JPG Magazine: Stories: How To: The Poor-man's Macro

How To

The Poor-man's Macro

By Sam Angarita

7 April 2008

Is there a vicious wasp battle going on in the porch of your house and you have no macro lens to photograph it? Try inverting your regular lens, and messing with the zoom a bit and take a look through your viewfinder.

A friend in Germany let me in on the trick and I got all excited about it immediately. Now I'm in love with it, and it has undeniably taught me a thing or two about not only waiting attempt after attempt to get the right shot, but as a result some patience.

Now, it's definitely a tedious little trick, and has its downs. Here's what you might want to consider:

Well firstly you have to get real close (depending on your lens, the smaller your zoom the closer you have to be to get good detail). Probably not the best thing for bug haters, but it's not to say that all you have to shoot are crawling critters. Get real close on your fingernails, your friend's gorgeous eyes, or maybe even your friends nostrils – alright that's pushing it, and it will probably be too dark anyway but you get the point –dare to disturb.

You might also not like the fact of having your sensor exposed to air. I don't either. In fact it is what bothers me the most. But if you keep your lens real close to the opening of the camera then it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just watch out for your shutter, now that's a bit more nerve-wracking!

Take into consideration also the fact that it takes a lot of patience (I once followed a dozen ant's carrying a mosquito to their colony for 2 hours to be able to get a shot I was happy with), but to me it is worth the experience and it gives you a pretty cool feeling of accomplishment once you get "the right shot."

The DOF in the shot is 0. No joke, you have very little area of focus, but once you do get it the detail is incredible – it's no microscope or anything, but it beats the naked eye.

Get out and read a bit more about it ( these guys http://www.flickr.com/groups/poor_mans_macro/ have several more ideas) and get around to experimenting. I've only been doing this for about 3 months or so and I'm sure there's a lot left to know about it.

You will not get the sharpness of an actual macro lens –of course- and it certainly won't be as easy but it's definitely a new look into things and for many a different experience. Just take your precautions –don't expect to get in front of a snakes face and expect it to just show you its tongue- and go flex your patience muscles. Best of luck and creative spirit. It's always fun seeing what different things one can shoot with a macro – well, a cheap one.

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