Introduction to Microphotography

Microphotography is the extreme form of macro photography, dedicated to the photography of small objects from life-size to modest enlargements of up to about 20

Introduction to Microphotography. Microphoto of the detail of the head of a large Hoverfly byHuub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Detail of the head of a large Hoverfly. Magnification 4, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8 and Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX.

One of the most popular books that I read during my childhood was Eric in the Land of the Insects, written by the Dutch author Godfried Bomans. In this humorous fantasy, nine-year-old Eric enters the landscape painting that hangs on his wall and he discovers a world of man-sized wasps, bees, butterflies and other insects that is stunningly similar to the world of humans.

The book made such an impression on me that I have always wanted to explore such a world full of wondrous creatures myself.

Once photography became a part of my life and I purchased the Canon extreme macro lens MP-E 65 mm/f2.8, which has a maximum magnification of 5:1, my world was populated with grasshoppers, spiders, snails, flies, dragonflies and butterflies—Eric’s world.

Microphoto of the head of a juvenile grasshopper by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Frontal portrait of a juvenile grasshopper. Magnification 6, f/11, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.


 The compound eyes of insects, consisting of a large number of ommatidia, have always fascinated me. To uncover as much detail as possible I photograph insects so extremely close that they seem to have a gigantic size. At that scale insects of the same species look very different and each insect seems to have its own character.

I am very interested in the behavior of insects and take only micros during the day time period when they are actively foraging.

Microphoto of the head of a common Cuckoo Wasp byHuub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Common Cuckoo Wasp standing on a small flower petal. Magnification 4, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8 and Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX.

 

Microphoto of the head of a Dung Fly by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Frontal view of the head of large Dung Fly. Magnification 8, f/8, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.

Microphotography And  Magnification

Magnification describes the relationship between the actual size of the subject and the size of its image on the sensor of the camera. Photographing a 3 cm (1.18 inch) long blue-tailed damselfly so that its image size is 1 cm (0.39 inch) on the sensor means that the magnification is 1/3 (1:3) life-size.

Dividing the size of the subject’s image on the sensor by the actual size determines the magnification. At 1:1 life-size, the size of the subject on the sensor is as big as it is in real life. Macro photography is restricted to magnifications in the order of 1:10 to 1:1 life-size.

When this magnification is reached, shooting from life-size to modest magnifications of up to 20 is called microphotography. Greater enlargements are possible with a microscope: from about 20 with a standard microscope to over 1500 with a research microscope. A camera may take the place of the eyepiece of a microscope in a basic outfit.

Microphoto of a Greenhouse Whitefly by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Glasshouse or Greenhouse Whitefly, size 1.5 mm, standing on a small autumn tree leaf. Magnification 10, f/6.4, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.

Larger than Life-size

Most macro lenses are maximally able to capture a 1:1 life-size image of a subject on the camera’s sensor. Strictly speaking, a lens is categorized as a macro lens only if it can achieve this 1:1 magnification. Microphotography can be undertaken by normal macro lenses equipped with modestly specialized equipment.

A lens’ minimum focusing distance is the closest distance your macro lens will allow you to get to your subject while still maintaining sharp focus. A low-budget method to decrease the minimum focusing distance is to extend the distance between the lens and the sensor by inserting extension tubes or a continuously adjustable bellows.

Both the extension tubes and the bellows do not contain optical elements. The further the lens is from the sensor, the closer the minimum focusing distance, the greater the magnification, and the darker the image given the same aperture. Tubes of various lengths can be stacked, decreasing lens-to-subject distance and increasing magnification. Extension tubes and bellows can be used for different lenses. A small disadvantage is that the use of extension tubes and bellows may not preserve autofocussing, auto exposure and auto aperture operation.

The maximally obtainable magnification can be calculated with the following simple equation: D (length of the set of extension tubes or the bellows) + F (focal length of the macro lens) ÷ F = magnification.

For Example: Adding a set of extension tubes with a total length 0f 60 mm to a 60 mm macro lens will give maximally a magnification of (60+60) ÷ 60 = 2.

By adding a teleconverter, an even greater magnification can be achieved. Application of a 2x teleconverter produces a maximum magnification of 4 and 2 stops loss in light intensity. Adding more glass means a drop in quality and quantity of light transmission, the extent of which depends on the quality of the particular teleconverter you’re using.

Microphoto of the head of a small beetle by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Small beetle, standing on a flower leaflet. Magnification 7, f/9, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.

Placing an auxiliary close-up lens (or close-up “filter”) in front of a macro lens is another option. Inexpensive screw-in or slip-on attachments provide close-focusing at a very low cost. Some two-element versions are qualitatively very good while many inexpensive single element lenses exhibit chromatic aberration and reduced sharpness of the resulting image.

