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The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories

Lesson 69 from: Fundamentals of Photography 2016

John Greengo

The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories

Lesson 69 from: Fundamentals of Photography 2016

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

69. The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

17:26
2

Welcome to Photography

13:08
3

Camera Types Overview

02:00
4

Viewing Systems

28:43
5

Viewing Systems Q&A

08:45
6

Lens Systems

32:06
7

Shutter Systems

13:17
8

Shutter Speeds

10:47
9

Choosing a Shutter Speed

31:30
10

Shutter Speeds for Handholding

08:36
11

Shutter Speed Pop Quiz

09:06
12

Camera Settings

25:35
13

General Camera Q&A

14:38
14

Sensor Sizes: The Basics

15:33
15

Sensor Sizes: Compared

19:10
16

Pixels

20:13
17

ISO

21:13
18

Sensor Q&A

13:34
19

Focal Length: Overview

11:09
20

Focal Length: Angle of View

15:09
21

Wide Angle Lenses

08:48
22

Telephoto Lenses

25:23
23

Angle of View Q&A

09:29
24

Fish Eye Lenses

10:39
25

Tilt & Shift Lenses

23:42
26

Subject Zone

17:19
27

Lens Speed

09:56
28

Aperture Basics

08:46
29

Depth of Field

21:49
30

Aperture Pop Quiz

13:23
31

Lens Quality

18:30
32

Photo Equipment Life Cycle

03:57
33

Light Meter Basics

09:25
34

Histogram

15:25
35

Histogram Pop Quiz and Q&A

10:58
36

Dynamic Range

06:03
37

Exposure Modes

15:58
38

Manual Exposure

09:38
39

Sunny 16 Rule

05:54
40

Exposure Bracketing

10:18
41

Exposure Values

27:21
42

Exposure Pop Quiz

26:43
43

Focus Overview

16:15
44

Focusing Systems

05:15
45

Autofocus Controls

11:56
46

Focus Points

07:35
47

Autofocusing on Subjects

20:19
48

Manual Focus

07:52
49

Digital Focusing Assistance

03:40
50

Focus Options: DSLR and Mirrorless

04:58
51

Shutter Speeds for Sharpness and DoF

05:20
52

Depth of Field Pop Quiz

12:14
53

Depth of Field Camera Features

04:54
54

Lens Sharpness

09:58
55

Camera Movement

05:20
56

Handheld and Tripod Focusing

04:32
57

Advanced Techniques

07:12
58

Hyperfocal Distance

06:50
59

Hyperfocal Quiz and Focusing Formula

04:36
60

Micro adjust and AF Fine Tune

05:34
61

Focus Stacking and Post Sharpening

05:52
62

Focus Problem Pop Quiz

18:07
63

The Gadget Bag: Camera Accessories

25:30
64

The Gadget Bag: Lens Accessories

12:46
65

The Gadget Bag: Neutral Density Filter

20:43
66

The Gadget Bag: Lens Hood and Teleconverters

08:55
67

The Gadget Bag: Lens Adapters

05:43
68

The Gadget Bag: Lens Cleaning Supplies

04:34
69

The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories

15:57
70

The Gadget Bag: Flash and Lighting

05:08
71

The Gadget Bag: Tripods and Accessories

18:50
72

The Gadget Bag: Custom Cases

11:20
73

10 Thoughts on Being a Photographer

07:37
74

Direct Sunlight

25:04
75

Indirect Sunlight

18:49
76

Sunrise and Sunset

18:39
77

Cloud Light

14:48
78

Golden Hour

09:50
79

Light Pop Quiz

07:53
80

Light Management

14:00
81

Artificial Light

13:56
82

Speedlights

16:02
83

Off-Camera Flash

27:38
84

Advanced Flash Techniques

09:49
85

Editing Overview

08:24
86

Editing Set-up

08:06
87

Importing Images

16:45
88

Best Use of Files and Folders

20:54
89

Culling

20:56
90

Develop: Fixing in Lightroom

18:13
91

Develop: Treating Your Images

10:53
92

Develop: Optimizing in Lightroom

14:51
93

Art of Editing Q&A

06:01
94

Composition Overview

06:53
95

Photographic Intrusions

10:10
96

Mystery and Working the Scene

16:18
97

Point of View

09:11
98

Better Backgrounds

16:02
99

Unique Perspective

11:02
100

Angle of View

15:06
101

Subject Placement

41:14
102

Subject Placement Q&A

05:18
103

Panorama

07:39
104

Multishot Techniques

13:57
105

Timelapse

16:13
106

Human Vision vs The Camera

20:07
107

Visual Perception

08:35
108

Visual Balance Test

22:56
109

Visual Drama

12:25
110

Elements of Design

28:57
111

The Photographic Process

12:28
112

Working the Shot

27:38
113

The Moment

04:42
114

One Hour Photo - Colby Brown

1:04:32
115

One Hour Photo - John Keatley

1:03:05
116

One Hour Photo - Art Wolfe

59:01
117

One Hour Photo - Rocco Ancora

1:01:20
118

One Hour Photo - Mike Hagen

1:01:20
119

One Hour Photo - Lisa Carney

1:00:52
120

One Hour Photo - Ian Shive

1:08:00
121

One Hour Photo - Sandra Coan

1:10:29
122

One Hour Photo - Daniel Gregory

1:06:07
123

One Hour Photo - Scott Robert Lim

1:05:41

Lesson Info

The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories

All right, well, let's take a little section that maybe didn't quite fit into the lens section, that's on macro lenses. And so, if you're interested in details and small works using a close-up lens, this is your section. So, let's talk about these macro lenses. So, Nikon and Canon, just as an example, make some very nice 100-millimeter-ish lenses that are designed mostly for portrait or general purpose works, and they also have another set of lenses also in that same focal length range that are specifically designed for close-up work. Now, each have their own words, Micro and Macro, which they're both gonna do the same thing, but they love doing things with different names. And these lenses are designed and optimized for focusing up close. And to understand focusing close, one of the things, the principles that you need to understand is reproduction ratio and the main standard goal of reproduction ratio in many types of photography is to try to achieve one-to-one reproduction ratio. An...

