Practical Microphotography

There is a jungle of insects, spiders and other small forms living in and around the grasses, plants and flowers of any garden. Talk a slow stroll around your own backyard or visit a nearby park or perhaps a botanical garden – anywhere there is plant life.

In the southern hemispheres anytime of the year will work, while early spring through autumn is the perfect time up north. Take the time to observe closely and you’ll find an array of these very small creatures flying about or walking on the petals and blossoms of the beautiful flowers. And while you’re observing them, you may find that they are observing you and even posing for the camera.

Microphoto of Robber Fly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.
© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved. Robber Fly: Magnification 6, f/13, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

Microphotography can uncover the colors, textures and shapes of the mysterious world of insects. This photographic technique opens up a whole new world of opportunities for capturing eye-catching images. An important bonus is that you don’t have to go far to find interesting subjects.

You can spend hours photographing mini-beasts in the smallest of gardens. In order to see these small “models” you’ll need to “see” with a new mindset and become fairly “narrow minded” with your vision.

Microphoto of Common Damsel Bug showing extreme close-up of head, mouth and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Common Damsel Bug:
Magnification 9, f/9, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

Microphoto of Small Ichneumon Wasp Standing on Dandelion showing extreme close-up of body, wings, head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Small Ichneumon Wasp Standing on Dandelion – size approximately 1.5 mm: Magnification 8, f/8, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

Introduction to Microphotography describes microphotography as the extreme form of macro photography, dedicated to the photography of very small objects from life-size to modest enlargements of up to about 20. Working with these large magnifications means that the subject is only a few centimeters in front of the lens.

Effective f-stop

Microphoto of Male Marmalade Hoverfly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Male Marmalade Hoverfly: Magnification 5, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

A camera’s aperture setting controls the area over which light can pass through the camera lens. It is specified in terms of an f-stop or f-number value. An f-stop is defined as the ratio of the focal length F to aperture diameter D. For example, if the focal length* is 32 mm and the aperture diameter is 2 mm, the f-stop is 16 and the aperture would be expressed as f/16. The area of the opening increases as the f-stop decreases. In photographer slang, when someone says they are “stopping down” or “opening up” their lens, they are referring to increasing and decreasing the f-stop value, respectively.

*All lenses have a focal length which is defined as the distance between the optical center of the lens and the sensor when the lens is focused at infinity. The focal length determines the lens angle of view or what the lens “sees”. The longer the focal length, the smaller the angle of view. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view.

Microphoto of Black Garden Ant showing extreme close-up of head, mouth and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Black Garden Ant:
Magnification 8, f/6.4, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

Microphoto of Wolf Spider showing extreme close-up of head, body hairs and multiple eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Wolf Spider:
Magnification 10, f/6.4, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

In order for a camera lens to focus progressively closer, the lens apparatus has to move further from the camera’s sensor by using modestly priced equipment like extension tubes, continuously adjustable bellows or in my case the more expensive extreme macro lens Canon MP-E 65 mm f/2.8. However, once one approaches greater magnifications, the lens becomes so far from the sensor that it actually behaves as if it had a longer focal length. At 1:1 magnification, the lens moves all the way out to twice the focal length from the camera’s sensor. The most important consequence is that the lens’s effective f-stop increases because the effective focal length increases. This has all the usual characteristics, including an increase in the depth of field, a longer exposure time and a greater susceptibility to diffraction. The effective f-stop is approximated by the equation effective f-stop = f-stop*(M+1) where M is the magnification.

A teleconverter is a secondary lens that you position between your lens and the camera body. It will increase the maximum magnification ratio and the effective focal length according to its multiplier M without affecting the working distance. The resulting effective f-stop is given by f-stop*M and the effective focal length by F*M.

Microphoto of a Yellow Cheek Fly showing extreme close-up of head, mouth and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Yellow Cheek Fly: Magnification 5, f/13, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.


Diffraction

Diffraction is an optical effect which limits the total resolution of your photography — no matter how many megapixels your camera may have. It happens because light begins to disperse or “diffract” when passing through a small opening (such as your camera’s aperture). For an ideal circular aperture, the diffraction pattern is called an Airy disk, after its discoverer George Airy. When the diameter of the Airy disk’s central peak becomes large relative to the pixel size in the camera, it begins to have a visual impact on the image. The effect of diffraction is normally negligible, since smaller apertures often improve sharpness by minimizing lens aberrations. With greater magnification you increase the effective focal length, so you also increase the effective f-stop. The aperture remains at the same diameter regardless of magnification. Longer focal lengths cause light to travel further before hitting the camera sensor — thus increasing the distance over which the Airy disk can continue to diverge. The effective f-stop is the most important determinant of diffraction and thus the resolution that the lens is producing at the detector. Here resolution is defined as the ability to distinguish two very small and closely-spaced objects as separate entities.

Microphoto of Springtail insect showing extreme close-up of body, head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Springtail (Dicyrtomina ornata) – size of approximately 1.0 mm:
Magnification 12, f/5.0, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

Gear: Canon 7D, Canon macro lens MP-E 65mm f/2.8, Canon macro Twin Lite Flash MT-E 24EX and a Canon 2x teleconverter for magnifications larger than 5. For the springtail micro with magnification 12 two 2x Canon teleconverters have been used.

