Take Two of images from the Monsanto Insectarium... for C&C please...

[IzzieK]

1. Cicada F6.3 1/30 ISO 3200


2. Hissing Cockroach F6 3 1 60 ISO3200



3. Cactus Longhorn Beetle



4. 4 Desert Wolf Spider



5 Golden Silk Spider



6. Paper Wasp



7. 7 Red Backed Darkling Beetle



8 Ants



9

Thank you all so much for looking and commenting if any...

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, are these from the same visit or a later excursion?

[IzzieK]

Nice efforts, are these from the same visit or a later excursion?

Thanks for commenting, John -- it is from the same outing...I had more but they are of very low shutter speed and not worth sharing. I have learned a lot from that outing...'appreciate your passing by. I added two more in the selection.

Reminder to myself -- next time use the Camera Raw noise reduction instead...

[Shadowman]

Thanks for commenting, John -- it is from the same outing...I had more but they are of very low shutter speed and not worth sharing. I have learned a lot from that outing...'appreciate your passing by. I added two more in the selection.

Reminder to myself -- next time use the Camera Raw noise reduction instead...

Nice additions, the ants would work with a bit more contrast.

[IzzieK]

Nice additions, the ants would work with a bit more contrast.

Thanks John...you are always there for me.

[Geoff F]

Have you tried shooting with flash, Izzie?

My default settings for this sort of flash shot are 1/200 F14 Iso 400 all entered on the manual settings option. I then vary the flash output compensation to suit the light levels for each shot. But once the average has been worked out by trial and error with a couple of test shots there is normally little flash alteration needed. External flash unit and on a tripod. Manual focusing.

Before getting an external flash unit I did shoot reasonably well with just the pop up flash.

Recently, I was getting a bit of a problem with a shiny black beetle where the flash was working OK but I was getting a few small over bright areas. So I quickly tried aperture priority mode at F11 and Iso 800 which gave me a shutter of 1/80. Although I was using a tripod and the beetle was moving fairly slowly, all those shots were blurred.

[DanK]

The second and sixth are the best in terms of focus. In the first, your focus point is too far back, about 1/3 of the way. The key is to have the head and eyes in focus.

Izzie, you are really swimming upstream. You are giving yourself a really difficult task. You don't have enough DOF at these apertures, particularly when the bug is not parallel to the sensor. Even with a crop sensor camera, which has roughly 1 stop deeper DOF than yours, I typically shoot bugs at a setting similar to Geoff's--1/250, f/13.

Which means you need more light so that you can close the lens down more without using too high an ISO setting. The key in most cases is diffused flash. I do virtually all of my bug shots with a flash. I generally use a monopod and obtain focus by rocking back and forth slightly, trying to get a shot as soon as the eyes are in focus.

The one way my drill differs from Geoff's is that I never use manual flash. I find TTL works just fine with my cameras. I change the ISO if I want to change the ratio of luminance between the bug and the background. E.g., if the background is too dark, I up the ISO a bit. I generally use 200 as a starting point. If TTL is off, I just dial in a little flash exposure compensation, but I find I rarely need it.

In very bright light--open sunlight on a sunny day--you can get a decent exposure without flash, but flash stops the motion, and the diffused flash gives better colors, so I generally leave the flash on.

[Geoff F]

Dan, my camera settings are manual but my flash is auto TTL with a little bit of output compensation as required..

[DanK]

Dan, my camera settings are manual but my flash is auto TTL with a little bit of output compensation as required..

Geoff,

thanks. I misunderstood. Then we are doing pretty much exactly the same thing.

Dan

[IzzieK]

Have you tried shooting with flash, Izzie?

Yes on one of the cockroaches I think that was in a little cave. I only used the built-in one and I got a tap on my shoulder and saw a guy waving his pointer finger at me "No.." so I stopped. It was a bit dark in on half of the cave.