d this is where the object size and the image size are exactly the same size. Now, this was easier back in the days of film because you actually got to look at the film, and it's very hard to look at the sensor right now. So, if you remember, 33-millimeter film had 24 by 36 has the size of the image area. If you were to photograph an object, and both a quarter and a euro are about the same size, and you were gonna photograph those with a one-to-one reproduction ratio, they would be exactly the same size when you looked at the film, when you looked at the negatives, or you looked at the slide, and you compare them exactly with the coin. And so, it basically means, it's gonna be exactly the same size in the real world as it is on the film. Now, in the world of digital, we don't get to look at the image sensor in our camera, recording the light quite the way we did with negatives and slide film, but the same principle applies. The objects are the same size on the sensor, and that's gonna be indicating the size of that subject once we get it enlarged and look at it on our computers and so forth. What about crop frame sensors? Well, that is just a crop frame sensor, it's cropping in and it's doing the same thing it does in any other type of aspect of using lenses, is you are getting a cropped version of that. So, if you are into macro photography, there is a slight benefit to having a crop frame camera because you're getting in a little bit closer, and you are getting the pixels that you have on that frame a little bit more tightly in on that particular subject. And so, the subject will be exactly the same size on any of those sensors, if you could get in there and see it as it's being resolved in there. So, next to that, we have half life size, one-to-two reproduction ratio, and this is pretty easy. This is where the subject is half the size it was in real life, as it is showing up on the sensor. And so, this is where a crop frame sensor, it's almost gonna look like it's full size on here, it's just because it's a crop frame sensor. And so, you'll find some lenses go one-to-one, some lenses go one-to-two in their reproduction ratios. It's usually how macro lenses are rated. On a macro lens, you will see the reproduction ratio, this is an extra line of information that most lenses will not have. And so, both of these lenses, while listed slightly differently, are doing a reproduction ratio of one-to-three, which is pretty close. Let's focus a little bit closer. They are both at one-to-two reproduction ratio, and let's go one-to-one. Different cameras will have different ways of reading this information. So, both of these lenses at a one-to-one reproduction ratio when the lens is turned to that position. And so, one-to-one is also known as a one times magnification. The subject is exactly the same size on the sensor as it is in the real world. If we are to go to one-to-two, it is gonna be considered a .5 magnification. It is half of life size. The picture is half the size that it is in the real world. And so this can continue to go down. For instance, a quarter, one-to-four, is 1/4 magnification or 1/4 life size. So let's look at some lenses. Usually, the worst lens, when it comes to magnification ratio is gonna be around an 85 portrait telephoto lens. Now, both the Canon and the Nikon are pretty similar here. They're gonna have a .12 magnification, and so, if you look at the scale, one-two, it's gonna be about a one-to-eight ratio. So, it's not very good when it comes to macro photography. A little bit better would be their 18-to-55, which is a .31, so that is close to 1/3 of life size. A little bit better would be their tilt-shift lens, the PC 45, which does half life size. It's a half magnification, .5 magnification. Over on the Canon side, their 24-to- is a pretty good close-up lens. It's not designed to be a close-up lens. It's a general purpose lens that actually has a macro setting, where it kind of pushes lens elements into place where you are able to get a little bit better work. And so, .7 is not a bad magnification for getting in doing close-up work. But for anyone who wants to do a lot of this work on a regular basis, you're probably gonna wanna get a one-to-one magnification or a one-to-one ratio, a one times magnification like this, and you'll see this in most of the good macro lenses from all the manufacturers out there. And so, you'll find this data in the technical tables of your lenses out there. Now, covering the popular two brands. Nikon makes two lenses, which are specifically designed for their smaller crop frame sensors, the DX sensors, the 40 and the 85. I'm gonna talk more about the different focus lengths on the next slide. But they do also have a number of different lenses for their full frame users. And, real quickly, the different focus lengths will give you a different working distance from your subject. Over on the Canon side, we have one that is designed specifically for the crop frame, and we have several others, which are designed for the full frame. The 50, which is a very old one. Now, the 65 is very unusual because it does one to five times magnification. It does not focus to infinity, it is only a close-up lens. All of the other lenses here can be used as a general purpose lens, where