Macro shots of some flowers using Kenko Extension tubes on a standard zoom lens. Extension tubes are great way to turn any lens to a macro lens, they are simply different size tubes which fit between the camera body and lens thereby extending the distance between the lens and your camera’s sensor. It’s really an inexpensive way to get into Macro photography. Various different sizes used individually or combined together allow you to get closer to the subject.
When you want to shoot macro, you definitely need to use a tripod and remote trigger to get a tack sharp shot. Also, you will need to shoot at high f-stops such as F11, F18 and even all the way to F22 or higher. Shooting at lower f-stops will give you very little depth of field and when we say very little something like 1mm (millimeter). The closer you get to the subject, the shallower the depth of field becomes so you have to shoot at high f-stops to get some sharp images.
Our setup was something like this:
- Tripod with remote trigger
- IKEA Lamp
- Canon 7D with 24-105mm F4 L lens
- Kenko Extension tubes (used mostly 36mm and 20mm)
See the results that were developed in Photoshop Lightroom 3 in the gallery below.