# What IS the diff between a "Macro" and just a closeup?



## ottor (Mar 6, 2011)

I've seen hundreds of photographs with comments like.. "Nice Macro" - or, "I took this Macro of this flower" and they're all just 'close-up' shots.. 

What, exactly constitutes a Macro shot? - Do you have to use a "Macro" Lens ??

I took a couple of shots of a drop of water on a DVD - everyone told me how much they like my Macro ....... Huh? - I used my 75-300 ??

Nitpicking, or is there really a difference?

r


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## Davor (Mar 6, 2011)

Lets see, 



> The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject



The technically correct definition would be to take an image at a 1:1  ratio but, in general usage, the term has come to mean any close-up  photography from my understanding


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## dxqcanada (Mar 6, 2011)

Macro should be defined as (Wikipedia):

*"Macro photography* is close-up photography of usually very small subjects. The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject."

Many just say macro for any close-up shot.

[EDIT] Hmmm, I was too slow again ....


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## Overread (Mar 6, 2011)

Generally speaking macro has a few definitions that I can see:

1) (true) macro - this is the proper form of macro photos and is when the lens is reflecting an image onto the camera sensor which is at least the same size as the subject is in real life or greater. Therefore 1:1 - 2:1 - 3:1 etc... magnifications. At some point this turns into micro (not to be confused with the fact that nikon uses micro in their macro lens names). 

2) Close up photography - this is generally accepted as macro by a loose definition used by most people. This is partly because such subjects can be tricky to know perfectly (for example a flower can be a true macro shot if the flower species is small enough - but its not something everyone knows). This generally is allowed to slip into "macro" sections on forums and generally gets the macro comments/compliments even though its only close focusing photography. 

3) Subject content macro photography - basically put some subjects can labeled as "macro" even though the shot might be far from macro. Spiders, flowers, butterflies, dragonflies etc... are all examples of where "macro" is often used (again as above lightly) or where they are seen as macro photos.



Generally speaking in most social groupings all the above count as macro and tend to just get on fairly well even though some are greater than 1:1 and some lesser than 1:1. Typically however when it comes to competitions there will be more strict limits (though again it can depend - a dedicated macro competition will be more strict than say a general nature or art competition which might consider close up and true macro as macro for their rules).


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