you focus on infinity, and you can focus on things close-up. But the one lens that is different is the 65-millimeter lens here. This is only for really, really high magnification work. So let's talk about what these different focal lengths mean. The 60-millimeter is a fairly basic macro lens or micro lens. The 105 is a little bit more intense, a little bit higher-end one, and the 200 is for the really serious macro photographer. The fact to the matter is that photographing a flat subject with all of these lenses is gonna look pretty much identical. Pretty much identical. What's different is the working distance between you and your subject. How far away can you get your camera away from the subject? And so, obviously, with the bigger telephoto lens, you're allowed to get a little bit further away and still get the same framing on it. And where this becomes important in macro photography is lighting your subject. Now, it would also be important to just separate a distance. For instance, if you like to photograph snakes or things like that, you may not wanna be real close to them. But, for the most part, it has to do with the lighting issue. If you are photographing something and you're very close-up to it and your right on top of it with your camera and so forth, you're probably gonna be casting some shadows down onto it. And so, this is a terrible place to be. You wanna be back a little bit further so that you have room for that light to come in and illuminate your subject. And so, people who are kind of dabbling in photography might get something around a 50 or a 60. People who are kind of into it, want something pretty good, will get around 100, and people who are hardcore macro nuts will go ahead and get in here, something like the 180 or the 200. And so, there's a who world to be discovered down at your feet that you may not be paying attention to. And so, it's a whole world, as I say, that you can look around you, and it's just not real interesting with a wide angel lens, but this is just a very different way of noticing what's going on and seeing that detail up close. This is one of the ways where photography is showing people something that they don't normally see with their own eyes. And any time you show something that is not normally seen by people's eyes, it generally gets to be interesting. And so, it's something that's one of those little extra tools that I often will have in the bag because it just does something different that the other lenses can't do. So, some thoughts on the macro lenses. This is gonna be the sharpest way to shoot anything small. It's not the only way, but it's the sharpest way. You can use these from infinity to close-up, and they're really easy to use because you just put them on, and they work like a normal lens. And these also work as fairly nice portrait lenses. And so, if somebody wants to shoot portraits, and they also occasionally wanna do closeups, this would be a pretty good option to be able to do both. They don't have quite the shallow depth of field, for instance, as an 85 1. because these are usually F2.8 in their maximum apertures. So, they're not quite as good at the shallow depth of field. But, optically speaking, these have always been very, very sharp lenses for the most part. They're usually very well corrected, and they have very, very good quality glass. And so, it's a relatively inexpensive way to get a really good quality piece of glass. As I say, it's not the only way to get close. Another way, and this is a perfect way for somebody who is thinking about macro photography, but is not certain that they wanna dump a lot of money into it. They wanna just play around. And the extension tubes are simply tubes. They're completely hollow tubes, they're simple for mounting the lens and moving it away from the camera body. So, here we have our camera and lens. Let's put an extension tube on there, and these come in different sizes. This is a fairly small one at 12 millimeters. We can add a larger one at 25. And because there is no glass in these things, we can add them up without any optical penalties at all. And so, you can add many more of these if you want, if you have them. And the more you put on, the closer up you'll be able to focus with any particular lens. So, with my 70-to-200, the top photo on the left is as close as I could naturally focus, and you can see the different photos that I can get by adding a 12 or a or adding the 12 plus the 25. And so, it's not as close as a macro lens, but it will enable you to focus closer with any lens that you have, which can be really valuable. It's just something that you add on to equipment that you already use. Now, I wanted to see how close would a macro lens get in this case. And a macro lens will get you noticeably closer. But if you wanna get just a little bit closer, you wanna play around. The extension tubes are a great way to invest a little bit of money because we're talking about 100 to $ to get into one or get of these. And in case you're wondering, yes, you can add the extension tubes on top of the macro lens and get even closer. So, if you wanna start out testing the waters, get yourself some extension tubes. Later on, down the road, you save up for a macro lens and use that, and then you can use both of