Macro setup for bugs

[DanK]

Today I saw the first polinators in our yard, so I assembled my rig for macro shots of bugs. Unfortunately, it was too windy. However, there have been a lot of questions posted recently about macro equipment, lighting, and focusing, so I thought it might be useful for me to show what I put together, so folks can see one approach.

What I put together today is my most common rig:



Here is a somewhat larger version of the photo.

So, going down the list:

The body is a crop sensor camera, because in the Canon world, that gives me more pixel density, which is what I want at minimum working distance (MWD). For this purpose, I also like that it is a little smaller and lighter than my FF.

The lens is a 100mm macro, with a 36mm Kenko extension tube. My advice, if you are new to this, is to skip the extension for a while. It makes it quite a bit harder.

The flash is a regular E-TTL flash, held near the end of the lens and heavily diffused. In this case, I have the flash's own diffuser pulled down, and the diffusing material at the front is a few sheets of parchment. Paper towel works well too. The housing of the diffuser is made of soda cans, duct tape, and gaffer's tape. (google 'coke can diffuser macro' without the quotes.) The bracket is also home-made. The base is a straight cold-shoe bracket I bought for something like $7. I knocked the shoe off and drilled it out so that I could mount two miniballs on it, to allow me to position the flash. This is a fairly common approach. I generally shoot flash at 1/125, f/13. You can control the amount of ambient light, and hence the brightness of the background, by changing ISO, as long as you have an ETTL flash. I generally shoot between 100 and 400.

I mount this on a lightweight monopod with a tilt head, set so that the tilting is up and down, not side to side. I get rough focus either manually or with AF (on the back button, because you don't want touching the shutter to activate AF) and then move the camera slightly back and forth to achieve proper focus (if I am lucky). When I bought mine, both Benro and Oben made lightweight, inexpensive tilt heads. If you want arca-swiss, at least at that time, you had to pay a lot more and tolerate more weight. Mine is a Kirk.

I hope this is helpful.

Dan

[rpcrowe]

Dan,

That is an efficient looking rig you use. Here is what I shoot with:



The lens is an old 90mm Tamron f/2.8 macro. The flash bracket is a Siegelite which is no longer produced. However it is often available, used on eBay, for twenty U.S. Dollars or less. The flash shown is a 550EX and the camera is a Canon 10D. My present camera is a 7D while the flash is a 600EX RT. I still sync the flash with an off-camera sync cord however, I use a Calumet version rather than the Canon off camera cord. The reason I switched to Calumet is not that their cord is any better than the Canon, but, because there was a brick and mortar Calumet store 10 minutes away from my home when I needed to find a new cord...

The diffuser is a Lumiquest Mini Softbox. I can add additional diffusing material to the front of the Lumiquest if necessary. There are Chinese knock-offs of the Lumiquest Softbox available on eBay for less than ten dollars.

I could possible trigger my flash using the 7D on camera flash but, I feel more assured of the of camera cord.

The rig is shown on a tripod only for photographic purposes. I will usually hand hold it when shooting the creepie crawlies. However, I will also occasionally use this rig on a monopod.

I basically focus the same way as does Dan.

Here are some examples of the results...





IMO, any macro image will benefit from supplementary lighting. I like softbox lighting to come from above the subject because it looks (IMO) more natural.

[IzzieK]

Thanks for this helpful thread Dan...