Need Macro Photo Advice

[madkasel 0]

Help!

 

I shot my mouth off to the wife again while near expensive things.

 

This has happened before, generally with things made of wood, and I've always been able to cover myself. Note the lovely walnut and cherry blanket chest I made.

 

 

 

This time we were looking at art for the redecorated bedroom, and my wife is enamored with large prints of close up shots of flowers against a black background.

 

So, I said something to the effect of: All we need is a tripod for our camera, some black blankets or posterboard for a background and for me to move some lighting around and I can get some great pics of flowers out of your garden (she has amazing flower gardens) that we can matte and frame.

 

I can't recall if I said that I would make the frames, though I'll bet I did. Moron. I think she would like square photos with a final photo dimension of about 12 X 12. Frame and matting would extend out from that.

 

I have a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera with a very nice macro photo capability, as evidenced by this photo I took of a bluegill double bunny.

 

 

The camera is 5.1 Megapixel, I think... if I'm wrong about that, I'll post here and correct myself. Here's a link to the camera... this looks exactly like mine, though I don't believe mine is 7+ megapixels.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007S8C7...9024757?ie=UTF8

 

 

My basic plan is this:

 

Find a bench or table somewhere up against a wall. Probably use my tying bench.

 

Drape said table and surrounding walls with either a black sheet or black cardstock. (preference?)

 

Set flower on table in narrow mouthed vase.

 

Set various shop lights up and around the flower to get light coming in from different angles.

 

Set camera on tripod, use macro mode. A tip I already got off this forum is to use the timer to take the pic so I don't shift the camera while pushing the button.

 

Crop on the computer and have printed in large size.

 

 

Am I on the right track?

 

Does black work, or is it tough to work with? Is there a better neutral background color? I don't want to have to pitch the pics because she repaints the walls a new color.

 

Do macro photos work best if you zoom in close and have the camera back, or if you have the zoom wide out and have the camera closer?

 

Any suggestions for a good, inexpensive tripod?

 

Any other advice?

 

 

Once I figure it out, I plan to use the same setup to get good shots of flies... especially to frame up some of my son's favorites that he's tied. He'll love that.

 

 

Thanks all!!!

[day5 0]

Yep sounds like a good plan. Id try to adjust the lighting and distanceof the object form the back ground a few times. and take as many shots as you can!! Digital film is cheap!!!!

[Graham 0]

I agree with Day5, the distance to the background is worth experimenting with. Using a flash with a relatively distant background can give you a black background. Perhaps a larger f/stop (lower number) would keep the depth of field reduced and prevent exposing the background. If you make a black background, try and use felt, or something that will not reflect light.

[Graham 0]

madkasel,

 

I forgot to mention, FANTASTIC looking wooden chest you made, I'm drooling on my keyboard.

[madkasel 0]

Thanks for the advice and for the kudos on the chest. I think we have some black felt leftover from a bat costume! I at least know now that I'm on the right track to get the pics done... all that's left is setting it up and playing around with settings and lighting!

 

I have to get some better pics of the chest... the room itself looks better now and the cherry has aged wonderfully in just the few years since I made it. Can't see the top in the one picture I have, either. It's all mortise and tenon joinery. Not a nail in it!

 

 

[kargen 0]

If you use felt or some other material for your background that has a texture to it make sure the background is far enough away from the flowers so it is out of focus. Otherwise the texture may show. Be sure your camera is reading the flower for exposure. If the black background is to prominant the camera will try to turn it grey making the colors in your flower was out. You can easily over ride the settings on your camera to compensate for the exposure.

Try to stay away from direct flash if you can. I like to put a light source to one side slightly in front and shine it through a thin white cloth or plastic material. Doing that will really difuse the light giving it a soft look. On the oppostie side put a white card that will reflect light back towards the flower. You can move the card closer or farther away from the flower to control how dark the shadows will be. If you need you can bounce a 2nd light into the card and onto the flower. Light works like a pool ball on the table with no english. It will bounce off the card at the same angle it hits the card. You can also place a white card just below the lens of your camera to bounce light straight into the flower. It doesn't need much so the spill from the other lights should be enough. You can tilt this card back and forth and see how it changes things. All this should give you a nice soft light. If you decide you want more shadows you can use a black card to one side. It will act to absorb some light from the flower on the side nearest the card.

 

If you are lucky enough to have a garage or a covered patio that has a large opening to the north you can take advantage of that. Get basically anything large and white that you can find. Bounce the sunlight into the garage and you will have a really nice light. It is just a matter of placing the flower and camera to take advantage of the light. Again you can bounce more light to one side with a card if you need.

 

I really like bouncing light off of cards and onto the subject instead of pointing the light at what I am shooting. Just moving the cards can give you all kinds of different feels and it is much easier than moving lights around.

[madkasel 0]

Thanks for the advice, kargen. I am definitely going to give your card trick a try. Seems very interesting.

 

I started reading the manual to my camera and it has A LOT more capabilities than I first thought. Wow.

 

Can't wait to play around with them.

