long-legged fly, handheld stack

[iain]

not uploaded anything for a while, so let's see if this works - a long-legged fly, in my experience these things usually disappear with even the slightest hint of a flash so natural light it is...

handheld stack
natural light
34 images
mpe-65
Canon 5D2
1/100
f2.8

[rjlittlefield]

Nicely done!

I notice that you were shooting at f/2.8, which is wide-open for the MPE-65.

I think that may improve your odds of success also, because in my experience long-legged flies take off when they see a nearby lens diaphragm close down.

--Rik

[iain]

ah thanks Rik, I did notice that they occasionally took off even without flash - I put it down to vibrations from the 5D2 and MPE, which can be quite clunky sounding with the lens extended - but maybe it was the aperture movement. That said, I did a f7 shot of this without it taking off just to have a less abrupt transition from in focus to out of focus at the front. The transition didn't work as well as I'd have liked, but it's a work in progress....

[MarkSturtevant]

Nice picture.
A trick to increase success rate with really fast insects is to shoot with a manual setting on the flash, so its just one burst of light. The ETTL setting sends out two flashes, the first one being used to meter the lighting. An insect with super fast reflexes will be able to fly off with the first fast, leaving an empty leaf when the second flash happens. The manual flash is not a 100% solution, though.

[iain]

Thanks Mark,

To be honest my default is to use natural light and focus stacking which means I don't have to takes heaps of equipment out in the field - it's just me with my camera on a typical day