You are most likely to encounter diffraction when at high magnification in microphotography.

For Example: The Canon extreme macro lens MP-E 65 mm f/2.8 has combined with a 2x teleconverter a maximum magnification of 10:1. Selecting f/6.4 at magnification 10 will result in an effective f-stop of 76.8.

You might be inclined to think that the effects of diffraction are now obliterating all the detail you worked so hard to get. In normal photography, the more you decrease the aperture, the more the effects of diffraction affect the image. Since the detail in the image is not getting larger, the more detail you lose as the Airy discs grow. When it comes to microphotography, you’re magnifying the detail as you increase magnification. The facets of an insect’s eye become gigantic, and the fine details of the facets are visible with enough magnification, to the point where they span large clusters of pixels … where the Airy disc of diffraction may only span a few pixels. Eventually the effects of diffraction will prevent you from continuing to make useful gains with additional magnification. But you can push magnification very far as I have shown with my photography.


Sensor Dust

Microphoto of Common Scorpion Fly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Common Scorpion Fly:
Magnification 8, f/8, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

Microphoto of Small Flesh Fly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes with flower pollen by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Small Flesh Fly:
Magnification 10, f/7.1, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

When the size of the aperture is large and the effective f-stop is small (e.g. effective f-stop 5.6), light rays reach dust particles that are sitting on the sensor filter from different angles. Remember, although I refer to this as “sensor dust”, dust actually never touches the sensor, because there is a thick filter that sits in front of the camera sensor. Therefore, by the time light reaches the physical sensor, it is spread out on a very large area, making dust appear as a large, light blob with a soft ring. When using very large apertures like f/1.4 on fast prime lenses, these blobs might be so washed out that they might be practically invisible to your eye. That’s why portrait photographers notice dust less often than landscape photographers!

When the effective f-stop value is significantly larger, say 76.8, light rays coming from the lens diaphragm are perpendicular to the sensor filter. Because the angle is more or less 90 degrees, dust specks also cast direct and defined shadows on the sensor. That’s why dust shows up in images much smaller, darker and with more defined edges at large effective f-stop values.

The clone and spot healing brush tools can be very effective ways of removing dust spots. However, this only works if the spots appear in easy to remove regions of your photo, and if the dust problem remains minor; eventually you’ll still have to get the sensor cleaned. Personally I prefer a sensor brush. A sensor brush works by electrostatically attracting dust particles to its fibers, and not by actually scrubbing these off the sensor physically. It will likely remove all but the most stubborn dust, and generally has little risk of scratching if it only makes light contact. There are even types which are designed to surgically remove individual particles without having to sweep over the whole sensor.

Micro Lighting

Microphoto of Drone Fly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Drone Fly: Magnification 4, f/16, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

By far the biggest challenge to microphotography in the field is getting enough light on the subject. 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 flash when creating micros. It will allow you to make photos 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. It becomes a necessity for most photographing above magnification 1:1 simply because there is normally not enough light.

Microphoto of Green Shield Bug showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Green Shield Bug: Magnification 6, f/14, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

Front lighting will provide better colour saturation, while side lighting provides more light on one side of the subject, which gives the picture a greater sense of depth and dimension even though it’s a two-dimensional image. A ring flash will provide an even level of lighting so that your image won’t have strong highlights and shadows, but the downside is that this often looks unrealistic because the flat front lighting produces a flat appearance.

Microphoto of Meadow Froghopper insect showing extreme close-up of legs, head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Meadow Froghopper:
Magnification 8, f/10, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

Microphoto of Miner Bee showing extreme close-up of head, eyes and jaws on food by Huub de Waard.

© 2012 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

Miner Bee:
Magnification 6, f/13, ISO 100
and 1/250 sec.

A twin-flash system will produce a more natural lighting situation and the results are often more appealing because there is more dimensionality to the image. Being able to choose the position of twin-flash units allows you to mix front lighting with side lighting. Twin-flash units also allow you to change the output levels of light. One flash may be brighter than the other, giving you much wider latitude for creating more natural shading and a greater sense of depth. The two flash tubes/heads can also be independently rotated around the lens rim to adjust the location of highlights and shadows, thus better matching the shooting situation and creative intentions of the photographer.

Microphoto of Flesh Fly showing extreme close-up of head and eyes by Huub de Waard.

© 2011 Huub de Waard. All rights reserved.

 

Portrait of a Flesh Fly: Magnification 6, f/11, ISO 100 and 1/250 sec.

Getting the light just right is never simple. While single or twin-flash units give us the opportunity to add light, sometimes, even with controls that allow us to vary the light output, the added light is still too harsh. To soften the light, you can choose to use flash diffusers. Diffusers are translucent plastic covers placed over the flash head so the light passes through them, softening the light.

It’s an exciting world out there and creating images of those tiny details in a photo subject can give you a thrill.

by Huub de Waard
Article: © 2013 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.

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