Black and Orange Bug

[BillTyler]

I found this bug crawling in my driveway. Here it's photographed on a sheet of white paper with two diffused Canon 430EX flashes, one to the left and one to the right, adjusted manually to give a halfway sane histogram. To get the bug to hold still, I put an inverted glass over it, and let it tire itself out walking around. When it paused to rest, I lifted the glass and photographed. The flashes were diffused by taping ordinary white paper to them, so that it stood out a little from the front of the flash head.

Canon 5Dmk3
Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
Two 430EX flashes
1/200 f/9.0
ISO 400

Bill

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Bill. You found a cool looking bug and it gave you a nice pose. Also, the light from your flashes appears nicely diffused and you have good sharpness within your DOF - though I would wish for more depth to at least get the entire body sharp. Nice to see you trying the "lightbox" look - obviously there are a number of ways to get it. I think a few tweaks will make this setup work even better for you. In this situation the flashes are supplying all the light so you could go to f/16 and ISO 100 (to get more DOF and minimal noise) and just manually adjust the flash power to suite the subject. Also, at this magnification, all the surface texture of the paper is visible - in my lightbox setup, I place a sheet of Roco Roscolux #116 filter material (B&H #RO116S) on top of the paper and that eliminates about 95% of the surface texture. Just a couple things for you to try. :S3: I'm looking forward to seeing more of these shots!

[BillTyler]

Hi Steve, Thanks for the comments and suggestions. The Roscolux is a great idea. I agree that I'd do better with a smaller aperture. One problem of working with battery-powered flashes is that they take a long time to recycle, so your shooting opportunities are limited, and upping the power lengthens cycle time even more. I've been experimenting a little recently with A/C powered monolights, to get a heftier blast of light with much shorter recycling time.

Bill

[Mitch Haimov]

Interesting subject, Bill. Nicely sharp, but I wish you had a bit more DOF on the near side so that the tip of the near antenna and the near legs were all sharp. Did you make any images from a lower perspective (closer to eye level)? Might draw your viewer in more that way, rather than from the perspective (although higher magnification) from which we are accustomed to viewing insects. The elytra look fairly flat on top, so slightly above eye level might be best because they (the elytra) are too interesting not to include them. I'm also thinking that if you boost the exposure somewhat (in camera or post) you might bring out more detail in the critter while loosing some in the paper. Targeted NR on the BG (even though it isn't noisy) also might help knock down the paper texture.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Good shot Bill, I would suggest a slightly lower shooting angle and a little more DOF. For the base I would suggest print or paint the paper so it is out of focus in shades that would reflect a forest floor.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Bill, nice image and an interesting subject. I don't have much to add to the comments above but do agree trying a lower shooting angle may also have worked. A shooting position closer to the head of the bug may have also yielded good results.