Hoverfly

[Martyn]

Yay! Finally found a bug in the garden! Went out into the garden looking for spiders and insects again this evening, spotted a couple of small garden spiders and half a dozen very small wolf spiders. This hoverfly was resting on a plant and stayed put whilst I took 71 shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For anyone interested, this is the setup I used for these shots. Reverse mounted Chinon 28-50 zoom set to f11. The view through the viewfinder is very dark, so the subject needs to be very still and patient while I take plenty of shots in order to get a few in focus.

 

[bugmeister]

A very cooperative hoverfly and some cracking shots as well

[FUJI]

YAY!

Martyn, you've cracked it......very well done with the kit you are using........just Brilliant!

MORE PLEASE!

FUJI

[David]

Impressive! I really like the 1st one, well done you!

[FUJI]

Thinking more about these........you do need to get the flash to reach down to the front of your lens....

Just by making a lightweight paper hood fixed very lightly to the opened flash should make a vast improvement, just cut an A4 sheet in half length ways, then use a ruler to curl it, a light elastic band or even Blue Tack will hold it in place.

With the flash, set to fire, set your camera to S 160........ A to 16 ....ISO UP TO 400 for a start.......find another cooperative insect, preferably sideways on to get best focus......check the results.

Then try A11 .......and an ISO of 100 ......adjust settings until you get best results.....don't forget that you can adjust flash strength too.

A Speedlight with a long hood , or plastic basin diffuser like mine would give better results,

Also, these could be lightened by playing with the Exposure and Curves sliders.

FUJI

[Martyn]

Cheers Fuji! I started out by photographing this fly with a set of tubes and my Nikon 18-105 but the magnification factor was not good enough. I switched to the reversed lens on the extension tubes but could only fit the fly's head in, focusing was out of the question. Then I used the reversed lens directly on the camera, but then my flash arm was too far out. I removed the flash bracket and used the pop up flash. I do have a small collection of home made diffusers and soft boxes, but I would have needed to go and get them using up more valuable time. I'm learning all the time, making lots of mistakes but only showing the successes on the forum.

 

My biggest problem with this reversed lens set up is being able to see through the viewfinder when the lens is stopped down. I have a couple of torches with 24 LEDs, I may try using them as a constant light source and see how that works.

[Black Pearl]

First one for that eye detail - epic.

[Paul]

Very nice, but difficult to ID the species from the angles.

 

Paul.

[annie]

Martyn, you have cracked it.............stunning pictures. 

[Kobione]

Brilliant, Martyn - especially like the eyes in the first one!

[NannyFerret]

Brilliant!

[NannyFerret]

I was looking at this the other day, and wondering what it would be like for close up photography while still getting TTL settings.

 

http://www.rogueflash.com/products/rogue-safari-dslr-pop-up-flash-booster

 

When I saw it it was under £25
I guess it would be a handy gadget to have in a camera bag if you don't want to fiddle fitting an external flash gun.

[Martyn]

I was looking at this the other day, and wondering what it would be like for close up photography while still getting TTL settings.

 

http://www.rogueflash.com/products/rogue-safari-dslr-pop-up-flash-booster

 

When I saw it it was under £25

I guess it would be a handy gadget to have in a camera bag if you don't want to fiddle fitting an external flash gun.

 

The flash diffuser I've been using today cost me £1. You can get them from Tesco and they come with the free gift of 1L of milk! 

 

Just raise the pop up flash and thread the tongue through the hotshoe!

[NannyFerret]

Mine came with a bottle of shampoo and has done me through many years with my film SLR and then digital.

 

The Rogue one seems to channel the light further and magnify it at the same time.
I think it is a bit expensive for what it is, but could be handy if it was used a lot to cover the cost.