digital photography, learn photography, photo tips

Defining Macro Photography

admin | Feb 09, 2010 | Comments View Comments

Often times people can confuse the meaning of macro photography. We’ll try to clear that up for you.

The definition of macro photography is photography at “life size”. Technically speaking, macro photography is photography that is at 1X magnification and/or greater.

Or to put it more simply; the size of the subject in real life will be the same size on a film plane.

Most people agree that only 1X magnifications and greater qualify as true macro photographs.

The often seen indicator for a 1X magnification is 1:1, or a one to one ratio.

Specialty lenses are often incorporated in the specialty of macro photography. One of the biggest distinctions in macro lenses is that they are typically their sharpest at macro focusing distances and have been known to falter at other distances. Do note that Nikon uses the word micro to describe their macro lenses which may lead to confusion.

We’ll do more articles covering the nuances and techniques specific to macro photography at a later date but for now enjoy these fine examples of macro photography from the readers in our Flickr Group.

Crown

Crown by Tomas Webb

Lady Bug

Lady Bug by Bernie Kasper

Curled purple petals for HBW

Curled purple petals for HBW by Ben Ivory

Scary purple bokeh monster

Scary purple bokeh monster by Ben Ivory

Greenbottle fly (Lucilia sericata)

Greenbottle fly (Lucilia sericata) by Mark Payne


Popularity: 2% [?]

  • Share/Bookmark

Related posts:

  1. Weekend Perusing: Stock, Macro, and Paranoia
  2. Understanding Close-Up Photography [Book Review]
  3. Lens Basics
  4. 35 Outstanding Images From Our Flickr Group
  5. Weekend Perusing: Fine Art Photography

Filed Under: Definitions

Tags: • • • • •

About the Author: Damien Franco is a contemporary art photographer living in the deserts of West Texas. He likes long walks on the beach and thinks art is groovy.

  • What are the collections of photos and all photos are nice
  • markpayne1
    Wow thanks for blogging one of my photos! (Greenbottle)

    Many thanks for all the kind comments. I would like to add that I do all of my macro work handheld. Chasing bugs about with a tripod is not much fun.
    If your interested there are a few more photographs like this on my flickr page.
  • You're welcome and all of those compliments are well deserved. You're right...chasing bugs with a tripod isn't much fun all the time!
  • I must say that I'm a fan of diverting the scale in photos. In these pictures we see micro world in macro scale - which is very common way of expressing nature since high quality photos are accessible.
  • I know they stopped making my model but they probably have better ones now and it has a complete manual setting which helped me transition to a DSLR because it allowed me to play with aperture and shutter speed and experiment.
  • I first time heard about micro photorgraphy. It's really great quality pics.
  • In macro photography, all movement is magnified. It is essential to use a tripod or other jury-rigged steadying mechanism with a remote shutter release or the self-timer. You can't get good macro shots in most cases by holding the camera in your hands.
  • I like being taught the technical terms in such easy to understand language. As for the accompanying images all I can say is WOW! Mother nature is a master of natural photoshop indeed!
  • Wow that fly photo is amazing. I really enjoy these closeups photos of everyday objects. Sometimes you don't really appreciate the beauty of something until you see it up close and personal.
  • I cannot believe how incredible those shots are. The greenbottle fly almost looks like something out of a fantasy. It's great to see the vibrance of life like this in these shots.

    Till then,

    Jean
  • The main problem is the choice of subject - you really need to choose something that is revealed to be beautiful or surprising!
  • In macro photography, all movement is magnified. It is essential to use a tripod or other jury-rigged steadying mechanism with a remote shutter release or the self-timer. You can't get good macro shots in most cases by holding the camera in your hands.
  • A typo "Nikon uses the work micro" Nikon uses the word micro.

    Good article defining macro photography.
  • Macro photography is where photography truly shines as its shows us a world that most of us will never see, unless we are Sherlock Holmes. Thanks for showing those great images.

    Niels Henriksen
blog comments powered by Disqus
Improve the web with Nofollow Reciprocity.