A Very Tiny Spider
Via Flickr:
This one was about 2cm in size.
A Very Tiny Spider
Via Flickr:
This one was about 2cm in size.
A Very Tiny Spider
Via Flickr:
This one is so tiny. It was hard to get it in focus.
Green Bottle Fly (Phaenicia sericata)
Via Flickr:
Making bubble early in the morning.
My New Macro Rig.
Okay, now that I’ve got my C-bracket, it’s time to put it together. After trying numerous ways and almost giving up at one point, I had finally found the best setup. Here it is.
It’s pretty straight forward actually. I just attached the C-Bracket into my Sony A850 tripod socket and mount the flash as shown in the picture. Thanks to the Sony HVL-F58AM swivel function, I could position the flash this way.
Here is another angle of my setup.
… and another angle of the setup.
I’m triggering my flash with a wireless transmitter but instead of doing it wirelessly, I attached a remote flash cable from the transmitter to the hot shoe adapter which is attached to my Sony HVL-F58AM flash. There was a sync issue when triggering the flash wirelessly. I could only get the camera to sync at 1/125 sec instead of 1/250 sec with the remote cable.
Sample shot with the flash set to it’s weakest at 1/32 of power, ISO 100, 1/250 sec shutter speed and aperture F32. Check out the DOF. NICE!
However, I still need to test the setup in my next outing and I hope my hard case flash diffuser will provide enough diffusion. Cheers!
The Arrival of My C-Bracket Adapter
The C-Bracket adapter for my macro rig arrived by post today. I will try to setup tonight and see if this thing can actually be used the way I visualized it to be.
Testing my DIY Macro Flash Diffuser.
I finally had the chance to actually test my DIY flash diffuser. The thing managed to give me about the right exposure with 1/4 to 1/8 of flash power but within the range of aperture between F7.1 to F11. More than that, I need to increase the flash to either 1/2 or full power which needed around 3 second or more recycle time. One thing I learned when shooting macro in manual is to take as many pictures of the subject as fast as possible between takes without much delay. I have my reasons. My goal is to take well focused subjects as many as possible before they are gone. Insects and bugs do that. They don’t sit still for long when approached. That is why I need faster recycle time since chances of getting them in focus are higher in 10 takes rather than just 3 or 4. Get it? I guess I need a flash bracket to place my flash directly to the subject next time. Hopefully this will eliminate any light loss due to the long tubing of my diffuser. I don’t know if my theory is correct and hopefully by then, I could expose my subjects well in higher aperture values with quicker recycle time and improve Depth of Field all together. For now, here are some of my best shots with the current settings.
This little fellow is fast and won’t stay still for more than 2 seconds. I had to chase it around to get this shot.
This ant is so small that I had to take a few shots to get it in focus.
I’m not sure what this is but getting those big eyes in focus is very satisfying.
This one was moving around so much that I had to wait for it to stop and took this shot.
This one just flew away every time I approached but came back to the same spot again and again. At last I managed to get close enough.
I was very careful when taking this one.
What can I say, I love photography. If parallel universes do exist where our lives had different outcomes, I would be doing photography instead.
What!? Not another photography blog! 