ABSTRACT
This chapter covers foundational considerations for close-up techniques. There are a number of ways to make close-up photographs using simple equipment and/or accessories. Expensive macro lenses have elaborate internal mechanisms that allow groups of lens elements to move independently as the lens focuses to shorter working distances, creating excellent down to life-size or slightly larger images. Teleconverters are precision optical accessories that can be mounted in-between compatible lenses and a camera body. Teleconverters increase the focal length of the primary lens and maintain a shorter working distance. There are several ways to produce magnified images or photomacrographs using a simple microscope. Photomacrography uses a single stage of magnification. The best lenses for photomacrography are no longer produced. Image resolution is largely assumed to be diffraction limited with data points either side of the specimen focal plane blurred by the combined effects of optical performance and diffraction blur.
