Pixiq

I'm sure that, for many of us, photography equates with escapism. Today... I want to escape as wind and rain lash the house: this is sunny Italy? So, a flight of fantasy to images, views... and wide-angles must suffice.

The time-tested advice for better wide-angle shots has always been to 'include foreground interest' such as rocks, trees, flowers… maybe setting the camera in a low position and leading the eye of the viewer into the frame.

I like to turn that on its head a bit. The trick for successful wide-angle close-ups (aka wide-angle macro) is to let that foreground interest dominate and move in as close as your lens will allow.

By the way, since wide-angle close-up work seems to be called wide-angle ‘macro’ everywhere, I have given up (finally) being pedantic about the term ‘macro' and put the abuse down to the evolution of language...

Wide-angle lenses can work effectively to create close-ups with impact — the wider the angle of view (shorter the focal length) the more distortion of perspective created by exaggerating the parts of a subject closest to the lens front.

As mentioned in a previous post, it's great for flowers: the part we (and the bees) see first and that exaggeration in the 2-dimensions of an image creates heightened visual impact. However, I must admit that I did not feel happy for a long time with distortion of animal portraits — a bit out of my comfort zone. I changed when I saw some of the superb pictures by Frans Lanting of chameleons and other creatures. The wide technique with insects has been employed by Solvin Zankl and also by Piotr Naskrecki  with all invertebrates, lizards, frogs… for the inspiration a true naturalist brings to his work. I can wholeheartedly recommend Piotr's book The Smaller Majority. 

So what lenses and focal lengths work best? Well, given the choice of fixed focus lenses, zooms, rectangular fisheyes… the answer may lie with those fixed focus lenses: 35mm, 28mm, 24mm and 20mm … wide-angles you may have consigned to the store cupboard.

Look, I'll admit that my first port of call when checking out a wide-angle lens is not the same as most folks… what I really need is a generous length of thread in a focusing mechanism that lets the lens get as close as possible unaided. Fixed focus lenses tend to be much better than zooms in this respect and their manual versions best of all: a few AF lenses take you in close, but this does not seem to have been made a selling point by anyone except the Sigma people who often seem in tune with the needs of close-up and macro enthusiasts. They produce 28mm, 24mm and 20mm AF lenses that focus much closer than most, all offer a maximum f/1.8 maximum aperture and are extremely sharp.

NB I know that most people get bored rigid by figures and formula — I have taught this nerdy stuff and watched people asleep with their eyes open... I sympathise (hell, I had to teach it). For specific details on these lenses see this post I made on the blog I share Images from the Edge.

Getting closer with extension tubes. 

If you want to get closer than an internal thread allows, the traditional way is to fit an extension tube to move the lens away from the sensor. Remember, there are no problems — just challenges (surprise, huh?)

• Very few thin extension tubes are made — Canon once made a manual 5mm tube for their FD lenses and Nikon’s thinnest, the PK11A, gives 8mm of extension.
• With a 20mm lens, even this small extension means you are almost touching the subject — causing problems with the shadow you and the lens front cast and, most important, scaring off living subjects.
• Many tubes permit auto-coupling of the diaphragm but no electrical connections (autofocus and various metering functions). Nikon has not upgraded its extension tubes to couple fully, but Canon has and Kenko makes a set of fully auto tubes with various mountings available.

Positioning 

When using a wide angle to set subjects in the context of their surroundings you might need to get lower than you think — with plants and insects I am often down at ground level. I use a low support such as the Novoflex Minipod and when this is not low enough I set the camera on the ground or a stone and use a right-angle finder. Subjects such as flowers and fungi then tend to 'loom' over you which gives another view... the bug's eye view. It is that bit out of the ordinary and thus one with potential impact.

