It's creepy and crawly

Overread · Feb 9, 2010

And it darn well does not sit still!

Gear used - canon 400D - Canon MPE65mm f2.8 macro - speedlite 580EX2 + lumiquest softbox

taken at f6.3, ISO 100, 1/200sec flash from the left through a softbox

Taken with the MPE 65mm macro at around 5* life size.

this takes macro to a whole new level!

icassell · Feb 9, 2010

Congrats! That lens is working well for you. On this one, you might have cropped a bit too much on the tail end (I guess that's tail, anyway). What are you using for lighting? A bit more light on his back would help.

Overread · Feb 9, 2010

Yeh I did cut his tail end a bit shot, though this was one of the better examples where I had his back mostly all in focus in a single frame (way to active to even consider stacking). And I do agree lighting was not idea and infact was a nightmare to work with.

For this bug alone his head and tail would tend to be a lot brighter than the rest of him and I might go back and re-edit by processing the RAW twice and merging the results (faux HDR).

As for the light it was my (now rather muddy) 580EX2 with a regular lumiquest softbox sort of balanced on the left side of the insect and resting up against my foot. I really did find this to be the biggest limitation today - often i would miss shots as the cord would pull the flash over or where I could not balance it right to get the light were I wanted it. I really really really want those twinflash macro lights now

icassell · Feb 9, 2010

Yeah, I'm waiting to buy the lens until I can afford the Twin Lights and a rail too ... which means it will be some time

I think it really is a neat image though. I have enough DOF problems with my 100mm macro and I can imagine what a challenge this guy was! Maybe you need to borrow some Nitrous Oxide from your dentist

(for the bug, of course, and not for you ... )

Augphoto · Feb 9, 2010

Wow, this is amazing. What combo did you use to get 5X life size?

Overread · Feb 9, 2010

That was my plan originally - but price rises made my jump for the lens first without saving for the lights - its possible to use them without it but I can quickly see why the lights are so popular with this type of photography.

Also to scare you the aperture for that shot was only f6.3! Even f8 starts to get soft around 5:1 so that further reduces the depth of field options.

Augphoto I edited in the details of what gear I used for this shot