My default settings for this sort of flash shot are 1/200 F14 Iso 400 all entered on the manual settings option. I then vary the flash output compensation to suit the light levels for each shot. But once the average has been worked out by trial and error with a couple of test shots there is normally little flash alteration needed. External flash unit and on a tripod. Manual focusing.

Before getting an external flash unit I did shoot reasonably well with just the pop up flash.

Recently, I was getting a bit of a problem with a shiny black beetle where the flash was working OK but I was getting a few small over bright areas. So I quickly tried aperture priority mode at F11 and Iso 800 which gave me a shutter of 1/80. Although I was using a tripod and the beetle was moving fairly slowly, all those shots were blurred.

I can't use a tripod either. There are a bit of restriction, so I recently bought a shoulder mount camera stabilizer to cure those blurry shots for his weekend. I am sure no one will trip on it as with a tripod or monopod.

[IzzieK]

The second and sixth are the best in terms of focus. In the first, your focus point is too far back, about 1/3 of the way. The key is to have the head and eyes in focus.

I know about the head area focus but the darn things doesn't want to cooperate but I went there on a weekend with all those people around and kids, I had not much chance. My idea was to go there during the week but I want to also go on the Sea Lion Sounds show. The latter only happens on weekend. I decided to kill two birds in one stone but it didn't work...weekends are the pits.

Izzie, you are really swimming upstream. You are giving yourself a really difficult task. You don't have enough DOF at these apertures, particularly when the bug is not parallel to the sensor. Even with a crop sensor camera, which has roughly 1 stop deeper DOF than yours, I typically shoot bugs at a setting similar to Geoff's--1/250, f/13.

Which means you need more light so that you can close the lens down more without using too high an ISO setting. The key in most cases is diffused flash. I do virtually all of my bug shots with a flash. I generally use a monopod and obtain focus by rocking back and forth slightly, trying to get a shot as soon as the eyes are in focus.

Monopods and tripods are not allowed unfortunately. Not even built-in flash so it was really difficult. Next time I will bring one of those smallist handheld flashlight style LED lights and have my mule hold it for me...I suppose I can get around to the rules.

The one way my drill differs from Geoff's is that I never use manual flash. I find TTL works just fine with my cameras. I change the ISO if I want to change the ratio of luminance between the bug and the background. E.g., if the background is too dark, I up the ISO a bit. I generally use 200 as a starting point. If TTL is off, I just dial in a little flash exposure compensation, but I find I rarely need it.

In very bright light--open sunlight on a sunny day--you can get a decent exposure without flash, but flash stops the motion, and the diffused flash gives better colors, so I generally leave the flash on.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I think when you use a flash, the insect is surprised so it stops for a while because it was blinded temporarily.

[IzzieK]

Thanks guys for your support. This is my first real excursion after my vacation from Oz and now I am re-learning my camera. I am taking an online course on my D810 at the moment to learn more. I am sure to some this is very basic but it will pay in the end to have this course since each ones are just small bits and downloadable.

I really do appreciate your dropping by and commenting and teaching me some techniques to improve my images.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Izzie,

I'm not sure I can add anything helpful on the photos that hasn't already been covered. Some do lack contrast, or an accurate black point/level in PP, in addition to the capture problems you face - as someone said (but I can't see who now), you have set yourself a very hard task here - butterflies are easier!

It looks like most, if not all were shot through glass, so adding flash (or LED) light 'your' side of the glass is liable to make matters worse. I can think of ways to get around this, but they'd really require another person to assist with lighting (and masking it from the glass in front of the lens) as you'll need both hands to hold the camera and shoot.

I don't know if any of the exhibits had open tops, over which you/someone might be able to hold the LED light to shine downwards on to the subject, even if you still have to shoot through the glass to get the necessary angle of view to the subject. Still not ideal to attempt it by yourself though.

Cheers, Dave

[IzzieK]

It was a terrible place with terrible lighting apart from the kitchen where the ants and the bowl of fly maggots are. I got goose pimples just remembering that bowl. Thanks for the comments. I really do appreciate your passing by.