Magnification - It is not about how close you can get?
Magnification - It is not about how close you can get? | ||
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The newcomer to macro photography invariably wants to know "how close can I get?" That's a logical question. If you're used to taking pictures of subjects that are located from six feet to infinity, the desire to get close, preferably as close as possible, takes on special significance. However, if you think about it, the distance between your lens and the subject isn't the most important thing. You want a bigger view of your subject, so the size of the subject on your sensor (or film) is the key factor. Instead of focusing on distance, think magnification. It's easy to see why, through a simple thought experiment. You don't even have to whip out your camera. Imagine taking a photograph of a coin from your coin collection from 8 inches away, with your camera set to its widest zoom setting, say, the equivalent of a 35mm lens. Now, move the camera back so it's 12 inches away from the coin, but zoom in to your camera's maximum telephoto setting, say, 200mm. (Not all cameras can focus close at all zoom settings, but, fortunately, this is a thought experiment.) Which photograph will have the larger image? Which will be a more satisfactory close-up of your coin? In macro photography, it's not how close you can focus, but the final size, or magnification, of the image that is important. A lens that focuses very close only at the wide-angle setting will not produce the same results as one that focused close at both wide-angle and telephoto settings. Indeed, there are situations in which you'd want to use one or the other, because both wide-angle and telephoto settings can produce distortions in your final image, depending on the subject matter and how close you are to it. Because final image size depends on the lens setting and distance to the subject, magnification is the most useful way of expressing how an image is captured with macro photography. If your magnification is 1 times, the object will appear the same size on the sensor (or film) as it does in real life. At 2 times magnification, it will be twice as big, and at .5 times, the subject will be half life-size and will occupy only half the width or height it did in the life-size version. These magnifications are most commonly referred to as ratios: 1 times is 1:1, 2 times is 2:1, .5 times is 1:2, and so forth. As you work with close-up photography, you'll find using magnifications more useful than focusing distances. | ||