glare or highlights on black beetle - poor diffuser ?

c h u n k wrote:

jim mij wrote:

Joseph S Wisniewski wrote:

jim mij wrote:

hi,

If Darth Vader were a beetle he might have looked like the following pic...

I was trying to get a shot of a black beetle today but glare or reflections on the shiny top of its head ruined things somewhat

I moved the beetle somewhere darker, so the main light was only coming from the flash

I've searched the forum for hints on reducing glare, not that many, and of the 3 the best idea seemed to be suggesting a concave diffuser and two flashes.

Well, do you do any studio portrait work?

My first rule of photography:

Everything is a portrait.

Just because it's an insect doesn't mean it doesn't have a personality, or that you don't want to impose one upon it. You compared your beetle to "Darth Vader". Look at some movie caps of ol' dark dome: does he ever get shot with a big diffused light from directly overhead?

Most portraits involve at least two separate light: main and fill, and neither of them are aligned anything like a single macro diffuser. I've done things that do work like that: literally with two 4x6 ft soft-boxes pushed together to make an 8x6, with me squished between them shooting through a small gap. Vincent Versace took an 8ft octabank and added a tunnel through it near the center so he can use it as a "ring light" larger than the model. Unless you're a skilled fashion photographer, don't do that.

hi Joseph, thanks for the reply, it gave me a few things to think about

I get the point, but in Darths case he sits around in a motor home for a few hours till the director etc is ready to take the shot, i could put the beetle in a box till i was ready, but it's unlikely to follow cues to stay still till i take some shots

Mine is homemade and flat using a single top mounted flash, which has been ok so far for most things as I've not often noticed glare like this

You've got a subject that can look wet and oily. That's a gift: don't waste it. Single, smaller main off to one side or the other. Larger fill, but again off to one side or the other.

I'm looking at that picture and thinking "I'd like the light to be a tiny point, like a small flash with no diffuser 6 feet away" which means the highlights on the insect are going to be sharp, bright points. They will blow out... let them.

Then pick your favorite lens for "sun stars" and let those highlights make some.

Again i get your points and see the possibilities in the future, eg i could try again with twin lights, or side mounted lights or ,,,, and if everyone says its "impossible" to get a better shot of a beetle with a single on camera flash and single diffuser then so be it, but at the moment all i have is a single flash and all i can tweak is the diffuser (or perhaps move the flash off camera, i'll have to look up how)

I see that the high end diffusers are also concave, but i dont really know why (other than it looks cool)

Mechanical strength and spring tension?

I was more interested in how/if the light improves with a concave diffuser over a flat diffuser. I did get some ideas on that from the links Chunk provides in his 1st response. My interpretation was that a larger light that is also wrapped around the subject gives a flatter more even result with no or less glare . Re your point below this is akin to a "mini cage"

Do you think thats an answer?, or could it be the diffuser material is insufficient ? or something else ? ...

I think the concept is the problem, not the qualities of the material.

• What is the beetle's story?
• What is it trying to tell us, or what are you trying to tell us about it?

If you can't answer those questions, how can you paint the light on to add that emotional content into the scene?

Practice!

Get yourself a couple of well preserved beetles you can take home. If one isn't as shiny as your subject here, give it a nice spray of lacquer. Then start placing lights and shooting.

I was practising today with two ladybirds and a new improved and less flawed diffuser, but the critters would just not keep still. I'll keep a look out for something freshly deceased and try and try again. Still things and other gear must make it be easier...

Remember, in the field you have to be fast with your lighting, so you might think about getting a cage or bracket for the camera that will support some flex arms and small flashes. The plan the shoot around one particular mood, like "for the next two hours I will be shooting "glamorous fashion bugs"" and on a different outing thing "I'm shooting super-villain bugs" or "I am trying to express technophobia through mechanistic looking bugs". Set your lighting rig up like that, and then if today's shoot is "bad boy bugs" and you see the perfect "love bug" ignore it, move on, and continue looking for the "bad boy beetle".

Plan the shoot, then shoot the plan!

I think i'll try this in two ways. 1) I will look into how to get the flash away from the camera, but as its now a wet autumn and we're heading into winter the 2nd option might be better 2) I'll "plan the shoot" and use an in house stage, and drop a bug into that and play around with the lights I have, eg flash and led

Thanks again for the ideas

Jim

Ugh, I have to jump in. I mean, go ahead and experiment ALWAYS, but getting the flash off camera is just going to introduce a host of new issues for what you want to accomplish.

I experimented last night, and while I did persuade the camera m6ii to trigger the remote flash it was only achieved by using the pop up flash, I kinda ran out of hands to make it all work, it’s be a nightmare outside. While I can see advantages indoors I’d end up buying kit for better connectivity, as you say new issues….

Not to mention make the problem you want to solve worse. In order to reduce specular highlights, you want to soften the light. With small insects, part of how this is accomplished is be getting the lightsource (the diffuser becomes the source) as close to the subject as possible along with avoiding a hotspot in the diffuser. That is done spreading the light over as much as the diffuser area as evenly as possible. Concave setups are effective because the wrap the light.

yes, your previous links gave explanations / examples, I’m still tinkering and adjusting to get  that. I did see a video showing someone using the camera in one hand and the flash with diffuser in another, interesting but not for me, it’s hard enough to get the camera in the bugs face without your other hand trying to get the flash gun in there too

Even when the diffuser is large relative to subject (subjects are small so you dont need a softbox - we can be reasonable in definitions) in the field, you find that the bottom of the insect can be completely in shadow. Concave diffusers can sometimes solve this. With twin setups, you can position one at around 6:00 or 7:00 and the other at 2:00 which addresses the same issues - essentially key and fill.

Ive stopped worrying about being polite sometimes so Ill just say it - do yourself a favor and ignore most of that guys response. He may be okay with other genres of photography, I dont know, but I will assume we wont see any macro results proving hes ever even attempted that "advice", or if there is, it wont be what you are after.

Time will tell, examples with explanations are better. It’s interesting seeing how other genres think about and solve a problem (portrait), but keeping it simple with limited gear is still my approach at the moment

Jim