Mantis

[TobyMac]

This is the first praying mantis I have found in my garden in well over a year. I remember when I was younger I would find them almost on a daily basis if I looked for them, now however it has become more and more difficult. There might be some completely natural explanation that I am not aware of but I am guessing the underlying cause is climate change. Here in South Africa we are still going through a pretty severe drought with temperatures going well over 30 degrees C daily. So for me this little guy became a bit of a survival story and when I found him this morning it turned a pretty bad start to a day into a day of hope and perseverance. I really hope the number of mantids recovers because they are one of my favourite insects to shoot. They have so much character and personality, I could spend hours with them.

Macro Dec 9-3 by Tobias Weber, on Flickr

Macro Dec 9-2 by Tobias Weber, on Flickr

Macro Dec 9-1 by Tobias Weber, on Flickr

[Dave Humphries]

I really hope the number of mantids recovers because they are one of my favourite insects to shoot. They have so much character and personality, I could spend hours with them.

They are about as 'cute' as insects get, I'll grant you.

Good shots as usual Tobias.

Thanks, Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts.

[Dave A]

Outstanding images Tobias.......so sharp. Could you please tell me a little about how you captured these images and equipment used, ie; handheld?, flash?, lens?, extension tubes?

Thanks,
Dave

[TobyMac]

Thanks guys.

Dave, here's a picture of my current set-up that I use it's a canon 7D with a 100mm macro lens with a 430ex speedlite on top with a little softbox to diffuse the light. I shoot on full manual, both the camera and the flash and use the flash to just fill in a little.
I have tried shooting on a tripod but I always find it too restricting I found using the flash and shooting hand held yields better results as i am more mobile and it's easier to adjust position for the tiny little critters.
Lots of people say that in macro it is essential to manual focus but with a little patience I have found that most often the autofocus works just fine, it does give me a couple of missed shots but I have always managed to get what I wanted. The set up is quite big but I usually start slowly from quite far away and then slowly move my way as close as possible to the insects, with some patience I have found that they most of the time don't run away. The 100mm lens also allows quite a bit of distance.
I do also have extension tubes but I tend not to use them, I used to use them all the time but I found that they degraded my picture quality so now I prefer to crop in instead if I can't get in close enough.
I hope this helps a little, feel free to ask more.

File 2015-12-09, 2 27 42 PM by Tobias Weber, on Flickr

[Dave A]

Thank you Tobias that is really helpful. What shutter speed do you try to achieve when shooting hand held macro? I hope to start doing more macro shooting of insects and have been reading and asking questions as much as possible. I have the Nikon 85mm macro lens, SB-700 speedlight, and the same diffuser you show except it's 6x8". I also have the Nikon R1 up close speedlight kit so I should be good to go. It's winter here in Canada now but I will be in Florida in February for 2 weeks so hopefully I can find some bugs there.

Dave

[TobyMac]

I usually keep it as fast as the camera allows, so 1/250th, I do adjust it depending on what I want from the background, if I want it a little lighter is slow the shutter speed a bit to allow more ambient light in. My Aperture I usually keep around f/8-f/13 because I know that this is where the lens is at it's sharpest and it gives a decent amount of depth. I have found that if you keep the focus good and the subject interesting it is very achievable to work with such a shallow DoF. The key is to shoot as much as possible and figure out what set-up works for you and what you and your gear are most comfortable with. It's only been in the last couple of months that I worked out this set up, I tried all sorts of complicated other rigs and was always much more concerned with the actual rig that I kept being disappointed with the results, so a couple months ago I decided to just go back to basics so that now the simplest set-up works the best, it allows me to focus more on composition and finding the right settings.

[DanK]

Tobias, great shots. Particularly #2, IMHO.

Dave, Tobias posted his answers while I was typing. Mine are somewhat similar, somewhat different.

I also use a diffused flash, but with a very different (and probably more cumbersome) rig:



My standard settings for flash photos of bugs are 1/125, f/13 (nominal), ISO 100 to 400. I usually stick with 100, but upping the ISO will slightly increase the illumination of the background. Keep in mind that some Nikons show effective rather than nominal f-stops with macro lenses. (This is explained in the macro tutorial on this site.)

Unlike Tobias, I find that I get better images with an extension tube than by cropping, and my most common bug-hunting rig is a 100mm macro with a 36mm tube. For example, here is a shot of a robber or dancer fly (not sure which) that I took last summer with that arrangement.



Dan

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shots

[Dave A]

Thank you for the information guys, much appreciated. I have to get out there shooting macro to improve my skills but information like this should flatten out the learning curve a little.

Dave

[Wavelength]

Excellent images

[IzzieK]

Excellent images, Dave...they are all cute but I like the expression of #2 and #3. They are cuter...what were they saying???