Macro Exercises #4 Lighting

Lord Vetinari

Lighting in macrophotography.
First a disclaimer - I'm certainly not an expert at this, I just know what seems to work for me .

I just want to cover normal outdoor shooting (ie doesn't include light boxes, light tables, studio setups etc).

1. Natural light.

Camera setup - ISO400/800, Tv or Av modes, On my 350D camera body I use -2/3rd EC. Try to keep the shutter speed above 1/160th without a tripod and remote and apertures F5.6 to F11.
Limitations.
a) I only like using natural light in bright but overcast conditions. Full sun tend to give shots with too high contrast and often bad reflections.
b) Normally only useable up to 1.5:1 magnification due to light availability.
c) Often hard to get very fine detail showing (such as compund eyes in bugs) due to the lowish contrast.
d) Low DOF due to often only getting largish apertures
Advantages.
a) Often get beautiful colouring and light

2. Flash

Two methods for using flash in macro.
a) Full flash with the camera in M mode ISO100/200 1/200th F8-F11 for 1:1 shots. Set FEC for optimum exposures. FEC needs to be changed depending on the background (upto +1.5 FEC over normal setting for very light backgrounds and upto - 1 FEC over normal settings for dark backgrounds )
b) Fill flash with camera in Av or Tv modes ISO 200/400 1/160th or higher F5.6 or smaller camera set to -2/3 EC.
I prefer using method a) but know many excellent macrophotographers that use method b).
With method a) when using 1.5:1 or less I try to balance the light if possible using ISO so that the picture would only be about 1 stop underexposed without flash. This actually gives an effect similar to method b) but with slightly more control over shutter speed or aperture.
Colour in flash shots is often warmer than natural light shots by upto 1000'C. You can cheat a bit by dropping the colour temperature during RAW processing to get nearly natural looking light.
Limitations of flash
a) Often get high contrast shots with dark backgrounds. This can normally be solved by using diffusers on the flash and having the flash diffuser as close to the end of the lens as possible. Dark backgrounds can be avoided by using the fill flash method (b) or a more balanced settings with method a) allowing more natural light plus choice of shooting angle so that there is some background within 6" of the subject.
Advantages
a) Essential for shooting at higher magnifications where there is just not enough light.
b) Balanced shooting or fill flash can give effects very similar to natural light when the natural light conditions are not optimal (eg very low light or suprisingly, in very bright conditions or backlight situations).


Exercise.

Try shooting the same subject with natural light, flash and fill flash and post 3 shots back here.


Example shots

First my camera rigs showing the flash/diffuser setups. One is a 350D with a sigma flash, sigma 105mm Ex with 33mm of ext tubes. The other is a 20D with an MPE-65 and 430Ex flash. Both have modded flash brackets



#1a Soldier fly flash



#1b Soldier fly Natural light (cloudy)



#2a Soldier fly Natural light (cloudy)



#2b Soldier fly Natural light (bright sun)



#3a Large hoverfly full flash



#3b Large hoverfly fill flash



#3c Large hoverfly Natural light

Dalantech

Beautiful images Brian and a very well written tutorial! :cool

You hit on one of my bad habits -not adjusting the flash to suite the background color. More often than not I just try to get close and adjust the shot in post -looks like I've got some experimenting to do...

One other advantage to using flash only -the burst of light from the flash is actually your shutter speed, since the scene would be completely dark without it. I turn to shooting full manual and at least 2 stops under exposed on windy days just so I can use the flash to freeze the subject.

Given the choice I'd much rather use natural light -I find that it's impossible to get the same color and contrast with a flash even with a lot of post processing.

Lord Vetinari

Dalantech wrote:

Beautiful images Brian and a very well written tutorial! :cool

You hit on one of my bad habits -not adjusting the flash to suite the background color. More often than not I just try to get close and adjust the shot in post -looks like I've got some experimenting to do...

One other advantage to using flash only -the burst of light from the flash is actually your shutter speed, since the scene would be completely dark without it. I turn to shooting full manual and at least 2 stops under exposed on windy days just so I can use the flash to freeze the subject.

Given the choice I'd much rather use natural light -I find that it's impossible to get the same color and contrast with a flash even with a lot of post processing.

Thanks John
Quite right about flash helping to freeze motion- forgot to mention that

I had to start looking at FEC changes in shots possibly because some of my shots are taken on unnatural objects- eg my car, white sun chairs and black water barrel lids- they really tend to show the need to play with FEC depending on background. I also have to use it on bright flower backgrounds.

brian V.

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Lighting in macrophotography.
First a disclaimer - I'm certainly not an expert at this, I just know what seems to work for me .

I just want to cover normal outdoor shooting (ie doesn't include light boxes, light tables, studio setups etc).

