

What is Macro Photography? 1x Magnification. This means the area shown in the photo is 3 times larger than the size of the sensor used to take the image. This ranges from one-tenth the size of the object, to just above the actual size.įor instance, the image of the coffee beans covers was taken at a magnification ratio of 1:3 or 0.33x magnification. Put another way, the object being photographed would be projected onto the camera sensor at a smaller size than it actually is.

Also referred to as a 2:1 magnification ratio.Ĭlose up photos are taken at magnification ratios between 0.1x and 1x. What is Close Up Photography? 0.5x Magnification. Increasing magnification moves an image from being considered a close up, to macro, and then to micro. There obviously is a difference, not only in the gear that needs to be used but also in the techniques adopted to nail these photographs.The differences between close up, macro, and micro photography are based on image magnification. Now that you know how macro, micro and close-up photography differ from one another, you’ve got a clear guideline on how you should be going about your photography. In reality, there exists a clear and defined difference between all three, depending upon which camera lens is being used and its magnification ratio. In general parlance, close-up photography encompasses all three forms of magnified photography – macro, micro and close-up. But micro photography will not be identifiable as it blows up the subject to an extent that the human eye cannot comprehend unaided. Macro photography can also be identifiable even without any context. A close-up photo is generally visually distinguishable as you can understand the relative size of the subject with context to its surroundings.
Macro vs micro lens how to#
How to recognise the difference between macro, micro and close up photographyĪs macro, micro and close up photography, all deal with magnified ratios, it can be difficult to distinguish between the three. Any magnification ratio of less than 1:1 will fall under close-up photography. All you need it to do is to be able to zoom in on your subject to capture more details. There are no special camera lenses for close up photography any regular lens will do. For example, a butterfly on a leaf is close-up photography as you can still make out the size of the butterfly with respect to the leaf and other surroundings. The subject is often small, like an insect, but the resulting photographs still give a sense of what you’re looking at. The cost of such microscopes is usually inexpensive compared to that of macro lenses.Ĭlose-up photography takes a subject and zooms in on it to get a better view of its features. So you’re going to need to go old school and use a microscope to blow up your object. Unfortunately, there is no micro lens that is used for capturing such a large extent of magnification. This unusual form of photography isn’t something that every photographer can get into. Micro photography refers to any photography that uses a magnification ratio of 20:1 or higher. Since it’s really up close and personal with the object you can lose a sense of how small it really is. Macro photography allows the subject to take up most of the frame and can accommodate an incredible amount of accuracy when it comes to small details. These camera lenses are on the higher end of the price line, but they capture your tiny objects in a ridiculously detailed manner. This form of photography is taken with a dedicated macro lens. This means that anything you shoot will look life-size in the resulting image.

Macro photography, in a technical sense, is any photography that shoots in a 1:1 ratio. And if you are not already enjoying this kind of work, we’d like to encourage you to start. We hope to help shed some light on all the confusion so that you can continue taking photos of minuscule objects without getting the parlance wrong. But many photographer’s don’t truly understand the difference between these photography styles (or if there even is a difference). Macro, micro and close up photography can help you capture detailed images of any object. But did you know there are different types of photography for taking such pictures? One of the coolest aspects of photography is the ability to take a picture of something so small that you can spot details even the human eye finds difficult.
