Close-up and Macro

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We’re talking about macro photography when a photo’s subject reaches the camera at a real scale of 1:1 through 30:1. That means that when you’re photographing an object with a size of 1 cm, it will also be at most 1 cm on the camera.

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So in the 1:1 through 30:1 range, we’re talking about macro. With a scale of over 30:1, that’s no longer macro, but instead microphotography. And meanwhile, anything that’s not quite as zoomed in, e.g. 1:2, is detail photography, also called close-ups.

 

Using an ordinary lens with no special adjustments, you generally can’t shoot macro. In this case we talk about a close-up photo like the ones I was able to take with my camera and original lens.