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WYKnot

Glare

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Help:

 

I am having trouble taking pictures of a tying sequence that include metal wire. The lead-free wire is bright silver and I have not been able to eliminate glare/hotspots from the wire; this is particularly bad in the first photograph below, where the glare is adjacent to the black tying thread. I have adjusted lights, adjusted camera angle, added diffusers, softbox...nothing has been completely successful

 

Comments, tips, and solutions are most welcomed.

 

Note the uppermost wire mounted along the hook shank:

IPB Image

 

The finished nymph has similar hotspots along the black vinyl rib, subdued by an overhead softbox:

IPB Image

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Russ, this is way outside my area of expertise, but one solution to the wire problem might be to use lead wire for illustrative purposes only. Putting black thread next to brightly lit silver might just be too contrasty for a sensor to handle. You're probably going to have to sacrifice detail in one or the other. Actually, I like the effect on the vinyl ribbing; it really emphasizes the separation of the segments. Beautiful nymph BTW.

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I second what Peter says, with one additional suggestion. If your photo software has a feature that produces HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, you could shoot four or five shots of each step at different exposure levels and blend the shots in an HDR image. Check out Andrew's HDR shots in the Crater Lake thread.

 

John

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Thanks, to both of you, for the comments and suggestions. I had not realized how dull and grey lead wire was compared to the lead-free, right in front of my nose and I missed it. Neither have I tried the HDR approach, having assumed altering exposure would not affect glare from a metallic surface. A bit more experimentation is obviously in order.

 

By the way: I have found the book Light: Science and Magic by Paul Fuqua to be a very helpful lighting reference.

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Not sure this will help on something as small as a fly, but we used to spray metal surfaces with either dulling spray, hair spray or deoderant that left a powdery residue on the surface. Used it all the time on the spokes and rims of bicycles and stuff like that. Just a light spray would really knock the glare down.

It can also be sprayed on black surfaces where you lose detail to make it look lighter and like there is detail there. Doesn't take much. You might even have something laying amongst all your feathers and other goodies that could be applied to the wire to dull it some.

 

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I thought about using a matte spray, will have to do some spot testing. I tried pencil graphite and even a marking pen, the graphite left a residue and the marker was too dark. Deoderant....that is a novel idea. Thanks for the suggestions.

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I tried lead wire; added light from a white card below and silver bounce above. Getting closer to what I want, thanks again for the tips.

 

IPB Image

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Hi Russ,

 

I often use a "dodger" like we used to use in a wet dark room to reduce the amount of light that hits a certain part of a fly/item. Usually you can see the "glare points" through the view finder then I move the dodger around under the lights until it reduces/elimininates the glare. This trick is especially useful when photographing jewlry or other shinny stuff. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

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I spoke to a pro photographer friend and showed him this thread. The bounce card and dodging are the right approach. He has two other suggestions.

 

1. He noticed the background was very well and evenly lit. If this is a card and not a Photoshop add-in it may indicate a very strong light source even though it is diffused. The solution would be to move the lights back from the subject or use less powerful lights.

 

2. This is cool. Take a plastic milk jug and cut both ends off so that you can position the jug over the lens and over the fly. (Secure to lens as you see fit or hold it) You will have to cut a slit to slide the fly in and out of the jug but you want the fly completely in the "diffusion chamber". He does this with watches. It is worth a try.

 

Let us know how you make out.

 

 

-Dave

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Thanks for the comments Dave. I use a separate light for the background sweep, try to keep the same color/brightness with each photo in a tying sequence. The milk carton light box sounds interesting - I wonder if I can combine it with Al's suggesting to dodge the hotspots. Dodge with a white opaque material.

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