Get Me Closer

CyberSteak

Ok so I'm just starting off getting serious about photography and want to be able to take some cool macro photos. Here's what I have on hand for equiptment. As the title suggests...get me closer. What would I need to get closer to the subjects I'm taking?

Haves
Canon 40D
EF50mm f/1.8 II
EF 28-135mm IS USM
EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Canon 500D diopter

And I have a EF 70-300mm lens coming in. I'm thinking this will get me closer to my subjects so correct me if I'm wrong and please feel free to give advise on how to get me closer.

Thanks in advance.

paddler4

It would be helpful if you explained what you want to photograph and how close you want to get. For example, if you want to take close ups of flowers with that camera, 1:1 is very nice, and the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro (which I use) would be very good. If you want to photograph bugs, etc., you might want the greater reach of one of the several lenses in the 100mm range. If you want close ups of bug faces, or other real closeups, you will want more than 1:1, so you will want extension tubes or a specialized lens. If you provide some more specific information, some of the people on this forum who are far more experienced than I am will be able to give you good suggestions.

One piece of general advice: macro photography is a specialized activity, with many considerations that don't come into play in other photography, and a lot of specialized skills. You may find it helpful to ease in, as I am. I spent a year doing only 1:1 or less, with the lens I mentioned. Now I am slowly learning to use extension tubes, which make things much tougher: less light, even less DOF, more problems with hand motion, often no ability to use autofocus, etc. I think I would have gotten discouraged if I had started out with things closer than 1:1.

CyberSteak

paddler4 wrote:

It would be helpful if you explained what you want to photograph and how close you want to get. For example, if you want to take close ups of flowers with that camera, 1:1 is very nice, and the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro (which I use) would be very good. If you want to photograph bugs, etc., you might want the greater reach of one of the several lenses in the 100mm range. If you want close ups of bug faces, or other real closeups, you will want more than 1:1, so you will want extension tubes or a specialized lens. If you provide some more specific information, some of the people on this forum who are far more experienced than I am will be able to give you good suggestions.

One piece of general advice: macro photography is a specialized activity, with many considerations that don't come into play in other photography, and a lot of specialized skills. You may find it helpful to ease in, as I am. I spent a year doing only 1:1 or less, with the lens I mentioned. Now I am slowly learning to use extension tubes, which make things much tougher: less light, even less DOF, more problems with hand motion, often no ability to use autofocus, etc. I think I would have gotten discouraged if I had started out with things closer than 1:1.

Well I've been doing the flower thing recently. But browsing through some of the macro shots in this section of the forums prompted this post. I'm thoroughly amazed at some of the shots and wondered how the heck people were getting that close to their subjects. My macro setup so far has been my EF 28-135mm combined with the 500D diopter. As I said I have the 70-300mm lens coming in and thought I'd be able to get even closer using that with the 500D (please correct me if I'm wrong). Hoepfully that will give me the "fix" of getting closer then what I've been able to so far. But I can see macro as be like so many other things. Faster, bigger, stronger, macro-ie-er. I'm bound to want to get close enough to see bugs on bugs.

Anywho. Here's what I've got so far in the "macro photos I'm not ashamed to show" file...







Please feel free to comment or critique.

ejg1890

CyberSteak wrote:

Ok so I'm just starting off getting serious about photography and want to be able to take some cool macro photos. Here's what I have on hand for equiptment. As the title suggests...get me closer. What would I need to get closer to the subjects I'm taking?

Haves
Canon 40D
EF50mm f/1.8 II
EF 28-135mm IS USM
EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Canon 500D diopter

And I have a EF 70-300mm lens coming in. I'm thinking this will get me closer to my subjects so correct me if I'm wrong and please feel free to give advise on how to get me closer.

Thanks in advance.

To really do macro you will need a macro lens and will be labled as such. Generally zoom lenses are not macro lenses (can think of a zoom macro for canon or nikon). I use Nikon and have the Nikkor 105mm 2.8 VR micro (Nikon's term for macro). Canon has a 100mm 2.8 USM macro lens and I think recently introduced the 100mm 2.8L IS USM macro lens. I also believe Canon has a 60mm macro lens as well. While you may get "close up" or zoomed shots with the other lenses the focusing distance will not be as close or the magnification.

Below are several shots I did with a recently purchased macro lens (actually I need to et out and do more shooting with it):

Lord Vetinari

As commented above it depends on how much closer you want to get.
To get to 1:1 magnification (ie 1cm of subject gives 1cm of image on the sensor) then a set of extension tubes (eg Kenko) would probably be best used with the 50mm lens. Focus distance with all the tubes would very close (around 2" from the front of the lens). For less magnification you could use the tubes with a longer lens.
Magnification = length of tubes mm/focal length lens mm

Brian V.