Multiple Lighting for shooting flies

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

This is my first attempt at using multiple lighting for shooting flies. I tied up a bunch of Bucktails, Cone Head Leeches and Pike/Musky flies last winter. I wanted to try something I've never done before with flies and that's to use a colored background lit up with a background light and colored gels. These photos were done using a Nikon F100, Nikkor 60mm F2.8 Macro AF-D lens, Tiffen 81A Warming filter, Fuji Provia 100F, a Studio Systems SP920MDLVP Monolight with a snoot attachment to isolate the subject from the background, a background light with a blue color gel and a blue green background. Light readings were taken with a handheld meter and I had a reading of F16 on the subject and F11 on the background. The camera exposure was F16 @ 1/125 sec. in manual mode. I deliberately under exposed the background by one stop to saturate the background color.

 

These are all 35mm photos. I did a few shots with a Crown Graphic 4 x 5 press camera using Fuji Provia 100F. But, I didn't get those shots developed yet. There's a pic of the Crown at the bottom for those that would like to see it. Anyway, Here's the results.

 

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Tight Lines !

Rob Valine

www.MySpace.com/RobValine

www.RobValineimages.com

 

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi Rob,

 

Great shots, I really liked them AND it was good to see the Crown Graphic. I've got an old Speed Graphic 4x5. I have not shot film in it for some time but have wondered about a DSLR attachment you can attach to the back of a view camera then take a series of shots to capture the full 4x5" area (or whatever the size may be). One of these days I'm going to have to give the attachment a try. I did see where a digital photographer wrote an article in Outdoor Photographer magazine about using his DSLR to capture large format shots; it really makes me want to give the old Speed Graphic/DSLR attachment a try. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Thanks for the comments Al. You might want to give large format a try. Close up focusing is easy with the extension bellows on the large format cameras. There's no need for any type of macro attachments. I had no trouble filling the frame at all with the 4 x 5. Focusing through the ground glass was a little tricky. What I did was focus on the fine print on a small tea box. Then I switched the tea box with one of the flies. They were in the same approximate spot so focusing should have been good. I've never seen digital large format or shots done using digital backs on large format. But, the large format shooters on flickr have told me there's no comparison to 35mm when you're looking at a large format transparency on a light box. I'm anxious to see how they turn out.