Super Macro

Since I bought my Canon 100mm f2.8 lens, it totally changed to way I look at things around us. All the time, I thought Macro lens is simply a "magnifying glass" for SLR camera but I was totally wrong. If you visit my Flickr photostream, you will know what I mean. Not only does it make things bigger, it allows me to "play" with light and compose shots from different perspectives. Insects, flowers and leaves have never looked this good to me before! I have reviewed a fair bit about the lens in my previous post, so I won't dwell too much in this area today.

What I wanted to share with you today was a technique which I have come to love in macro photography. That's to shoot "super macro" combining the 100mm with a reversed medium telephoto lens, such as a 50mm prime lens, a cheapo Canon 50mm f1.8 will be a fantastic prime to experiment with. The trick is to focus both lens to infinity and held together tightly, in my case, by hand :) In this set up, I can get even closer to action and a much higher magnification value without spending anything substantial. The downside is of course, you would not be able to use the AF function of the lens and so the only way to focus is to move the whole thing back and forth. A word of warning though, I am not sure if there is any other easier way but if you do the way I explained above, it's definitely not for the faint-hearted :)) Working with extremely narrow DOF or smaller aperture with limited ambience light is always going to be a challenge in macro photography, well, for me anyway. Persistance and patience will help you a long way!! :))

P/S Thank you Arturo for showing me the secret!!