need to focus as explained earlier. It is important that you avoid to the extent possible recomposing after you focus as you would do when you photograph, for example, a landscape. In a landscape, a shift in the camera position by a few millimeters will not affect the focus, but in a macro photograph the whole image may become useless. Also, the Live View mode helps you to avoid recomposing. First, if you are using AF, some of the D-SLRs allow you to place the focus point anywhere in the frame (not just at those places where AF points are present). Second, if you are using manual focus you can enlarge the area of interest. This helps you to focus accurately. Hence, the author recommends that you use Live View and avoid recomposing.

Depth of ﬁ eld (DOF):

DOF is extremely limited in macro photography due to the high magniﬁ cations involved. Also, since we are talking about known magniﬁ cations, DOF values are tabulated for a given aperture and magniﬁ cation. This is because DOF is independent of focal length. In other words, DOF will be the same for a given magniﬁ cation regardless of the focal length of the lens you are using. Also, DOF at high magniﬁ cations will be divided evenly before and after the focus point. You may recall that for low magniﬁ cation work, the DOF is distributed in the ratio of 1/3 before and 2/3 after the focus point. The table below gives the DOF for commonly used magniﬁ cations and apertures. As you can see from this table, at 1X and an aperture of f/16 (the smallest aperture on most lenses), the DOF is just about 2mm! That is, only that part of the subject, one millimeter before and