Bugs by the river

pinarello65 · February 19, 2014

I think this might be my first image post on Dgrin although joined the forums a while ago. So here goes...some of you may remember my nick from FM forums, as I recognise yours.

Currently I have 3 macro lenses, the Sigma 180mm f/2.8, Nikon 105 f/2.8 VR & Nikon 55mm AIS f/3.5
I shoot with a Nikon D800E.

These were D800E+180+just one SB-R200 mounted at front of lens on a ring & just using the diffuser cap they come with. I live right next to a river so can just walk out the back gate, down an embankment and I'm there. There is always something to shoot.

I'm interested in comments where I'm at with this. I shoot RAW, PP involves some initial tweaks in Lightroom on the white/black/exposure/highlights/shadows sliders & then typically I move to Photoshop. If I do any sharpening I use OnOne Plugin suite, quite often their progressive sharpening filter. Sometimes the dynamic contrast filter is useful too.

These were handheld @ around f/11, 1/320s, ISO100. I figure I need to do more with lighting & specifically diffusion. I've also got a SB-900 flash & 2 more SB-R200's. But with the SB-900 I'm lacking brackets (suggestions? And I will note I'm hopeless at home made things) to get it in a good position but I've got a couple of diffusers I can use with it, made by Lumiquest, the Promax kit and a larger Softbox.

This camera/lens combo is quite weighty so I sometimes pop a monopod on to give the arms a rest & use that to stabilise things. If I find my subject moves in a way requiring a monopod length adjustment, sometimes I'll just clamp the monopod between my legs instead. It's not as steady as when grounded but steadier than just hand holding.

Comments welcome.
Carl

Stumblebum · February 19, 2014

Brilliant! Very knowledgeable intro as well! Great job!

basflt · February 19, 2014

# i use two sb200's
although the sw11 diffusers are great , i only use them for real close ( around 1;1 or so )
for longer distance i use pager towel or bare flash

# 1/320 is way to slow
better you
- use faster shutterspeed , or
- shoot at 1/200 so that flash freezes motion
because ; above 1/200 you have fast-sync , wich not freezes motion

hope it helps

images above are nice , nothing wrong with IMO , although last one has a lousy background

pinarello65 · February 19, 2014

What angles do you use for the sbr200's? Using just one I placed it at 12 o'clock position, but generally with two I position them at 10 o'clock & 2 o'clock positions on the SX-1. The 180mm lens has an 82mm thread, so I got a 82-77mm step down adapter to allow me to mount the SX-1. I've not had this lens very long, but chances to use it have been limited due to an extreme heatwave immediately followed by some floods! The coming weekend looks ok for temperature. I hope its not too windy as that always makes subjects sitting on foliage that little bit harder to photograph.

Lord Vetinari · February 20, 2014

Lovely series of shots- light looks good.
With shots of larger bugs like this I would tend to just use natural light unless they were rather backlit where I might use a bit of fill flash.
As far as diffusers go I would have thought the lumiquest softbox would be fine.

Brian V.