The obligatory fly shot

[Bobobird]

The obligatory fly shot.

Nothing compared to the killer stuff by our macro experts but...

1.


2.

[gregj1763]

Yeah, We all have to do fly shot with macro. I'm guilty as charged.
What lens were you using, no exif data.
Greg

[FrankMi]

An "Obligatory". I often wondered what that kind of fly was called! These buggers are hard to get that close to without them getting spooked. Did you use a really long lens?

[Bobobird]

Thanks Greg and Frank.

Not particularly long considering I was but 2-3 inches off him from the front of the hood.
The new version of the Sigma 150mm.

EXIF is there but stupid Picasa/Google think that there is no point displaying it.

Both shots were f5.6, 1/160-1/200. iso 200, diy diffused flash. Still seeing the effects of the flash so some more fine tuning needed to that thingy.

[Letrow]

Looks good Bobo. The only thing I wondered about is the reflection in its right eye in the first photo, is that from the flash?

[Bobobird]

Thanks Peter.

Not quite sure, it probably is. He is so tiny I could not make out what the light was going to do on it.

Since those shots were taken have been thinking if I should just go with natural light for this beginning part of the macro journey. The only worry is that with smaller apertures the higher ISOs will certainly have to be used so not sure about that either.

[Geoff F]

Don't worry too much about a few hot spot areas on insects, Bobo.

Look through your lens before shooting. If they are there, you will still get them no matter what you do. It is the angle of natural light against a shiny surface which causes the problems.

In fact I often find that the results are better using flash than with natural light. Increasing the Iso in order to reduce the flash output often makes matters worse for me. An Iso around 100 or 200 seems to give less hot spot problems than using Iso 800.

The only answer seems to be using studio lighting under controlled conditions where you can move and adjust the light sources so you don't need flash. But this brings other potential problems of getting a suitable shutter speed when requiring a narrow aperture.

It is much the same as attempting a portrait shot in bright sunshine compared with a carefully controlled studio shoot.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Geoff, very useful info. Have been reading up a lot about this so much so that I am getting a headache hehe

Going out now to see what I can get in a nearby park.

[Geoff F]

On one of my posts, I have just added some extra links to a site which gives a massive amount of information about macro photography and stacking of multiple focused layers.

About Focus Stacking

This macrostop.com site seems to be full of information, far too much to take in casually. Each pdf download appears to be over 100 pages.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Geoff - that is exactly the site I was reading up on and my head is exploding.