Macro Photography

[VicS]

does anyone know where I could download a beginners guide to macro photography (maybe pdf document). My girlfriend has recently purchased a 20D and a Canon 100 f2.8 MACRO lens and is VERY excited ... but doesn't know much about the topic.
Alternatively any book recommendations (but these are usually quite complex :( )

[gkas]

John Shaw's "Closeups In Nature"
http://www.amazon.com/John-Shaws-Closeups-Nature-Shaw/dp/0817440526/sr=1-2/qid=1163098702/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-3786662-9116738?ie=UTF8&s=books

[cgratti]

Check the MACRO section of this forum.
There are people who actually live there and can give you a plethera of information.

[Edwin Bont]

Practise, practise, practise and find it out youself.
That's the way I learned it.

You have to look at the bugs so you can predict their behaviour a bit.
Learn to use your camera and lens combination so you can quickly focus on your subject.
And if you get familiar with it, start looking at the composition (the most important thing in photography).
And lighting is very important too, diffuse it.

Most of the people have a digital camera, so testing is FREE ! :D
Go for it.

[Athena]

I'll second the suggestion to get John Shaw's book and also to visit the macro forum here at POTN. Some amazing macro shooters in there. ;)

[Margie]

Here is some information that was given to me by another...it taught me to take TRUE macro shoots with my 100mm2.8...I hope it will help you! Margie

If you want to get as close as possible with this lens let me give you a couple of steps.
Turn off AF.

Turn the focusing ring all the way to the right and look into the little window on the lens. You will see it will read '1'. That '1' means you are in life size macro mode. At that point everything will be blurred in the viewfinder until you get close to your subject. When using this mode you almost always need a tripod to get the best result.
If you shot the same flowers in life size mode you would probably only see only see 1 or 2 petals in your viewfinder.
The manual focus mode can be used like you would use manual focus for any lens or it can be used for true 1 to 1 (lifesize) by setting the focus ring to 1.
Now the beauty of this lens is that it takes beautiful macro shots in auto focus! In fact you can get almost life size shots by getting real close to your subject in AF and shooting. You can get as close as about 6 inches from your subject which will give you outstanding macro shots.
If you haven't tried already try this lens on portraits. It is amazingly sharp. Perhaps too sharp!
I hope this makes sense.