Macro photography without a macro lens?

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adam_dynamic

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Hey,

This might sound like a stupid question, but here goes....

I'm trying to take a close up photograph of a small item (1cm x 2cm PCB) for an ecommerce website. The only lens I have however is the 35mm-70mm lens that came with my Nikon D70 and I can't seem to get any results that look any good. Can anyone give me any hints/tips/anything! to help me out? I can't see myself using a macro lens again in the near future so any tips that didn't involve 'buying a macro lens' would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Adam.
 
adam_dynamic said:
Hey,

This might sound like a stupid question, but here goes....

I'm trying to take a close up photograph of a small item (1cm x 2cm PCB) for an ecommerce website. The only lens I have however is the 35mm-70mm lens that came with my Nikon D70 and I can't seem to get any results that look any good. Can anyone give me any hints/tips/anything! to help me out? I can't see myself using a macro lens again in the near future so any tips that didn't involve 'buying a macro lens' would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Adam.
Click to expand...

I am not a nikon user, so not sure, but does your camera have a 'macro' setting? This would enable you to get closer!
 
Focus as close as you can and use a narrow aperture to get a good depth of field. Probably best to use natural light with reflectors to avoid reflections from the surface. You'll probably need to use a tripod and remote release or timer due to the long exposure required.
 
You could try getting a set of Macro "filters" for your lens?

They arent truly filters, but magnifying lenses which screw onto your regular lens, allowing you to focus much closer and get more detail. Much cheaper than a dedicated macro lens, but obviously you get what you pay for so the qulity isn't as good.

I had some before I got a macro lens and they seemed to do ok.
 
wontolla said:
I am not a nikon user, so not sure, but does your camera have a 'macro' setting? This would enable you to get closer!
Click to expand...

I have been wondering the answer to a question concerning this for some time. When you select Macro on the settings dial of the camera body, what does it actually make the camera do differently to say for instance, Manual mode? Anyone know?
 
mm_photographic said:
You could try getting a set of Macro "filters" for your lens?

They arent truly filters, but magnifying lenses which screw onto your regular lens, allowing you to focus much closer and get more detail. Much cheaper than a dedicated macro lens, but obviously you get what you pay for so the qulity isn't as good.

I had some before I got a macro lens and they seemed to do ok.
Click to expand...

I have a set of these and they aren't bad for the price (think mine were about £10 for a set of four on Ebay). Not sure if they would be suitable for your subject as I used them for flower shots.

These shots were taken using a 10x Macro filter from my set....

4639728058_f8e8e3c560_z.jpg


4694313528_1f82e65391_z.jpg
 
Some awful advice in here, sorry... Since when did a DSLR have a "macro" option for starters?!

Best bet i'd suggest is either the macro filters, or better yet a set of extension tubes. A manual set will probably cost you no more than £10 on the bay.
 
Get a reversing ring.

It will work perfectly, and is cheap as chips.
 
Hi i second that reversing ring on a 50mm, acts as a magnifying glass, did this with my Nifty, perfect picture of the hairs on a fly's arse:lol::D

think i used a filter on the end of the nifty.??

why i took that i will never know:cool:
 
Hey,

Thanks for all your replies, good to know that there are solutions that don't require me splashing out on another lens I can't afford!

I think the extension tubes are probably the way forward, I was wondering whether anyone could enlighten me on the difference between something like this for a fiver:

ebay extension ring

...and this for £150?

Jessops extension ring

Has anyone got any decent results with the cheaper variety?

Thanks again for your help,

Adam.
 
Your links don't work (i think you may have to rename them to something other than ebay and jessops as the forum automatically sets a link for these words) but I imagine the main difference will be the expensive set are automatic meaning it maintains the camera-lens contact so things like aperture and AF can be camera controlled. The cheap set will be fully manual.
 
Yup the ebay ones will be manual and the Jessops ones will be automatic.

