Pixiq

The first challenge with using flash for ‘macro’ work is to master exposure. So you do that...and then you get hyper-critical and find there are other hurdles to overcome. Hang on in there - soon, it becomes second nature to avoid pitfalls

Ghosting: when balancing daylight and flash you have to watch out for ‘ghosting’ when the flash freezes the subject but the camera shutter remains open long enough to expose movement and create a 'ghost'. Sometimes you will not see it until the image is in Lightroom or Photoshop. Remedies include making sure you use a fast enough shutter speed (1/200^th or faster) or wait then press the shutter in a lull in the breeze. At higher magnifications quite a few cameras create blur thanks to shutter bounce – with rear curtain synch and a slow shutter speed the flash fires after the movement is damped.

Not all blur is bad -  a blur at wing edges suggests movement and can enhances a shot. Insects in flight with high speed flash sometimes appear 'frozen'

Specular (mirror) Reflections

Many insects, beetles in particular, have hard surface coatings that reflect light and create ‘specular’ reflections. A diffuser on the flash can minimise these but to eliminate them completely takes experiment with angle of the lighting…and even then a bit of post-production work in Photoshop. One solution is a portable lighting tent that is placed over a bug on a forest floor and lit from outside. The background is restricted though…

What about ringflash?

Unmodified ring lights produce a lighting quality a bit too flat for my tastes: dentists use them for imaging the interior of the mouth… they are good for cavity lighting: no pun intended. They can be modified  with black electrical tape to create 'windows' of different sizes on either side and introduce some modelling.

Some macroflash units look like ring flashes and are advertised (wrongly) as such by some sellers. Twin flash units such as the Nikon SB 28s and 29s and the Sigma EM 140 DG macro flash TTL actually allow different power ratios between the tubes and do permit a reasonable degree of modelling. They work best at close-range with macro lenses of 105mm focal length or shorter where one tube acts as the main light and the other the fill-in. With longer lenses the light is flat because flash tubes too close to the optical axis. The units are often under-powered and have to be close to the subject.

How about constructing a Macroflash unit from separate guns?

Over the years I have written a lot about using DIY macroflash units and advocate this route in workshops because you can use small, more powerful guns than those in commercial macroflashes. They are also more versatile because the guns are held on arms away from the axis. And they are cheaper…

Two very small flash guns will do – you do not need high power this close. DTTL control helps but, as I’ll explain below, you can get away without. Wireless control is great if you can get it since trailing cables seem have an uncanny attraction for branches and twigs as you hurtle through the underbrush, oblivious to everything but that rare butterfly...

Many years ago, a German friend of mine was using a Leica SLR with a Leitz macro lens and such a flash set-up -  an encounter with a branch whipped off the flashguns and tore away the lens mount complete with the camera face plate: tears yes, but of joy, no.

There are still some very good commercial units by Novoflex , and some excellent brackets from Custom Brackets and Really Right Stuff amongst others. Check out the Speedgraphic website for examples by Manfroto and Unimarm. And, of course, there is George Lepp's, eponymous Stroboframe LEPP II Camera/Flash - a simple, versatile  and extremely functional device... examples come up on eBay though most photographers (including me) would not part with theirs.

Commercial units are expensive niche items that are convenient and easy to use repeatedly if you are really dedicated to ‘macro’ photography. However, if you have even modest DIY skills you can get a few bits of aluminum alloy tube, commercial flash holders and off you go. See B&H flash accessories for inspiration

One of the very best units I ever used was the original TTL macroflash from the Olympus OM system. In fact, for me the arrival of TTL flash that read light reflected from a film surface was an incredible boost. TTL flash greatly increased the proportion of ‘hits’ over my previous 'calibrated system plus guesswork' approach. Canon patented the TTL flash but surprisingly did not use it at first and licenced it to Olympus: they once catered superbly for the close-up specialist, especially with a series of dedicated bellows macro lenses.

I still build a lot of the things I need for my experiments with simple tools. In the early days of macro work I tried to get automated flash by building a flashmeter and probe that I held against the eyepiece of a Canon F1 and/or the screen of a Bronica S2A…no miniature, it fitted in a sandwich box. This was a stage when I was keen to build electronic devices and set about making hi-speed flash guns (with lethal voltages) and a twin-flash macroflash from a couple of eviscerated flashguns. These days I need the time for other things…like survival.

So, should we throw away old TTL and manual guns not supporting DTTL flash ?

The answer is a resounding NO. TTL guns for film would not work with the first DSLRs  because of the non-reflective properties of a sensor surface compared with film. However, in practice this does not matter because you can still ‘calibrate’ a gun by looking at the LCD to give you the right exposure. It takes a couple of shots to get things right but after a while you get to know what works.

When you have a flash position and aperture that works just keep the gun in the same position relative to the lens front. Move in closer with your macro lens and the gun moves with you.  Both light from the gun and from the subject obey the inverse square law, so there is compensation and no need to change exposure. For bright subjects you close down a stop dark open up. For a few years of digital I used a D100 with the SB29s as a manual gun…

I also have a Sigma EM 140 DG macro flash TTL unit that works very well with an SD14 camera (and also the previous SD10 and SD9 models). It is a well-built, reliable and practical alternative to the more expensive offerings from Nikon and Canon when used with a 105mm or 60mm macro lens - with longer focal lengths the lighting is a tiny bit flat for my tastes being so close to the lens axis but with a touch of contrast increase on the computer...it works. As others on this blog have said - it ain't the gear. It's you and the way you deal with the subject. With 'macro' so much can be done simply and relatively cheaply.

Check out Part 1 and also Part 2 for the complete picture