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Video RGB LED lights for still macro photography?

Started 11 months ago | Questions thread
John K Veteran Member • Posts: 9,870
Re: Video RGB LED lights for still macro photography?

As others have said you need some stopping power to shoot active critters and/or to shoot hand held.

Tech Specs: Canon 90D (F11, 1/125, ISO 200) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (set to about 1.5x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT, E-TTL metering, -2/3 FEC. This is a single, cropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI and Clarity in that order. Shutter and ISO set to expose the sky in the background.

As for diffusion I think that just about any light source is gonna require some diffusion to make it look good, even those LED video lights. How well the light is diffused, and the angle between the light and the subject, will determine how much texture detail you can pick up. I use an MT26 EX RT with the flash heads in a key (one at the top of the lens) and fill (one off to the side at 90 degrees to the key) because it gives me a lot of control over the highlights and shadows. Also since the light partially wraps around the subject (it's not dead even) I get images that look 3D, and due to the angle and diffusion I can pick up a lot of texture detail.

Tech Specs: Canon 90D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (set to 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT, E-TTL metering, -2/3 FEC. This is a single frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI and Clarity in that order.

For tripod macro of motionless subjects you can use any light source. But the odds that you'll be able to use that light out of the box with no modification, and get good results, are pretty low.

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