Quick and Easy Location Macro Setup
Australian photographer Neil Creek dropped this macro shot of a fossilized shrimp into the pool over the weekend, and included what I thought was a pretty neat lighting scheme in the setup shot.He used two speedlights and two small sheets of paper. Take a minute to figure out how you would do it, them make the jump for the setup shot.
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Using two lights on the table, he simply made a couple of semicircles out of two half sheets of paper, making the hard, low light of the flash soft but still directional. This creates a nice, even zone of light in which to wander around with his macro lens and take a mapped-out series of photos for stitching together later.
He didn't say, but I suspect that the work light is merely there to help him focus, and was likely not much (if any) of a contribution to the final image. (Up close, flash is extremely powerful, and the lamp is easy to totally overpower.)This setup is worth noting because it is something you can do on location with found objects. Just lay the flash on the tabe and surround your subject with the curved strips of paper. Very nice to know. (Thanks, Neil.)
Click on the setup photo for more info on the gear used. The final photo is a pieced-together, 225-meg(!) macro panorama. Check out the results via Neil's blog.
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Posted at 12:40 AM.
8 Comments:
Hi Strobist, thanks for the kind words and the link!
You are correct, the desk lamp contributed nothing to the lighting for the shot. The main reason for it was to provide enough illumination to see the subject through the viewfinder in order to know how far to move it between each shot for the panorama.
In my post about my macro extension tubes I discussed the problem with using el-cheapo ones: no control of the lens via the camera. I was shooting at f22 to make sure the depth of field included all of the undulations on the surface of the subject. However in order to keep the lens at f22, I have to do the trick of removing the lens with the DOF preview button pressed. This of course means the viewfinder is VERY dark. Even with the desk lamp that close it was very hard to see anything at all.
One day I'll get proper Canon extension tubes which will presumably allow aperture control, and viewfinder preview fully open.
I'm happy to answer any other questions strobist readers may have! My blog has more details, as well as info on my other lighting experiments (excuse the plug ;) ).
The jessops extension tubes, allow you total control of the lens, they are easy to find in britain and not too expensive, cheaper than kenko ones. they come in three sizes.
Very nice, genius ghetto-lightbox-on-the-move.
You might want to consider the Kenko tubes, they have full comp ability with EF lenses and cost a fraction (OK, like half) the cost of Canon. The air inside is said to be of almost equal quality! =)
Very cool,
I was thinking Neil used some special macro lens, but then I saw he used the same Tamron 24-135 that I have.
I never would have thought of using that lens for something like this. Maybe it's time to invest in a set of extension tubes.
Neil, did you slide the fossil AND backing paper between shots (with the semi-circular paper re-positioned each shot) or did you actually move only the fossil, leaving the lighting rings undisturbed?
my god!what is this?
Do you plan on blowing it up to an incredible size? If so, how large?
Anonymous, David - Thanks for the alternative brand suggestions! There's nothing like experienced knowledge to set you in the right direction :) I'll definately check out those two alternatives.
chadw - The Tamron 24-135 is already a pretty good wannabe-macro lens, focusing down to 1:3. It's a natural candidate for extension.
js - I moved the whole kit and kaboodle. Moving the fossil only would have been tricky, as there was very little clearance under the lens, and I'd be reaching over and likely disturbing the paper diffuser. By sliding around the white card, I could move it easily while looking through the viewfinder and keeping everything in place.
beautiful girl - I wish I could identify the shrimp, but it was sold to my father without any information. All I know is what is obvious, and the fact that it's very likely many tens of millions of yerars old. It certainly does put a perspective on things when you're holding it in your hands!
swandogger - Hmm that could be interesting! Well lets to the sums: it's 15000x15000 pixels, so printing at a photo book quality 300dpi, that would be 50 inches square or 1.24m square. About the size of a card table!
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