Photographing Flies

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi group,

 

In the past I've suspended a fly on a wire to photograph out of the vise then Clones out the wire. Do any of you have another method of doing so? Maybe on glass? Your thoughts please. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[Guest]

Al, I have often wondered the same thing. The wire trick is the only thing I could come up with as well. Using wire it seems difficult to get the fly positioned exactly how you want it.

 

If you ever find a better way, please let me know!

[Extreme Stream 0]

I've never tried it but I would say get a tapletop tripod and try to photograph your fly on the vise that way. Add a white backround and perhaps have a lamp for extra lighting then set your camera to macro mode and take lots of shots until you get one that turns out okay.

[Peterjay 0]

Don't know if this will help, since I'm not sure what kind of effect you're looking for, but I often use a bed of contrasting combed craft fur to photograph salt water patterns for my reference file. (I need one since my memory went south a while back) I'd bet some type of carpet material would work for the smaller stuff, or even tile squares. If you don't like the background, you can always photoshop it out. I like Al's idea of using glass if the glare/reflections can be overcome.

 

 

 

[Fishigan 0]

How does Ronn Lucas do it?

[Hardyhead 0]

 

 

In the past I have used small headed pins, I take a hook of the same size and place the pins in some foam so that the hook will balance on them, 1 at the barb, 1 at the tag area, and 1 near the head. Then I put the real fly on their, and shoot from a camera mounted straight down looking at the fly, if your lighting is good and the camera is at a 90 degree angle to the foam, you should get no shadows from the pins, and no shadow from the fly.

 

The trick with the lighting is to light from 'below' and 'above' the fly, cancelling the shadows that would form. This method can be a huge pain, but I have had some good success with it. This method is difficult with small flies.

 

The other option I have used is a strong magnet underneath the body section of the wing. I have a post magnet which works well for this, took a while to find, but I can usually hold the fly in one position just suspended over some foam so that the hackles do not touch. This works better with small flies if the body/wings are big enough to hide the magnet.

 

Anyone else have a good method for this?

[Soft-hackle 0]

Hi Al,

First, it depends on how good your macro feature is. If it's good, set the fly on its side on a flat surface and shoot it from above using a tripod. If you shoot on a glass with a background behind it, you are really going to have to control the lighting to prevent reflections. The only other method I know of is using a photo tent or cone. The cone is made of plastic so light can shine through it. It is open on both ends. The top end is just big enough to fit the lens of your camera in and the distance from the object to the lens must be adjusted to get the correct size and clarity for your camera. The fly is placed flat on a table. The cone is placed over it with lights shinning through to illuminate the fly. Then the camera is place in the smaller hole, focused and used to take the photo.

[Alex C. 0]

I've always wanted to play with a strong magnet behind a piece of posterboard or something.

[Soft-hackle 0]

Al,

Maybe this will give you some ideas.

 

Photo Table

[chrisfish 0]

I like placing the fly flat on a peice of fur or feather like peterjay has shown.

 

but i am going to have to experiment with the magnet idea AlexC, that is great!!

[Soft-hackle 0]

Alex,

The magnet idea sounds great, but I think it'd crush any dry fly hackles against the posterboard.

 

Good idea for wets, streamers and nymphs perhaps.

 

Mark

[Macsflytying 0]

I have tried melting a piece of monofilament on the point of the hook and used a white background and played with the light until I got it right. also I used a ice fishing weight with the little clamp on it to hold the monofilament.

Hope this helps!

 

Josh MacDonald

[flyDology 0]

Al,

though I have not done it for any of my recent posts to the forum. I have in the past, placed my flies on a photographers light box, this allowed the light to penetrate from behind, illuminating the feathers from within, giving a remarkable glow. This works better with the 2d flies like classic salmon and steelhead better than trout flies, but worth a shot anyway.

 

[Al Beatty 0]

Thanks guys for all your ideas. Now it's time to do some testing.

 

Tight Lines - Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com