Digital Macro Photography Basics

I guess we're all familiar with the photos. The extreme close ups of your common house fly, the dew droplets on a tiny leaf and how about the underneath of a wild mushroom that looks like the surface of Mars? We're obviously talking about macro photography.

In this hub we're going to be talking about digital macro photography basics, and how the evolution of the digital camera has changed macro photography and made it even easier for anyone to get such stunning photos.

Some of you may recall a few years ago that only the professional photographers used SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras. When dSLR (Digital SLR) cameras were first produced they were certainly aimed at the professional, costing many thousands of dollars even for an entry level camera. Lately, possibly due to consumer demand the prices of dSLR cameras have dropped quite considerably. They are now a viable option for both professionals and amateurs alike with base level cameras now only a few hundred dollars.

Macro photography is becoming more and more abstract everyday. Close-up photography is being confused as macro work and vice versa. Macro photography in it's simplest form is when the image captured on film (or sensor for digital cameras) is of equal or larger size than the object's size in real life. Confused? Let's try and simplify it a bit more.

Let's say you're taking a macro shot of a spider, don't get scared this is just an example. So our spider is 15 mm in total length, from one leg to the other. For this to be a macro photo when the image is captured on the sensor it should be the same size or larger, a 1:1 magnification ratio or something higher like 2:1 or 4:1.

Things get a bit messy when we start talking numbers, especially when we're talking about sensor size. If you remember back to film cameras the image was captured on the film and it's size was 36 x 24 mm. Digital cameras SLR or compact don't have film they have a sensor and this is where the confusion begins.

So we've established that film cameras captured the image on film and in a 36 x 24 mm space. On very high end dSLR cameras the sensor is the same size as this, but on the cheaper models the sensors are cropped. APS-C (Advanced Photo System type-C) is the format that almost all the top camera manufacturers are using on their crop sensor cameras. Using this format the manufacturers are able to reduce the size of the sensor down to as small as 20.7 x 13.8 mm.

If you've had a 'light bulb' moment you would have realised that with a cropped sensor the focal length of a lens is changed, effectively putting you closer to the image. Although that's a topic for another hub.

So back to our spider, I'm going to do two example for you. First with our large sensor, 36 x 24 mm, when a photograph is taken of our spider (who, if you remember is 15 mm) the size of the photograph on the sensor has to be equal or larger to the spider in real life. Our sensor is 36 mm wide therefore our spider to be a true macro photo needs to cover 15 mm of the width of the sensor.

With a cropped sensor the result is a bit easier, say the width of our sensor is 20.7 mm that means that the same 15 mm spider is going to cover more of the sensor and actually look larger when the photograph is printed.

Some compact digital cameras have a decent macro setting, usually a flower icon. If you're wanting to get into this seriously you're going to need a SLR or dSLR, just be wary macro photography lenses are expensive, they are made with extra high quality glass which makes them tack sharp.

There are a few way around buying a dedicated lens, such as reversing a zoom lens and using extension tubes or bellows but they are all hubs within themselves. Some other things that you might consider are a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release, when you are magnifying something this much then the slightest breeze can ruin a perfect photo.