Close-up photography reveals a fascinating world right beneath your feet. You can literally find thousands of subjects from tiny insects to beautiful flowers in one small area. The best part is that you can find these subjects anywhere, even right outside of your front door. The opportunities are endless. In close-up photography any subject such as insects, tree bark, leaves, dew, or pebbles become fantastic subjects for those willing to explore new possibilities. The beauty of close-up photography is that it shows the viewer a world unseen before. The rain drop magnified twice its own size or portrait of a butterfly is a whole new world to most people. With a single camera, a lens with close-up capability, and a solid tripod you can capture all the beauty close-up photography has to offer.

Equipment

In order to get close to the subject, you need some sort of extension on your lens. Macro lenses are normal lenses that have built-in extension which allows them to focus all by themselves. Macro lenses can focus to half or full life-size. Life-size refers to the relationship between the area that you are photographing and the size of the film format or CCD chip. You do not need a macro lens to get into close-up photography. You can use inexpensive extension tubes, which are hollow, fixed length accessories that fit between your camera and your lens. You can use any lens with extension tubes for close-up photography. Extension tubes come in set of three tubes. You can use them singly or in combination. To get to half life-size, add an extension approximately half the length of the lens you are using. With a 50mm lens a 25mm of extension is needed. To get to life-size, add 50mm of extension. You can easily figure out how much extension you need for any focal length lens by using a simple formula: Magnification= Extension/ focal length.

Above: Extension tubes

If you have a 100mm lens or a zoom lens that covers 100mm focal length, you need 50mm of extension to get to half life-size or 100mm of extension to get to life-size. You can use any lens regardless of the type of focal length for close-up photography with extension tubes. Telephoto lenses in 100mm to 200mm range are best. They provide good working distance between the camera and the subject. Zooms are great alternatives to macro lenses when used with extension tubes. You can quickly obtain the desired magnification and then bring the subject into focus by zooming in and out. The focusing color has no effect. The zoom color works as a rack-and-pinion device by moving the lens elements in and out to bring the subject into focus.

Digital photography has one advantage over film in close-up photography. If you cannot get close enough to the subject, you can always enlarge the image later in your photo editing program. Get as close as possible and then crop the image the you want. Although it is best to get the shot in the field, cropping the image in your computer is a good alternative if you're equipment do not allow you to get in close range.

File Format

I suggest shooting in Raw format if you'll be doing a lot of manipulating in the computer, for instance, to crop the image. Raw is an unprocessed file as opposed to JPEG which is processed inside the camera. RAW file is processed in your computer and allows much more flexibility for manipulation. Since you are more likely to make mistakes at high magnification's, raw file gives you more freedom to correct the image.  Raw file is like a piece of negative film. negatives have a wide range of tones than positive films which are already processed. Negative films can be corrected and manipulated far easier than positive films. A JPEG file is like a positive film that has already been processed.

Light

Overcast days provide the best light for close-up of photography. The clouds act as a giant reflector. This provides, even diffused light that brings out the color in the subject. Avoid doing close-ups in bright light if possible. Bright light causes shadows and washes out colors. You can use a reflector for controlling shadows by positioning it an angle that diffuses the light. Set your white balance setting to overcast or cloudy to Bolden the colors, unless you are using raw file. Raw files have not had white balance set. They are tagged with whatever the camera's setting was, but the actual data has not been changed. This allows you to set any color temperature and white balance later with no image degradation. You can also experiment with other white balance settings in JPEG format to see  different effect.

Flash
I am not a great fan of macro flashes. These are the units that attach to the front of the lens and are used for close-up photography. These units have up to four light bulbs which can be used singly or in combination. However, I feel that these units create a harsh unnatural light. I prefer a normal flash on flash bracket. Flash can be positioned at several different angles to light up the subject. Flash is a good alternative to available lights, especially for moving subjects such as insects. With a fast shutter speed of 1/ 250 sec, you can freeze these tiny subjects.

Above: Macro Flash

Finding And Photographing Your Subject

Finding your subject requires slow approach and keen eyes. most insects hide beneath rocks or leaves. Once you find your subject, look through the camera without attaching it to the tripod. Do not use autofocus, but manually focus the lens on the subject.  Once you find the best position and magnification, attach your camera to your tripod. You will need a cable release for releasing the shutter.  This will avoid any movement that can cause unsharp images. If your camera has mirror lock-up, use it to further reduce vibration caused by the mirror slamming against the camera.  For moving insects, working with a tripod can be very difficult if not impossible.  In this case, remove the camera from the tripod and use a flash to hand hold the camera and photograph the subject.  For non-moving subjects such as flowers or leaves, always use a tripod and cable releas for maximum sharpness.  Depth-of- field is very shallow at high magnification. This requires you to use a small aperture of f-16 or smaller.  Even at very small apertures, there is no guarantee of sharp images.  This is why the set up of the shot is very critical.  First, choose the part of the subject that is most important to the composition.  If you are photographing insects for instance, focus on the eyes. For flowers and leaves you might want to as focus on the center.  Use your tripod and line up the camera so the film plane is parallel to the main part of the subject . Most of time you'll be working close to the ground and lying on your chest.  Since the subject is very small, only a few inches can result in the subject's main point of interest being out of focus.  If you're using a macro lens, first obtain the desired magnification.  Then move the camera back-and-forth until subject comes into sharp focus.  If you choose a zoom lens,  turn the zoom ring to focus once you have found the desired magnification.  Keep in mind when working with macro lenses, turning the focus ring actually changes the magnification.  To focus the image, you must move the whole camera forward or back to bring the subject into focus.  If you plan on doing a lot of close-up photography, purchasing a rack-and-pinion device will make your job much easier. Once you take your shot, check the image on the LCD panel for its sharpness and exposure. Odds are that you need to take several shots at different exposure settings and focusing points to get the best result.