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Lynn Scott's
Lepidoptera Index |
Lighting Subjects for Digital Macro PhotographyWhen doing close-up photography of inanimate objects, it's easy to set up and adjust one or more lights to achieve a variety of interesting effects. Keeping the camera in a constant position by using a tripod is beneficial as well. To give a flatter effect, you might use very diffuse lighting, such as the light from a north-facing window for those of us north of the equator, the opposite holds true for those in the southern hemisphere. For objects with shiny, flat surfaces like gemstones or cut glass, multiple small light sources can be used, each positioned to provide specular reflections from the desired flat surfaces. When heat is an issue (such as with living creatures), a fiber-optics light source can be used to great advantage. When chasing a live insect or other similar tiny insect up a wall, sheet or tree at night, lighting becomes more of compromise issue, because various preferred angular relationships of subject lighting cannot always be achieved. However, flash photography provides good color rendition, freezes any excessive motion, and provides great lighting to allow use of aperture priority, to provide a suitable depth of field. The simplest and easiest flash arrangement is to use the camera's built-in flash to light the subject. (Note: there are a very few high-end cameras which do not include a built-in flash. Unless such a camera is to be relegated to a full-time studio setting, do always purchase a camera with a built-in flash — the capability makes unplanned, truly ad hoc photography a real possibility, and easy to do!) Very many cameras with built-in flash, however, present a problem for macro photography, in that the built-in flash is not physically placed high enough above the lens' center axis. Consequently, when using the built-in flash, a shadow of the lens is cast on the subject, providing only partial lighting of the subject. When you have the need to improve the flash lighting for your macro photography, the best results are obtained when using what is known as a ring- or macro-flash unit. We discussed the effective Sigma EM-140DG in the earlier lighting section. Many of nature's creatures, and especially moths and butterflies, have wings covered with innumerable tiny scales and/or hairs that under some circumstances reflect the flashes light back at the camera just like tiny mirrors, losing the actual color of the wing in the process. Fortunately, changing the angle between the camera and the insect or other subject, and re-photographing can mitigate this "shine" effect. The same is true when photographing many man-made objects. |
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