When you use macro lenses with different diameters, for each macro lens a close-up lens has to be purchased separately. Most close-up lenses are marked with a +d number in diopter unit, the power of the lens. The diopter (or power) of a lens is defined as 1000 ÷ Fd, where Fd is the focal length of the lens measured in mm. Thus, a lens with a focal length of 50mm has a diopter of +20 = 1000 ÷ 50, and a +4 diopter close-up lens has a focal length of 250mm = 1000 ÷ 4.

The maximally obtainable magnification can be calculated with the equation (2F + Fd) ÷ Fd.

For Example:
coupling a +20 diopter lens with a 60 mm macro lens produces maximally a magnification of (2 × 60 + 50) ÷ 50 = 3.4.

An interesting alternative is the reverse lens technique which can be accomplished by mounting a lens with focal length Fr in reverse, in front of a normally mounted lens of greater focal length F, using a macro coupler which screws into the front filter threads of both lenses. The maximally obtainable magnification can be calculated with the equation F ÷ Fr.

Depending on the quality of the reversed mounted lens, a drop in quality and quantity of light transmission may negatively influence the image quality. All discussed techniques can be used in conjunction to obtain even larger magnifications.

 

Microphoto of the head of a Jumping Spider by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. A frontal view of a rather large Jumping Spider. Magnification 4, f/16, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8 and Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX.

 

Microphoto of the head of an ant by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Ant on red leaflet. Magnification 8, f/9, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.

Sharp Images

Working with large magnifications means that the subject is only a few centimeters in front of the lens. During the day time insects move from feeding place to feeding place or are hunting. They stop only for very short periods of time at a specific place to forage, which means that there is no time to set up a tripod.

One needs to hand-hold the camera to make the photos. Light is lost when using macro lenses, extension tubes and teleconverters. As magnification increases, depth of field decreases rapidly. Due to loss of light and depth of field considerations, it is advisable to use a ring flash or twin lite flash when shooting micros.

It will allow you to shoot at a reasonable speed, yet enable you to use a small aperture for sufficient depth of field and a fast shutter speed (e.g. 1/200 sec) to capture moving insects. Magnifying the image also magnifies any movement of the camera and the subject, so it becomes far more challenging to make super sharp images.

Microphoto of a web-using spider by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. This small web-using spider is around 2 mm in size and stands on it’s web. Magnification 8, f/6.4, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and Canon 2x teleconverter.

Depth of field, which is the zone of acceptable sharp focus, becomes very shallow at high magnifications. For instance, at five times life-size, the depth of field of the MP-E 65 mm at f/11 is 0.2 mm. It is critical to focus carefully in microphotography since the limited depth of field available isn’t sufficient to mask minor focusing errors.

I always manually focus on the eye(s) of an insect and align the focusing plane in such a way that a major part of the head is sharp.

Microphoto of the head of a Tachina Fly by Huub de Waard.
© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Side view of a Tachina Fly. Magnification 4, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec. Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm/f2.8 and Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX.

With thanks to Jos Plas and Frans Mulder for their constructive comments and enthusiastic support.

by Huub de Waard
Article: © 2011 Huub de Waard. All right reserved.

All written content (and most images) in these articles are copyrighted by the authors. Copyrighted material from Apogee Photo Mag should not be used elsewhere without seeking the authors permission.

2 Comments on Introduction to Microphotography

  1. Hallo Huub,
    sinds kort ben ik ook trotse bezitter van de mp-e65 supermacrolens van Canon. Ik hoop dat het mij lukt om soortgelijke foto’s te maken als die van jou. Ik werk met de Nissin ringflitser MF 18, die instelbaar is qua lichtsterkte. Ik zie dat jij ook soms gebruik maakt van de 2x extender van Canon om een nog sterkere vergroting te verkrijgen. Ik weet niet welke versie je gebruikt en of het veel verschil qua scherpte uitmaakt (versie II of III)? Begrijp ik het goed dat je er soms 2 boven elkaar gebruikt om tot een vergroting van 20x te komen? Daarmee kun je toch niet meer uit de hand fotograferen? Ik vind je foto’s subliem. Hoe mooi is Gods natuur!
    Groeten vanuit België,
    Jacques

  2. I’m curious why you use the 7D versus a full frame camera? I’m looking for a camera that will increase the depth of field optically, and hopefully eliminate the need to use post processing techniques like focus stacking. Would you recommend the 7D for accomplishing this purpose? Are there any other camera models that have a crop (or smaller) sensor, but high pixel density that would also work with the Canon MP-E 65mm/f2.8?
    Great article!
    Thanks,
    Doug

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