I recently ordered a bunch of new filters for my camera. I intended to buy only a UV filter to protect my lens when I’m photographing small kids who like to poke at the camera, but when I started shopping I discovered a few filters that I just had to try.
One of the filter sets I bought was a macro filter set. Each filter is essentially a magnifying glass that you can screw onto the end of your lens just like a traditional filter. The kit came with several different magnification strengths and you can stack them for even more magnification. It allows you to get really close to your subject and still be able to focus. I started looking for small objects in my house to play with the 10x filter and I settled on a bug and my wedding ring: both gave me great results!
Another side effect of this filter was that it really tightened up my depth of field. It created a really interesting effect when I photographed the bug. His antennae and legs were out of focus, but his head and torso were in focus. He looked like a giant bug in the photo. The same thing happened with my wedding ring. I was able to focus only on the main center diamond, while blurring the rest of the ring slightly. It was a really pretty effect, in my opinion!
I am planning on playing with the filters more tomorrow. I’d like to try stacking all the filters in the kit to see what they can do. I think they would work really well for ultra closeups of a person’s eye, jewelry, flowers, and other tiny details. It would be kind of fun to make one of those “what am I?” albums by taking pictures of objects in such detail and magnification, that people have to guess what they are looking at.