Fun with macro; getting close to Mr. Jackson.
Photo by Ben Yoder

Macro photography opens up a whole new world to you; you can make a bug feel larger than life, or bring new life to your flower garden. But how do you do it, and how do you decide what to spend your money on? And what exactly is macro?

Macro photography is a little tough to explain, but easy to think of once it clicks. A photo can be classified as a truly macro image if the size of the image on the film surface is the same size as it is in real life. So if you take a picture of a ruler, one inch on the ruler would be one inch on the film (obviously appearing much larger in print). This is classified as 1:1 life size.

There are three main ways to get into macro photography, with close-up filters, extension tubes, and lenses; that is a list from cheapest to most expensive, and there are reasons for it.

Close-up filters are nice and cheap, excuse me, inexpensive. They are basically a magnifying glass that you'll screw onto the end of of your lens, which will allow you to get "closer" to the subject. This is great if you are on a budget and don't do much macro work, but there are a couple big downsides. First, you have to remember that you paid a lot for your lens, and if you put a cheap-ie filter on the front, you destroy the quality you paid for. Secondly, again depending on the quality of your filter, you sometimes get a ring effect, where the filter won't magnify the image equally, and you end up with a donut-shaped area that is actually in focus. Still, starting at $40, it is a quick, easy way to get started.

Extension tubes are moderately expensive, but less than a new lens. An extension tube is basically just a spacer that sets the lens farther away from the image sensor. Through the physics of lens and camera design, this allows the lens to focus more closely to your subject. The bonus with tubes is that you don't add any extra glass that could be sub-par to your lens equation, and they start for around $150 or so. The downside could be that, if you buy an off brand set of tubes, you may not be able to keep your auto focus. This is not a huge problem, however, because most macro photography is done using manual focus.

Lenses are the most expensive way to go macro, but, as I've said before, buy the good stuff, and you'll never be disappointed. Macro lenses are generally prime lenses, which allow a better close-focusing design, and allow the engineers to optimize the lens' elements for one purpose and one focal length. These lenses are often of very high quality, and offer fantastic image quality, needed to expose all the fine details of close-up photography. A good macro lens should start at about $450, and, as with all types of lenses, will go from there.

Now, there are a few lenses that you'll find that claim they are macro, but not get you to a true 1:1 ratio. Lenses such as the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro will get you close to true macro, through allowing you to get to 1:2 life size. There is a classification out there allowing lenses that get closer than 1:4 life size to be classified as a Macro lens. These lenses perform very well (as you can see in the picture of the flower to the left, taken with the Sigma mentioned above), but will not get you true macro. Pair one of these lenses up with an extension tube, however, and you'll get very close to your subject!

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