Playing with new lighting technique.

[xerubus]

Hi all,

Thought I would have a bit of a play with lighting my shots differently. Here's some results. C&C would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy.

Look over there!


Weed.


Hibiscus


Peak Hour


I really wanted to capture the top lady bug about 3/4 along the leaf with the bottom one where it is, but no matter how many times they went backwards and forwards, they just didn't want to play a game of composition with me.

cheers

-Mark

[Killakoala]

Mark, they are great images. Tack sharp, colour is lovely and your composition is marvellous. I really like the last one with the lady bugs. They look great like that.

[big pix]

2 & 3 are outstanding for me........... where was your wip and chair for the lady bugs....... keep up the great work

[xerubus]

Thanks for the feedback Steve and BP.. really appreciate it.

Steve... I'm not as happy as I was hoping to be with the ladybug shot. I wasted frame after frame trying to get the composition a bit different, but alas they didn't want to play.

BP... something new for me. I'm not a flower type of person, but I've seen some very outstanding flora shots around the place and decided I would start having a crack at it.

Thanks again.

Cheers

-Mark

[libertyterran]

Hi Mark, would you mind telling us how did you arrange the lighting for all these shots, i.e. number of flash, angle, etc... Thanks a lots, very impressive marco!

[xerubus]

No problems at all libertyterran.

Single sb600 off camera with a home made snoot. The snoot has a home made diffuser on the end of it from a fishing tackle tray divider. Very grungy stuff. The sb600 and snoot are placed onto a monopod, and directed as needed. The first few shots were shot from directly above at a distance of around 1 meter. The last shot was slightly to the left of the camera, but a lot closer than the others.. perhaps 5 inches from the subject. A very primitive reflector was also used with the last shot, slightly to the right and almost parallel to the subject. Unfortunately the last one did not work as well as expected as you can see from the harsh blown highlights on the shell/wing covers.

[marcotrov]

Excellent nature macros mark. You have nailed the focus and exposure in all.
cheers
marco

[xerubus]

Thankyou marco.. appreciate the feedback.

[libertyterran]

No problems at all libertyterran.

Single sb600 off camera with a home made snoot. The snoot has a home made diffuser on the end of it from a fishing tackle tray divider. Very grungy stuff. The sb600 and snoot are placed onto a monopod, and directed as needed. The first few shots were shot from directly above at a distance of around 1 meter. The last shot was slightly to the left of the camera, but a lot closer than the others.. perhaps 5 inches from the subject. A very primitive reflector was also used with the last shot, slightly to the right and almost parallel to the subject. Unfortunately the last one did not work as well as expected as you can see from the harsh blown highlights on the shell/wing covers.

Thanks Mark,

I've googled around and found this.


Does this look similar to your setup (with the diffuser on one end of the snoot)?

Cheers,
Quang

[xerubus]

Almost. My snoot is longer and narrow quite a bit. Just like a snoot on a studio flash.

[gstark]

Mark,

I love the fourth. The concept is wonderful, and it appeals to my sense of humour.

As to the difficulty in getting the ladybugs to cooperate ... they can be so cantankerous at times, can't they?

I hope you got a signed model release from them

[gstark]

My snoot is longer

Typical bloody Nikon owner. Always boasting about the length of his snoot!

[xerubus]

Thanks Gary

Must admit.. my snoot isn't as long as it used to be when I was dabbling in fashion photography

[Viz]

That hibiscus one really rocks, I was quite puzzled as to what it actually was. You could have attached near any title and I would have believed it.

[xerubus]

Cheers Viz. I think the technical term is those little fuzzy bits at the end of the long pointy bit. That's right isn't it Rel?

[Viz]

Yeah, I thought that it was a dry ,terrestrial version of something aquatic...

[zafra52]

I like all of them. Lovely colours, sharpness, and composition.

[xerubus]

thankyou zafra52.

[rflower]

Hi xerubus.

Great shots. Nice and sharp with the focus. I have just got a tamron 90 mm myself, and really need to start playing with it. Was your flash on a cable, or fired wirelessly from the onboard flash? Do you remember what settings the flash was on? (ttl, manual etc)

[xerubus]

Hi Russell.

I used the on board flash in commander mode, and the sb600 was fired remotely. In remote mode, the flash is set to manual, which is default I believe when wireless.

The important part was to put a little diffuser over the on board flash to stop it from interfering with the shot.

Also.. I was shooting at f22 1/200th. ISO 200. I usually shoot ISO 100 for macro, but 200 seemed to help with my exposure using the flash remotely.