1st Camel Q&A session: Macro photography with Brian (LordV)

[aam1234]

Brian is relatively new here, however he is not new to macro photography. By just seeing few of his posts in this forum you would know immediately the talent and expertise he has in this field. Don't take my word for it, have a look at his site or view his postings in this forum to see how beautiful his work is.

Brian was generous enough to allow us to have a Q&A session with him, to help advance our knowledge in macro photography. So feel free to ask him questions in this field and he will gladly answer them for you.

Thank you Brian.

[jfrancho]

Glad to see you here Brian. I'd love to hear and see some the devices you employ to keep your rig steady, while chasing bugs and other critters in the garden. While you're at it, how about some basic light modifiers that work well with 1:1 or better type macros.

[RobAmy]

Thanks Brian

[diana]

hello and thank you brian. your work is amazing. i'm a relative newbie but i am fascinated by macro photography. i'd love to know how you trick the little critters into posing for you and also lens recommendations.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by aam1234

Sounds a bit boring but it's really more fun than that. Give it a shot.

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?

[aam1234]

Here you go.

Now we need to locate Brian. Hope he drops by soon. If he is late then it's my fault, I replied to him late about this session.

[RobAmy]

I will play too

1. Do you use a micro rail
2. Do you prefer tubes over extenders, do you use both in conjunction
3. Do you use twin flash rigs, are they diffused or not

[JDArt]

1. What are your best tips for starting out in macro photography?

2. Who are your favorite macro photographers?

3. What drew you/draws you to macro over other types of photography?

4. Can someone be a good macro photographer with less expensive equipment?

[RobAmy]

1. Whats your favorite subject?
2. Whats is your toughest subject that has eluded you ( mine is a hummingbird moth)

[LordV]

Originally Posted by RobAmy

1. Whats your favorite subject?
2. Whats is your toughest subject that has eluded you ( mine is a hummingbird moth)

Hi Rob.
Difficult to answer the first but for some reason I love wasps especially the small parasitic ones.

#2 A decent shot of a hawker dragonfly in flight or a damsel fly for that matter. Have just about managed some common darter dragonflies.

Brian V.

[LordV]

Originally Posted by JDArt

1. What are your best tips for starting out in macro photography?

2. Who are your favorite macro photographers?

3. What drew you/draws you to macro over other types of photography?

4. Can someone be a good macro photographer with less expensive equipment?

Start with the easy questions

1. Practice a lot.
2. No particular ones but I tend like macro-shooters with a different style to my own.
3. I've always had a fascination for small bugs- I'm a PhD Microbiologist - also links with my interest in gardening and what's going on. I suspect the main thing though is the strangeness/ beauty you can find in your own garden. In some ways it's an easy way to get WOW factor shots.
4. Yes you can do very good macros with a P&S camera especially with some of the close-up adapters available. You also do not necessarily need an expensive macro lens with a DSLR. I spent a month shooting with an old pentax 50mm lens on a set of pentax fit ext tubes cobbled to a canon fit modded Tmount and got the best macro shots I'd achieved upto that point- took me a while to realise it was because I was shooting at 1.5:1.
You can also use other fairly cheap methods with a DSLR. see
Flickr: Macro Viewers

Brian V.

[LordV]

Originally Posted by RobAmy

I will play too

1. Do you use a micro rail
2. Do you prefer tubes over extenders, do you use both in conjunction
3. Do you use twin flash rigs, are they diffused or not

1. very rarely- I have got one and used it for a while when I first started doing focus stacking. But I rarely use tripods and can do the stack shots handheld.

2. I'm not a fan of Teleconverters for macro, you definitely lose IQ compared to extension tubes. However I can see a use if you are really having triuble getting close to a bug. I have also used one experimentally on my MPE-65 with a reversed 50mm on the front to get to 10:1 magnification- extension tubes do very little on an MPE-65 lens

3. No I don't use twin flashes- I don't like the normal macro flash setups that fit onto the end of the lens as they are virtually impossible to diffuse. The twin head setups are better as you can diffuse them but you then need to operate them at fairly uneven power ration (4:1 or above) to stop getting flat even illumination. If I was taking pics of stamps they would be ideal . But the main reason I've never invested in a twin head setup is linked to my style of shooting- I'm a handheld hunter and often end up with the camera in the middle of a bush- I find that can be difficult with a single flash with a diffuser but suspect it would be nearly impossible with a twin head job. You also have to watch shadowing the bugs (tends to scare them off) which would be more difficult with twin heads. I think if I was a fixed tripod shooter it might be different.
brian V.

[LordV]

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?

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.

[JimAuburn]

1. As a macro photographer, are you always after more megapixels? More megapixels means greater detail, I assume?
2. Do you prefer studio macro photography to natural light?
3. What subjects do you consider under-photographed in macro? Over-photographed?
4. What do you do when you find yourself in a rut?

[LordV]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

Glad to see you here Brian. I'd love to hear and see some the devices you employ to keep your rig steady, while chasing bugs and other critters in the garden. While you're at it, how about some basic light modifiers that work well with 1:1 or better type macros.

Hi

My bean pole for stabilising the camera - the cat is optional.



My coca-cola can flash diffuser
Flickr: Macro Viewers

There are various equipment pics here
Equipment Pics - a photoset on Flickr

but another reflector diffuser I use for a camera mounted flash often with my 105mm lens just made from a folded sheet of a4 paper with a couple of slots and bent and taped. A strap made from duct tape stuck to itself (not the flash) to fit on the flash.