Wow Brian you can clearly see the difference in each of these shots.
Great Tutorial .... can you send me a bug to try this out on hahaha!

Before moving onto a DSLR, I always feared Flash photography, but with my interest in Macro, and wanting to get closer and closer, meant I had to learn how to use a flash.

Most often the bug or insect I was trying to photograph was not sitting in direct sunlight, and when your lens is within an inch of the subject you block out even more light with your own gear.

This is a great tutorial, thank you again for writting it .. Skippy
.

tlee

Brian, thank you so much for taking the time to post these tutorials. I am learning a lot!

snapapple

Wow! I'm afraid of flash myself. I try to use natural light if at all possible. You really know what you are doing. Thanks for the pointers.

Lord Vetinari

snapapple wrote:

Wow! I'm afraid of flash myself. I try to use natural light if at all possible. You really know what you are doing. Thanks for the pointers.

Shouldn't be afraid of flash especially for macro shots. It just allows shots not always possible with natural light. Certainly worth trying.
As you can see from the example shots, strong natural light is not necessarily nice for macro shots.
Brian V.

scottV

what exactly did you use to make the diffusers?.. are those paper towels on the front?

Lord Vetinari

f00sion wrote:

what exactly did you use to make the diffusers?.. are those paper towels on the front?

Yes that's just kitchen paper roll on the front.
Details of the diffuser here
http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/72157594312315664/

Brian V.

Phil_L

Comparisons different lighting
First photo in natural light f11, ss 1/40 sec. Tripod.
Sunlit from the left





Full flash exposure with on camera flash in commander mode and hot shoe flash SB800 as slave. F11, ss 1/200, tripod.

Slave flash hand held to the left of the flower.






Pictures below use full flash exposure with Nikons close up flash system.







Same as above but with teh addition of the SB00 as a third flash held under the flower on the right hand side.



FWIW picture nr 2 has the most interesting lighting IMO.

Oddly enough the addition of a third flash only produced marginal changes in picture 4.

Pic 3&4 look a bit flat??

Note the darkening of the background with the flash shots due to the short SS.

Sorry for the miserable subject for this test; bugs won't sit still but I could have chosen a better flower.

No fill flash pictures, but since the flash calculation distance comes from the camera, which is probably closer to the flower than the slave in pic nr 2, there is a negative EV compensation in there.

Lord Vetinari

Good tests Phil.
One of the problems with macro flash dual setups is that they can produce flat looking shots unless either the power ratio is varied (normally about 4:1) for equal position heads or the angle or distance of the heads is varied from the subject.
Dalantech here is much more clued up on on these dual head systems than I am (I don't use them (yet...) ).

Interesting there is not much colour temperature differences between the shots.

Brian V.

Phil_L

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Good tests Phil.
One of the problems with macro flash dual setups is that they can produce flat looking shots unless either the power ratio is varied (normally about 4:1) for equal position heads or the angle or distance of the heads is varied from the subject.
Dalantech here is much more clued up on on these dual head systems than I am (I don't use them (yet...) ).

Interesting there is not much colour temperature differences between the shots.

Brian V.

Thanks Brian!:D

Will try different power ratios asap.
Not up to speed with the flashes yet.

My camera's handling of WB is a bit odd so I generally use an Expodisc or WhiBal card, but the setting here is the same for all pics, ~5150 degK???

Lord Vetinari

Phil_L wrote:

My camera's handling of WB is a bit odd so I generally use an Expodisc or WhiBal card, but the setting here is the same for all pics, ~5150 degK???

Ah that would explain it- normally flash shots come out about 1000'c warmer than natural light shots if you just use AWB.

Brian V.

fatheroftwo

Never be afraid of flash, but like everything else in photography you will receive dividends if you invest your time in learning how to get the most from flash.

Here are two images of an Alstroemeria - the first taken with flash and the second with natural light coming through a very large window and using a white reflector to open the shadows on the other side. The different lighting methods produce very different styles even with the same kind of flower. Personally I love working with flash and adore the results that flash can produce:

Lord Vetinari

Father of two - have to admit I like both the shots. Excellent isolation form the flash shot but lovely light in the second.
brian V.

stevehapp

I did the exercise. I do not have an offboard flash unit yet, so I am using a homemade softbox made out of a yogurt container on the onboard flash.
So here are my shots.

1. Natural lighting, about 3pm.

f/11, 1/200, iso400 , manual mode.

2. With flash.

f/11, 1/200, iso300, onboard flash with diffuser.

The onboard flash is less than ideal and i get specular highlights on shiny objects. I am torn between natural light and flash lighting. I think i need to learn how to use flash properly..

thanks for the exercise, brian, muchly appreciated.
steve