Macro photography is such an interesting genre of photography, because taking images of small thing can be so fascinating, especially insects offer such beautiful patterns and structures.
It might take a some time to perfect this type of photography, as you will need some practise to get the shot you want. There are few macro lenses that might get you the macro image you always had in your mind.
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The Canon “Mp-E” Lens is probably the best lens for extreme macro photography. It’s really sharp and offers a brilliant overall image quality, but it’s not for beginners, because you will need some practice until you have mastered its handling. The lens itself costs nearly $1000, but quality has it’s price as we all know. So, if you want to take stunning extreme macro shots, the Canon Mp-E is with no doubt the right lense.
Here are few images that I had taken with the Canon Mp-E:
Camera: Canon 60D, Lens: Canon Mp-E, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f 5.6, Focal Length: 65 mm, ISO Speed: 400
Camera: Canon 60D, Lens: Canon Mp-E, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f 6.3, Focal Length: 65 mm, ISO Speed: 500
Camera: Canon 550D, Lens: Canon Mp-E, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f 9, Focal Length: 65 mm, ISO Speed: 200
The idea behind Extension Tubes is that you screw them between your camera and your lens to get a higher magnification and the more tubes you use the higher the magnification will be.
Extension Tubes are usually cheap, they will cost you between $80-$15. When buying extension tubes you will automatically get a set of two or even three tubes.
If you depend on a much smaller budget the reversed lens technique will be right option, all you will need is just a 50mm prime lens and an adapter to mount your lens reversed on your camera. You will be stunned how much fun you will have while using this kind of technique. As you mount the lens reversed on your camera body you can not use the autofocus function anymore, but I wouldn’t recommend using autofocus while doing extreme macros anyway, just get yourself a focus-rail and you will have no focus issues anymore.
Here are few images that I had taken with the reversed lens technique:
Camera Body: Canon 60D, Lens: Canon 50mm, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f 7.1, Focal Length: 50 mm, ISO Speed: 200
Camera Body: Canon 60D, Lens: Canon 50mm, Shutter Speed: 1/500, Aperture: f 9, Focal Length: 65 mm, ISO Speed: 200
Camera Body: Canon 60D, Lens: Canon 50mm, Shutter Speed: 1/250, Aperture: f 5.6, Focal Length: 65 mm, ISO Speed: 200
Snap-On Lens Adapters are also a great way to achieve stunning macro shots.
You simply clip them on your regular lens in order get a higher magnification. It’s absolutely cheap and it’s more than worth what it costs, there are fantastic snap-on lenses on the market for about $50-$100. In addition I would consider to buy yourself a macro slider to find the right focus point while looking through the view finder, as focusing will get more difficult the higher the magnification is.
I personally owned a snap-on lens for few years and it was such a fantastic experience to use this accessory, as it allowed me to take tons of brilliant macro shots of insects.
Don’t hesitate to try it out yourself, you will definetly be stunned which results you can get!
As always, I really hope you have found the tips and ideas in this article useful!
Thanks for reading & see you next time!
All images by Julian Rad.
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