Flies, Berry Hyacinth and a Spider

IPClark

Was out in the garden again today. Swarming around a marvellous dollop of cat sh... were these little monsters. Wouldn't keep still for more than half a second so got what I could.

Frustrating blade of grass in the way but macro ain't no piece of cake (or cak whichever way you look at it ). Fortunately, there is no cat muck in these pictures

1/200 @ F10, ISO 100. 2 x Ext. Tubes on and big ass diffuser on the front.


1/200 @ F10, ISO 100. 2 x Ext. Tubes on



Now for something a lot more pretty. Berry Hyacinths

1/200 @ F10, ISO 100. 2 x Ext. Tubes on Flash diffused.



Back to something less pretty than the Hyacinth. This little monster was one of tens of spiders that were running all over the place at the back of the garden. This one stopped for a very brief moment before disappearing from the view finder and nowhere to be seen.

1/200 @ F10, ISO 100. 2 x Ext. Tubes on Flash diffused.



....and a slight crop

Lord Vetinari

Lovely series Ian
Appropriately enough dung flies.
The spiders are wolf spiders.
Brian V.

IPClark

Cheers Brian.

The Wolf spiders are crazy quick but in abundance for sure

Bend The Light

Love the spider shots. I like all these images - I like the clear bright colours - this is what I am struggling with at the moment...I get close enough, and sharp enough, but whe I do I get noisy and often dull images...perhaps it's the flash...

You have it sussed, though.

IPClark

Thank you

Often it will depend on your flash setup. We'd all agree that light is the most important thing in photography. Goes without saying I guess .

I've learned a lot from the likes of Brian, Paul Iddon and Phil (Goldenorfe). Now, although my diffusion set up is quite big, it works a hell of a lot better than my previous set up which was a little sto-fen diffuser placed over the flash. I'll look to provide enough light to pick out the detail with minimal requirement for post process adjustment. However I'd much prefer to under-expose than over-expose as it's impossible to recover blown out highlights.

The colour is picked up by the camera and so long as it's not washed out by to harsh a light, can be refined using the curves adjustments and if necessary saturation and colour temp adjustments. I know for these images, they were a touch warm (too much yellow/orange) so I reduced the colour temp a little in Lightroom to take away that orangey look.

If you do need to increase the overall brightness I find tiny adjustments of exposure and brightness sliders combined with the Highlights/lights/darks/shadows sliders (the latter are the curves adjustments) bring a dull image to life.

If you're shooting RAW, remember that RAW by default is quite dull and lifeless. Allows for flexibility.

Bend The Light

IPClark wrote: »

Thank you

Often it will depend on your flash setup. We'd all agree that light is the most important thing in photography. Goes without saying I guess .

I've learned a lot from the likes of Brian, Paul Iddon and Phil (Goldenorfe). Now, although my diffusion set up is quite big, it works a hell of a lot better than my previous set up which was a little sto-fen diffuser placed over the flash. I'll look to provide enough light to pick out the detail with minimal requirement for post process adjustment. However I'd much prefer to under-expose than over-expose as it's impossible to recover blown out highlights.

The colour is picked up by the camera and so long as it's not washed out by to harsh a light, can be refined using the curves adjustments and if necessary saturation and colour temp adjustments. I know for these images, they were a touch warm (too much yellow/orange) so I reduced the colour temp a little in Lightroom to take away that orangey look.

If you do need to increase the overall brightness I find tiny adjustments of exposure and brightness sliders combined with the Highlights/lights/darks/shadows sliders (the latter are the curves adjustments) bring a dull image to life.

If you're shooting RAW, remember that RAW by default is quite dull and lifeless. Allows for flexibility.

Yes, I keep looking at these same people, too...fantastic images that I aspire to, yours included.

I think, since I now have 2 or 3 weeks holiday from teaching, I will see about modifying my light set up...

Cheers

jpc

@ IPClark - How about a shot of your flash setup? I just bought an SB700 and I need to dress it up!

IPClark

Hi JPC. I have a Lastolite Ezybox Speedlite on a Canon Speedlite 430 EX II. This is my setup here.

jpc

Whoa! She's a big one! This would be nice as it could double for use with portraits, but I think I need to find something a little smaller.

Thanks for sharing.