Re: glare or highlights on black beetle - poor diffuser ?
1
c h u n k 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. 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
I see that the high end diffusers are also concave, but i dont really know why (other than it looks cool)
Do you think thats an answer?, or could it be the diffuser material is insufficient ? or something else ? ...
Ideas (and pics of DIY concave diffusers) welcome
thanks
Jim
manual stack of two - lightly edited - but glare on head is terrible
Please See links below. The issue is your diffuser. You do NOT need to buy any of these diffusers that are premade. Most macro photographers make their own. For years I used packing foam sheets and still do sometimes for several reasons. However, after reading some of Nicky Bays blog, I experimented with flexible cutting boards and they work great. The tricks are #1, Making the light source large relative to subject, #2, Getting even lighting across the diffuser which is solved by #3 Getting light spread from the flash in as short of a distance as poassible. All of this will solve issues in specular highlights, give softer light, and light which wraps around the subject giving soft transitions
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57126945
https://www.nickybay.com/macro-equipment/
http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-macro-rigs.html?m=1
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Thanks for the Nicky Bay link, not seen that before. Liked the article on ethics and the photo of the skink in that article made me want to scream. I’ve seen similar myself locally with people pinning down snakes, spraying insects with hairspray and more. I just cannot understand this kind of unnecessary behaviour.