I have a set of manual ones and use them for all sorts of macro uses. They'll be fine for what you need. I'm guessing you'll be sticking the camera on a tripod and shooting from an almost identical distance every time?
 
Amp34 said:
Yup the ebay ones will be manual and the Jessops ones will be automatic.

I have a set of manual ones and use them for all sorts of macro uses. They'll be fine for what you need. I'm guessing you'll be sticking the camera on a tripod and shooting from an almost identical distance every time?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the links appear to have 'corrected' themselves, the ebay ones were £5.99 from Hong Kong, looked like they simply connected the lens to the camera body, the Jessops ones looked a bit fancier, just wanted to make sure that the ebay ones would fulfil their basic task.

I'll be using a tripod and can't see me getting much use out of the kit (famous last words!) so I think the cheap tubes might be the way forward, thanks again for everyone's help with this!

Adam.
 
What camera do you have? You'll want to do the DoF preview trick* to get a reasonable aperture then attach the extension tube between the lens and camera**, then manual focus and shoot away***.

*Hold the Depth of Field preview button down after changing the aperture and then take the lens off, it keeps the aperture that you set.

**They literally are just some tubes of metal that attach the camera and lens futher apart from each other.

***I think some Nikon cameras have problems metering with manual tubes so you'll have to set it to manual, not an issue with the sort of thing you're doing as that's probably what you would have done anyway. Canon cameras are fine.
 
Hey, I didn't have a macro lens either, but I still got good photos that looked like macros. I just used small aperture, got as close as I could, and did some editing (cropping of the photo, mainly). Crop, crop, crop. But avoid noise in the background...but even if you get noise, you can photoshop that out.
 
On a D40 there is a close up function on the program dial on the top of the camera(a picture of a flower). It's not a true macro but it does allow you to focus a bit closer. It will focus to the center of the object but you will have to use a tripod. I think the D70 has the same option.
 
Amp34 said:
Some awful advice in here, sorry... Since when did a DSLR have a "macro" option for starters?!

Best bet i'd suggest is either the macro filters, or better yet a set of extension tubes. A manual set will probably cost you no more than £10 on the bay.
Click to expand...

Er... my kx dslr has a macro setting. Well, it's labelled as one and described
as one in the manual. So if it isn't a macro option what is it?
 
Amp34 said:
What camera do you have? You'll want to do the DoF preview trick* to get a reasonable aperture then attach the extension tube between the lens and camera**, then manual focus and shoot away***.

*Hold the Depth of Field preview button down after changing the aperture and then take the lens off, it keeps the aperture that you set.

**They literally are just some tubes of metal that attach the camera and lens futher apart from each other.

***I think some Nikon cameras have problems metering with manual tubes so you'll have to set it to manual, not an issue with the sort of thing you're doing as that's probably what you would have done anyway. Canon cameras are fine.
Click to expand...

Working in manual is no problem, I suspected that the cheap tubes wouldn't have any metering etc so I'm more than happy to experiment with apertures etc until I get a reasonable image (probably not so good for trying to capture shots of insects etc but not something I need to worry about).

Thanks again for your help!

Adam
 
kapawayna said:
On a D40 there is a close up function on the program dial on the top of the camera(a picture of a flower). It's not a true macro but it does allow you to focus a bit closer. It will focus to the center of the object but you will have to use a tripod. I think the D70 has the same option.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how that would actually work. Unless it's physically moving either the sensor backwards or forcing the lens to focus closer than it is designed to (again physical) then it's not going to make any meaningful difference.:thinking:

adam_dynamic said:
Working in manual is no problem, I suspected that the cheap tubes wouldn't have any metering etc so I'm more than happy to experiment with apertures etc until I get a reasonable image (probably not so good for trying to capture shots of insects etc but not something I need to worry about).

Thanks again for your help!

Adam
Click to expand...

You'd probably be fine with f/8 and just changing exposure to your needs. :) Simples. :)
 
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