SB600 and Macro work

[rah120]

I was trying to do macro with my new SB600 and I had a very hard time getting proper exposure with it. What would happen is either the backgroud was properly exposed and my subject (fly) was underexposed, or the subject was exposed and the background was blown. I tried using manual, TTL and TTL BL but I could not get consistent results with any of them. I was using matrix and some spot metering and I was shooting in manual.

Can someone please give me some advice to get proper exposure, I would really appreciate it. Thanks

 

[Pradipta Dutta]

1) Where were you mounting the flash - camera hotshoe or bracket? This is very critical in macro photography because show mount flash may not necessarily light the subject very well for truly closeup shots

2) How close were you to the subject? This is also very critical because if you had been too close, SB-600's range of power may not be able to handle the low power required to properly light the subject.
3) What part of the frame was the main subject located? Center, side, top, ...?

For real closeup photography, the ring-mount SB-R200 speedlights are really useful for both their positioning relative to the subject as well as their ability to address low power need for real closeup. Otherwise, you can try off the camera flash. In a nutshell, at any cost avoid shoemount flash.

--
Speed is significant and interesting but accuracy is downright fascinating
http://www.pbase.com/pradipta

 

[WFulton]

I was trying to do macro with my new SB600 and I had a very hard time
getting proper exposure with it. What would happen is either the
backgroud was properly exposed and my subject (fly) was underexposed,
or the subject was exposed and the background was blown. I tried
using manual, TTL and TTL BL but I could not get consistent results
with any of them. I was using matrix and some spot metering and I was
shooting in manual.

Can someone please give me some advice to get proper exposure, I
would really appreciate it. Thanks

I find that switching to Center-weighted metering (instead of matrix or spot) probably will make a big difference, metering on the central area of the frame (where subject is), instead of the surroundings around it.

If that subject comes out properly exposed, but the background is blown, then that is just then nature of your lighting situation. You cannot compromise the exposure without affecting your subject. You would instead need to modify the lighting, to put more light on your subject in that case. TTL-BL might help that case.

However with macro, normally you would use TTL instead of TTL-BL. TTL-BL is for when you want to match flash exposure with the sun outside, to have the flash exposure match the surroundings. If the subject illumination is just flash, then use TTL.

 

[rah120]

1) Where were you mounting the flash - camera hotshoe or bracket? This is very critical in macro photography because show mount flash may not necessarily light the subject very well for truly closeup shots

2) How close were you to the subject? This is also very critical because if you had been too close, SB-600's range of power may not be able to handle the low power required to properly light the subject.

3) What part of the frame was the main subject located? Center, side, top, ...?

Thanks for the replies. To answer your questions...

1. I was using the hotshoe, bc d50 cannot due wireless flash and I haven't gotten any cables yet.

2. I was very close. I was using a 50mm with a set of extension tubes that equaled 68mm so only a few cm away.

3. I was trying to make the subject in the center of the frame .

I think I am going to try to make my own diffusion box to help with the lighting. It seems that the sb600 on camera is virtually impossible to use with macro greater than 1:1.

 

[SemperNikon]

That's your problem, your flash is on the camera. Your light is shooting over your subject.

Gotta get that flash off the shoe.

 

[rah120]

Ok thanks a lot!

 

[Duncan C]

You might try using a bounce attachment like a Lumiquest ProMax, Lumiquest big bounce, or similar. (You can make a home-brew version out of white poster-board for a few pennies - I've seen patterns for one on this forum in the past.

These attach to your flash head. You point the flash straight up and then the bounce attachment sits at a 45 degree angle and throws soft light forward. For macro, you can tilt the flash head forward slightly to throw the light down onto close subjects.

Other people have also had good luck attaching a cut out piece of a white translucent milk jug to the front of the lens. They fire the flash into the milk jug plastic and it spreads the light over the subject. I just acquired a plastic milk jug and am planning to try this myself.

Finally, you can try a macro flash bracket. I have the Manfrotto dual flash bracket, which is reasonably priced. You'd need an off camera flash cable for this option (an SC-17, SC-19, or the newer version (SC-29?) - any of them would work.

Balancing subject light with background light is tricky. The closer the flash is to the subject, the faster the light falls off. If your flash is 1 inch from your subject, then a background 1.4 inches away will get a full stop less light than the subject. If the subject is 1 inch away and the background is 2 inches away, the subject will be TWO stops darker.

I like using 2 flashes on my Manfrotto bracket. One flash is further from the subject, and does a better job lighting the background. Here's a picture of one of the rigs I've used:



Duncan C
--
dpreview and PBase supporter.



http://www.pbase.com/duncanc
My macro gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/duncanc/macro_pictures&page=all