Depth of field

A depth of field preview button is useful for checking out just how much of the background is in focus and to maximise this you will need to be working at apertures of f11 and smaller. When working with film I have used tilt-and-shift backs and was preoccupied with hyperfocal distances (you set your lens for this and a zone from just in front of the subject to infinity is in focus). These days I rather like slight soft focus in the background: complete front to back sharpness can simply be too busy and distracting... but experiment and find what YOU like.

To shoot the alpine flowers above necessitated lying on the wet ground with camera angled slightly upwards: these flowers appear as the snow melts and have stems of 10cm (4 inches) or less. I wanted to capture the flowers to show the fringed bells and the Dolomite mountains behind... they are not sharp, but they are obviously mountains. The lens was a Sigma 15mm f2.8 rectangular fisheye — now a constant companion.

Some lens compatability Issues

On my workhorse Nikon D300 there is the ability to set focal length for older manual lenses (a very useful bit of backwards compatability for which I am eternally grateful to NIkon) and I can use a thin (8mm) extension tube, the PK11A with TTL metering.

This is a boon for an aged 28mm f/2.8 AI-s Nikkor, which is still one of my favorite lenses — giving a reproduction ratio of 1:3.9 unaided (magnification x 0.26 or just over ¼ life-size) and just over half life-size (0.55x) with the PK11A extension tube). It is also exceptional reversed, on a bellows (a future post) as a 'true' macro lens. 

The magnification 'gap'

Using zooms and macro lenses we are spoilt because we get accustomed to a continuous focus and magnification range. Here’s what I am getting at… with a 20mm f/2.8 Nikkor wide angle and the 8mm PK11A  tube the reproduction range is from 1/2.6 – 1/2  (x0.38 - x 0.5) whereas, unaided, the maximum was 1/8  (0.125x), which means that there is a definite 'gap' in the reproduction range attainable with and without a tube attached. You get a continuous reproduction range with a macro lens and, annoyingly, time and again when you use extension tubes this ‘missing chunk’ is where you find you need to go if, like me, you are programmed to do your framing in camera rather than on screen. With a Sigma 20mm f/1.8 lens there is still a ‘gap’ in the range, but it is much smaller.

Things to watch out for...

• Being too close for comfort: If you go to half life-size with a 20mm lens and a 28mm lens and compare results there is a noticeable difference in the amount of background you cram in — the 20mm is wider (and wilder), but you are much closer to the subject. 
• Subject sensitivity: Bugs and beetles might let you get that close but butterflies won't — unless you set up your camera near a suitable flower and wait with a shutter release of some sort (or a phototrap). If you try to hold the camera manually and move in then that well-known fear/flight (literally) reaction takes over. To do it with lizards or salamanders takes patience and good stalking technique — you might get one shot and then…
• Lighting: The other problem — if the sun is anywhere behind you then you will cast a shadow and will have to manoeuvre position or try to use flash. Reflectors can be tricky with ultra-wides since they come into the periphery of the frame unless you are very carefulI I'll deal with this in a later post in this series.
• Mix and match — However tempting don't rely entirely on the wide approach; you can mentally numb an audience... take a variety of close-up shots and long shots, too!

By the way... for those who like using their calculator: you can easily work out the magnification an extension tube produces from a formula:    M = d/f

Here ‘d’ is the added extension (tube length) and ‘f’ the focal length. The smaller the focal length of a lens the bigger the effect an extension tube has.

As an example: an extension tube of 8mm used with a 20mm lens produces a magnification of 8/20 or 0.4x (which is 1:2.5) or just under half life size.

NB. This formula works for the lens set on the infinity mark — you’ll get a bit more magnification than this from the internal extension provided by the focus mechanism. If you really want to work this out then look at what the manufacturer says the maximum reproduction is, work backward to see what internal extension produced this… now add this to the tube length and work out the new magnification… (or just use a piece of graph paper, look through the lens and count squares… or just don't let it bother you.)

See here  For part 2 with ultra-wide zooms 

and  part 3 using rectangular fisheyes for that wow effect