Quote:
Originally Posted by JDArt
Okay.
Questions:
1. Do you use ring lights? Why or why not?
2. Which lenses do you rely upon the most? Why?
3. How do you guage the best depth of field setting for a particular shot?
4. What are your best lighting tips for taking compelling outdoor macro shots?
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1. No see answer above
2. I use 3 lenses for "macro" work- a sigma 105mm for less than 1:1 upto 2:1 with extension tubes- good for butterflies, flowers, dragonflies. An MPE-65 for small bugs, I'm often shooting things less than 2mm long so 4 or 5:1 magnification comes in handy. A 200mm L prime with ext tubes for trying to do damslefly/dragonfly inflight shots and sometimes butterflies- not strictly macro though.
3. Difficult to answer. I very rarely do limited DOF shots, but if I'm shooting in natural light then I try normally to get to F8-F11. As my style is normally maximum detail, I very rarely shoot above F11 (sometimes go smaller for flowers) and when I'm shooting with the MPE-65, as the magnification goes up then I open the shutter wider, so at 1:1 I'm shooting at say F11 but at 5:1 I'm shooting at F5.6. This is all aimed at minimising diffraction softening of the image. I never use the DOF preview button. To make up for the largish apertures I often use focus stacking to make up the DOF.
4. This comes down to style to a certain extent but I normally shoot, when at 1:1, with camera settings of ISO 200 F11, 1/200th ETTL flash. This actually would give only 1 to 2 stops underexposure without the flash so I get a fair amount of natural light in the shots. In bright sunlight with many bugs or with flowers I actually shade the subject with my body to prevent too much contrast, however you can't normally do this with flying bugs as you will spook them. I use a diffuser on my flash (homemade
Flickr: Macro Viewers )
This gives much less shadow than bright sunlight but still gives reasonable contrast so the shots do not look flat.
Brian V.