Macro Photography Focus Rail

Macro Photography Focus Rail

In a previous post, I mentioned macro photography.macro photography focus rail In this one we'll look at what is macro photography, and how it differs from portrait photography. In the last post, I explained why people prefer to use macro lenses when taking landscape photographs. I mentioned the famous quote attributed to the late great photographer, Kodak: "If you see something that does not belong in the picture, buy a different camera." And I explained why that was so. In this article, we'll compare the subject of macro photography, and the equipment necessary to make it work.

In macro photography, objects are focused on in an environment that is, usually, much larger than normal.macro photography focus rail In portrait photography, your subject is usually placed in a small and compact environment, such as in a bag or hat, or on a table or desk. So why should the focus rail be different? In a word, because macro photography focuses the mind on an object that is much smaller than the actual object, or the background.

You may have seen a two way focusing rail on an old style photographic camera. The camera had a small circle focused on by a circular focusing wheel, and you could focus the entire camera on one object. Now, the focus would be on that object, and everything else in the photo would be out of focus. In the case of macro photography, you don't want your subject to be out of focus, because otherwise your image will be unsightly. So what do you do?

If your subject is far away from the rail, but close enough to be in focus, you can still use the wheel to focus the entire photo, thus bringing everything into focus. But, if your subject is too close to the edge of the circle, your photo will look blurry. The same goes for objects that are too close to the copy stand or anything else in the photo.

Many cameras have a macro mode, but don't tell you to use it. This is a shame, because it takes some of the fun out of macro photography. You can create beautiful images this way, but it's not what the camera was designed for.

Instead of hiding the focus by using a large circle, use a two way focusing rail. You'll create beautiful images because the angle between the rails will blur the background elements out, but it will also blur the subject out. It will make the background and other objects in the photo much less visible and will allow you to zoom in on your subject. With all this, your photo will be sharper, brighter, and will have more dimension than it would if you did not use a two way focusing rail. Please, don't forget to look around the hotshot Sue forum Pro articles for other great advice on macro photography.

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