Updated September 9, 2022

You may have thought about getting into macro photography. The ability to shoot macro opens up a whole new world of photography.

So you check into getting a dedicated macro photography lens. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Fixed Lens is pretty awesome. It also comes at the pretty awesome price of about $600 new! And that’s not even Canon’s L-series macro lens which costs about $200 more.

You may have $800 dollars lying around to spend on a sweet macro lens. I didn’t, however, so I decided to try a different route. I spent some time on the Internet and found some alternative options, or “macro hacks” to do macro photography without a macro lens.

To spare you the hassle of doing it yourself, I’ll share with you the short version of my research, what method I ended up choosing, and how well it worked. In case you’re wondering, it worked really well and I highly recommend it.

But first…

Why Do Macro Photography?

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Macro photography is more than just bugs and butterflies. You can find applications for it in many types of photography.

Wedding photographers use it for the ring and other detail shots. The ability to use macro takes food photography to a whole new level. You can really capture the textures of foods when you get up close. Even if you just want to play around and sell a few stock photos, a good macro lens can help.

That was where I was at. I do very few weddings but it would be nice to have a macro lens on hand for those all-important ring shots. Mainly, I just like playing around with different ideas. To improve some of my stock photography, a macro lens would help.

The same pile of shells. Canon 50mm. No macro filter

Why Do You Need a Macro Lens?

So macro photography is great, but why do you need a macro lens? Can’t you just take a picture up close with your regular lens? Or crop it in tight in post-production?

Yeah, not really. You can’t get super close with all lenses and extreme crops lose picture quality fast. There’s also the magnification factor. Let’s talk about all of those really quick.

Minimum Focusing Distance

First of all, every lens has a minimum focusing distance. This is how close the lens can be to your subject and still focus. Our eyes work the same way. Try holding something really close to your eye and you’ll note that it is out of focus. As you move the object farther away it comes into focus a few inches from your face.

Sometimes the minimum focusing distance on lenses can be fairly large. Like the Canon EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L Zoom Lens that I used to have. It was an awesome portrait lens, but you had to be at least 5.9 feet away from your subject in order to focus!

Other lenses, like my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens, have a more reasonable focusing distance. It can focus on objects as close as 1.15 feet.

The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM I mentioned in the beginning has a shorter distance at 1 foot exactly. The minimum focusing distance for Canon’s L-Series Macro Lens is even shorter at 11.8 inches.

But, you say, neither of those macro lenses get you a whole lot closer than the regular 50mm lens. Physically, yes, but remember (at least in this example) the macro lens is 100mm focal length while the other is 50mm. The subject already fills a lot more of the frame just because of that.

Plus, you have to consider the magnification factor.

Magnification Factor

Longer focal lengths already magnify your subject to a certain extent. Just look through a 50mm lens and then a 100mm and you’ll see the subject appears much closer.

Plus, the glass in the lens itself has a magnification factor. To be considered a macro lens, this factor typically needs to be 1:1. Specialty macro lens may offer higher magnification. For example, 1:3 or 1:10.

Great, but what does that mean?

A factor of 1:1 means that a seashell that is 10mm will project a 10mm image of the seashell onto the physical sensor. At 1:3 (or 3x), the projected image magnifies to 30 mm and so on.

My 50mm that I’ve been talking about has a magnification factor of .21x. So that 10mm seashell only covers 2.1mm of the physical sensor.

Clear as mud? Even if you don’t get it yet, keep going, the photos below might help you understand.

Macro Hacks

There are various techniques or “macro hacks” that attempt to make up for the lack of magnification in a regular lens.

One method is to take the photo normally and crop it tighter. You can shoot through a second lens that has been flipped around. Or you can buy extension tubes that will move your lens farther away from the sensor and create a magnifying effect.

Each of these methods has its limitations. A cropped photo obviously loses quality. Plus, it doesn’t magnify anything and you don’t get to show off the textures. Shooting through a second lens puts a lot of glass between the sensor and the subject, not to mention it’s awkward and hard to do.

In some reviews I read about inexpensive extension tubes, they broke and dropped the lens on the floor. The horror! A decent set of extension tubes gets rather pricey and then it seems like you might as well just buy a used macro lens.

Macro Filter

The macro filter, however, is what ultimately piqued my interest. Like a polarizing filter or UV filter, you simply screw it onto the end of your lens. It both magnifies the subject and reduces the minimum focusing distance.

This set by PLR Optics cost me $15 on Amazon. It comes with four macro filters, each with a different magnification value +1, +2, +4, and +10. For even more extreme magnification you can combine them, though of course, that means another layer of glass in your shot.

IMPORTANT! Make sure when you’re buying them, you choose the correct filter size. This is NOT the focal length. For example, my 50mm lens has a filter size of 49mm, which is what I bought. If I wanted to use them on my Canon 24-70mm I would need a filter size of 77mm. You can typically find the filter size somewhere on the lens or on the inside of the lens cap.

Let’s look at what they can do!

Canon 50mm at minimum focusing distance. No macro filter.

Canon 50mm with +1 macro filter

Canon 50mm with +2 macro filter

Canon 50mm with +4 macro filter

At this point, my lens is only a couple inches away from the subject. Canon 50mm with +10 macro filter

Canon 50mm. No macro filter

Canon 50mm with +10 macro filter

Canon 50mm. No macro filter

Canon 50mm with +10 macro filter

Pretty cool, right! A dedicated macro lens obviously would provide better quality. But for $15, I’m more than happy with the quality and it serves my purposes.

What do you think? Have you tried macro photography with a macro filter? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…

Cara