them together if you want. And so, these extension tubes are available from many of the manufacturers. They're relatively inexpensive, small, lightweight, they're gonna be as sharp as your original lenses, which is very nice, and you're gonna be able to use them in all different lenses. I know that there are some bird photographers who are using 800-millimeter lenses, but they're photographing hummingbirds they might only be 10-12 feet always, and they need to put these on to their camera so that they can focus close enough to those hummingbirds. And so, it can be used in a variety of situations. While you can use them on all lenses, it is unlikely that they will work well on lenses less than 50 millimeters. What happens is the focusing point becomes, moves from the outside of the lens, inside the lens, and you're actually focusing on something inside the lens, which is rather difficult to take pictures with. And so, generally, it's something 50 millimeters and beyond that you would want to use. There is a bit of a warning when using this. It's not a big deal, but if you were to figure out your exposure and then add a big old extension tube, light is traveling further in to the sensor, and it's gonna change the exposure a little bit. And so, you can do your exposure readings perfectly normal with these on the camera, so long as they have the electronics that communicate with the lens on them. But you're gonna probably need to get your exposure set after you get this put on the camera. There are also close-up filters, and these are very small, they're relatively lightweight, not too much money, and you can add them onto whatever lens size filters, as long as you have the filter size that it fits to. They have traditionally been a little bit soft in the corners, so this is not a super sharp way, but it's kind of an even less expensive way to get into close-up work. So these do exist. It's not something that I have spent a lot of time with or money on just because I know the quality takes a bit of a knock, and I would rather get extension tubes, as I think those are more versatile. If you do get into macro photography, one of the problems that you'll have is they end up focusing and framing your subject. And so, in order to control the focusing and the framing, a lot of macro photographers will have these macro rail systems, which allow you to inch forward millimeter by millimeter. Whereas working with a tripod, it's very hard because sometimes, as soon as you pick it up, it move several inches as it goes back and forth. And so, this allows you to be extremely precise if you really get into that type of work, and most macro photography will require you to work from a tripod, and this is just something that you would add on top of that tripod. All right, just to clarify for folks that this might be new for, Cat asks, so, with the macro lenses, it depends on the ratio for that specific lens, correct? So, just because I have a lens with range of 80 to does not means that it is macro, just because I'm within that 105 range. It has to be a specific 105 macro lens. Well, the magnification is completely independent of the focal length of the lens. And so, it's a separate way of measuring how close you can get with the lens. And so, there are ways of testing any lens and actually have more information, an expanded version of this in the Nikon and Canon lens classes, where I go in and I show you how you can test your lenses to see what their magnification ratio is. And so, that's gonna be something in those classes. But the focal length and the magnification ratio are separate. The magnification ratio is a combination of how close can it focus and what focal length lens it gets.

Class Materials

Free Download

Fundamentals of Photography Outline

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Learning Project Videos
Learning Projects PDF
Slides for The Camera Lessons 1-13
Slides for The Sensor Lessons 14-18
Slides for The Lens Lessons 19-31
Slides for The Exposure Lessons 32-42
Slides for Focus Lessons 43-62
Slides for The Gadget Bag Lessons 63-72
Slides for Light Lesson 73-84
Slides for the Art of Edit Lessons 85-93
Slides for Composition Lesson 94-105
Slides for Photographic Vision Lessons 106-113

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.

Eve
 

I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!

Vlad Chiriacescu
 

Wow! John is THE best teacher I have ever had the pleasure of learning from, and this is the most comprehensive, eloquent and fun course I have ever taken (online or off). If you're even / / interested in photography, take this course as soon as possible! You might find out that taking great photos requires much more work than you're willing to invest, or you might get so excited learning from John that you'll start taking your camera with you EVERYWHERE. At the very least, you'll learn the fundamental inner workings and techniques that WILL help you get a better photo. Worried about the cost? Well, I've taken courses that are twice as expensive that offer less than maybe a tenth of the value. You'll be much better off investing in this course than a new camera or a new lens. I cannot reccomend John and this course enough!

Student Work

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