If you are looking to make extreme close-up photos of a subject, macro lenses allow you to make photos of a subject in a very different way than other lenses. What makes macro lenses different from other lenses, is that it is possible to shoot very close to your subject. The minimum focus distance on these lenses are much lower meaning you can get closer. Subsequently you fill the frame with a detail of your subject and still focus clearly. Most regular lenses require more distance from your subject. Only then will the lens be able to focus on a subject clearly.
Macro Photography
On point and shoot cameras, this is usually represented by a flower symbol, so I’ll use them here. The lens that I used for these is the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor which produces tack sharp images of really tiny subjects. The details can be so large in the frame using this lens! At the minimum focus distance of this lens, the subject can be rendered 1:1. This means that when the lens is set to 1:1, the size of the detail you are photographing will be exposed on the sensor at EXACTLY the same size – making things like pollen on a flower easily visible.
In these next two photos, I changed my settings a bit from the first two. This relates to the aperture or depth of field in the photos. The first two were exposed at an aperture of f/4 which is very wide open for this lens at this close to the subject. In order to get much more in focus with macro subjects, a smaller aperture is needed to make the entire flower and its details in focus. For these next two, the aperture was set at f/32! Additional flash was needed, but the entire flower is in focus – perfect for documenting them for textbooks or other collections.
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