keithpassaur

Portrait of Fred the Fly

Stacked image of a bug

Stacked image of a bug
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

settings

Aperture f/8 ISO 100 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 65/1

upload_date

Nov, 2017

Views

522

Likes

+54

Awards

Winner in Macro Photography Photo Challenge

Peer Award

+19

Absolute Masterpiece

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

Top Choice

Virtuoso

Outstanding Creativity

Emotions

Impressed

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in my home on a little table top studio I built.

Time

The time of day does not matter for this type of photo.

Lighting

I used two Canon 580 EX II Speedlights to light the subject, one was on each side and there was a silver reflector card placed above the subject. The silver card is nothing more than foil on cardboard. I have made some custom diffusers for my Speedlights. They are SS dog food dishes with a hold cut in the center for the flash. They are covered with white Nylon and there is also another piece inside of it to bounce the light. The closest thing to it would be a miniature beauty dish in SS instead of white or one of those 1950's flashes with the aluminum dish. Both flashes were placed within a couple of inches of the bugs head.

Equipment

I used a StackShot, a Canon 5D MK II, a Canon MPE-65, two Speedlights with custom diffusers and a foil bounce card. It is hard to describe the whole setup without photos, but I will do my best. There are two machinist's stages, two focusing rails and a video slider all mounted to a piece of aluminum 5" X 30" X 1/2". On one end of the aluminum bar is a machinist's Work Table that moves towards the other end of the bar and does so in .05 mm increments . On top of this is another machinist's table that travels both ways, towards the end of the bar and across the bar. This allows for quick and easy placement of the camera within a 10,000 of an inch. Both of these are not necessary but I had them so I mounted them like this. The only one that sees a lot of use is the bottom one. I focus in live view at 10X and move the camera with it. On top of this is a StackShot Rail aimed at the other end of the aluminum bar. So on one end is a StackShot rail mounted on top of two machinist's worktables. To the right of this mounted to the bar is a video slider. On top of the slider are two focusing rails one mounted so that it travels across the aluminum bar and one mounted vertically. On the vertical one is a Magic Arm with a clip to hold a bug with a pin through it. This may all sound silly but it is hard to find a subject at 5:1 magnification and to adjust it's positron. It is much easier to find it as 1:1. So, the placement of the bug is done at 1:1, then the slider is moved with the subject and the magnification changed on the lens. Now it is still centered. Final adjustment is manually done under the camera with the milling machine worktables.

Inspiration

I like photographing bugs at high magnifications. If I recall correctly this one was shot at 5:1. The cropped image is 2727 X 3408 so a good size print can be made. One difficulty in doing photos like this is printing at smaller sizes does not show all the captured detail.

Editing

This was a series of most likely 50 or so photos. I didn't save that information, now I put it in the file name. I first use Canon's Digital Photo Professional to apply sharpness and on occasion add up to a half a stop of light. This is done on one photo and the recipe copied and applied to all. These images are then exported as tiff images into Helicon Focus. In Helicon I render the images using method B "depth map" and as method C "pyramid". I choose the best one and import it into LIghtroom. In Lightroom I make some final adjustments and crop the image. In some shots I open it in Photoshop as well to remove the "pin" that was stuck into the bug.

In my camera bag

This does not really apply to this kind of shot.

Feedback

Shots like this can be fun to take and you don't need all the stuff mentioned above to do it. I did not run out and purchase this all at once, as I learned I added a little more equipment and refined how I do it. Now for me most of the challenges of getting a shot like this are gone and I can get them numerous ways and when a shot fails I usually know why. For a shot like this, I setup the subject, calculate the magnification and enter it into the StackShot. I have programmed the movement amount of the StackShot based upon an aperture of f/5.6 - f/8 and 5:1 - 1:5 magnifications. So, then it is adjust the lighting, I do this with test shots, one flash is wired and the other set as a wireless slave so all adjustments are made from the camera. Now for the specifics, there are two big obstacles in creating shots like this and they are related. Its movement, first is camera movement it may sound like a joke as you are using flash but it is not. At high magnifications just your finger on the camera will make it move and you will have to allow it to settle just to see a small focus change. At 5:1 use live view and zoom in to 10X and you will see movement if you drop a quarter on the table. The second is like the first, you need to move the camera (or subject) to make shots like this and they need to be perfectly aligned. With a StackShot or another automated rail it is easy as you don't touch it. It moves the camera and you program it to lockup the mirror and settle before you take the shot. So I set it up and walk away. However with a manual rail you have to precisely move it without changing the alignment, using 5:1 magnification each step is .084mm. (plus the angle can't change). The best way to handle this is weight. Mount whatever you have to something heavy. I saw one setup online were the man mounted his rail to 4 25 lb. weights, I thought it was stupid at the time now I find it brilliant. Some advice on getting shots like this without breaking the bank: All you really need is a DSLR, an adjustable flash, a way to move the camera accurately and a lens with great image sharpness. There are numerous cheap ways to increase magnification and get great sharpness such as reversing a lens, adding tubes, diopters etc. To move the camera accurately you need a high quality focusing rail, these $25 ebay specials don’t cut it. But for around $50 you can get a milling machine worktable, you can mount that to something solid and then your camera to that. It will move your camera as precisely as the most expensive camera rail from Novoflex or Really Right Stuff just not on a tripod. But what does work well is an old first quality bellows setup with a focusing rail built in and a quality enlarger lens. You don’t need an expensive specialized macro bellows lens. One exceptional lens for this kind of setup is Nikon's 50mm 2.8 enlarger lens which you can usually pick up for around $50 - $75 on ebay. Most reviews put it as good as Canon’s MPE-65 which is over 1K. I have one and I had it reversed on some extension tubes a long time ago and you could see the reflection of clouds in the bugs shiny butt, it is an incredible lens. For a bellows look for a used one in mint condition from Nikon, Canon, Contax, Minolta, Pentax or Novoflex. Make sure it has a focusing rail built in. The prices of bellows change a lot. What maybe bringing $100 now maybe $300 in two months and vise versa. Six months ago I was looking at a Contax Tilt Shift bellows and there were three of them all between $100 and $120, now I can't find one for less than $350. For a long time I had a Nikon PB-4 and I sold it as I wasn’t using it that much. It is one thing I regret selling, if I recall I got $200 for it with the Nikon Lens, a couple of cheap enlarger lenses, extra extension tubes, reverse adapters the slide attachment for the bellows all in a really nice aluminum case. To replace it I ended up purchasing an old Canon FL bellows in mint condition for $50 delivered, it had the box, manual, focusing ruler etc. I am not disappointed in what I purchased but it is no PB-4. The hard part in all of this is making sure you get the right adapters and excepting the fact that it may not do everything you expect. When I was selling my PB-4 a Nikon user stopped by and the design would not allow the camera body to travel as it was too high. It would still work but he would be restricted. It was not restricted with my Canon 5D MK II. My Canon FL bellows does not allow me to move the body into portrait mode and if I recall correctly my Nikon bellows did. If you use Canon (I don’t know about other companies options) you also have the option of adding automated extension tubes and perhaps a Raynox diopter to increase magnification like you can for all companies. However you have live view which you can use to precisely electronically move your focus. So you setup the shot, take it and click the button to move in and take another shot. In the field you can also to this with Magic Lantern.

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keithpassaur

keithpassaur

Portrait of Fred the Fly

Stacked image of a bug

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow keithpassaur

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