 

 

[Graham 0]

Hi kargen,

 

You have some very interesting technique suggestions, thanks for sharing. I'm wondering if you have tried using gold and/or silver reflectors as well as white cards? The long list of things I want to play and experiment with seems to grow longer.....

 

Graham

[kargen 0]

 

You have some very interesting technique suggestions, thanks for sharing. I'm wondering if you have tried using gold and/or silver reflectors as well as white cards? The long list of things I want to play and experiment with seems to grow longer.....

 

Graham

 

Yeah I worked for several years doing catalog photography. Used to do a lot of the toys for the JC Pennys catalog. Silver cards reflect more light into your subject than a white card will. It isn't as soft a light. I used to use very small silver cards to reflect some light on the tires of RC cars to give some detail to the black and not over light the rest of the car. Silver is good for really dark subjects because it does reflect so much light back.

Gold is great for portraits of people. It also works with some other things. Gold kind of simulates evening light giving that really warm glow. If you are worried about keeping colors original don't use gold cards, but if you like a warm feel to the photo gold cards may be a way to go.

 

I used to have a good size chunk of what was a white parachute. Using that I could almost make a small tent around what I was shooting and shine lights through the cloth. For really shiny object that act like mirrors that cloth came in real handy.

[Sturgeon_Catcher 0]

Hey Kargen....

To employ a flash for daylight photos of flowers is an excellent idea. I have employed this technique for years. The flash destroys the background. I took a picture of a Vine Maple bloom. Took me 5 years to get the picture I wanted. The bloom is short lived and the wind was a booger.

 

The background has splotches of color like a surrealistic painting. There is no rhyme nor reason why my photo has purples and blues and violets. I wasn't aware the shading was anything of that value.

 

While visiting Madkassel, Hey Madkassel...... we tried to get his digital to flash in daylight and couldn't bring it off. Back to the manual.

 

A suggestion. Go to a pawn shop and buy an older electronic flash. Next to a photo supply and buy a hot foot with a photoelectric cell. Make sure that the cell is visible to your digital. Pop the flash on your digital and the electronic will fire at the same time. They needn't be wired together. Do set it on a tripod (cheapie again from the pawn shop...the flash doesn't weigh anything - therefore anything will work as long as it is high enough). Play with the positioning of the flash with multiple shots. The advantage you have over my learning curve is that digital is free.

 

One more thought ...the slower the film the more detail. Manually set the ISO on your digital to 100 or less. This will help with graininess in blowups and provide a finer detailed emulsion to goof with the background. By the way I have set up as many as 4 flashes by slaving 3 to the photo cell and another at my camera. Yep, I pack four flashes in my bag as well as a ring flash. A ring flash was used primarily by doctors as it is a flash that mounts to the front of the lense and encircles the lense. This provides a directional ability as the light comes directly from the lense rather than a handle or the top of the camera.

 

Hope this helps. Too much fun to play in this regard. I would do set ups like this that took easily an hour then would burn 24 exposures. Run to the photo shop and get them developed. Employed the best lab available. The lady I gardened for paid for my film and developing......too cool no???

 

At this date I leave specific instructions...and watch that they are posted...to insure that no adjustments are made to my roll film shots whatsoever.

 

later

Fred

 

when I get home will do some digital shots of some setups if you gentlemen would like.

[kargen 0]

Yeah when wind is a problem flash is the way to go. Even with flash I like to really soften the light though for something like flowers. I have Speedatron brownline system I bought long ago. Has three heads and various umbrellas and lightboxes for diffusing the light. Also has some cones so I can direct a harsh flash into a small area. I got that little system a long time ago and would go to grooming salons and do pet portraits. Made a killing. It is amazing what people will spend on thier pets!

I also have access to several of the blackline Speedatron light packs and about any accessory I could ever want. Went to college for photography with a guy that is one of the best food photographers in the country and still work with him on occassion.

http://www.dpatrick.com/ that is his site if you want to take a peak at some really nice studio stuff.

 

When using a flash you can use cards just like with hot lights. You just have to kind of visualize what the cards will do. Of course with digital you can just pop off a shot and see for sure. Even though I have several flashes available I am one of those people that think every light added is a problem added. Sometimes though the one problem added takes care of other multiple problems that cards just can't quite handle.

 

Where do you position your flashes when shooting flowers? I like to have the flash slightly behind if I can and bounce light back into the front. If using two flashes I like to put the main flash in back to one side and the other flash opposite side in front and slightly higher than the back flash. Doesn't work for all flowers, depends on petals, leaves all that fun stuff. Basically I try to get the shadows all going the same direction and to be so soft that they are not noticed right away. I want some shadow, just don't want it to stand out.

 

A ring flash is something I have been wanting for a while now. I just never seem to actually get it. Always seems to be some other toy catch my eye first.

 

I'll have to go through my slides and see if I can find some shots I've done with different lighting. I just got a new scanner and should be scanning my wildlife shots anyway. I'm making the change to all digital and part of that proccess is editing and scanning several years worth of slides.

 

[Graham 0]

I found a praying mantis this morning, but taking pics outside sure is hard when there is a breeze. So I brought it to my tying desk to try a macro shot. Well, before I could get the lighting right, it flew out the door.. One pic posted below.