I have been photographing insects in the field for about three years. I now plan to photograph insects in a home studio. I have a good idea how I will set up my camera and StackShot but there are one of two areas that I need some help with, namely..
1. What ways are there to set the insect up for the shooting?
2. What are the ethics for killing insects to perform close up? photography. In the field I have always cared for the life of the critters I shoot.
3. How do you kill insects (say a fly) and then preserve it for photographing?
4. I have seen studio set-ups with small goose-neck lamps. I have been unable the source any such lamps. Anyone know where they can be bought?
5. Do LED bulbs produce a colour cast?
Setting up Home Studio.
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Bug Ethics, and lighting
Yardman,
1. I started killing bugs with Black Flag spray... Bad idea... Very messy and the bugs looked oiled. I now use ther freezer. 15 minutes in the deep freeze in the basement, or 20-25 in the side by side in the kitchen. If you are "serious" about this hobby, you may wish to get a killing jar. I have not done this so can't give good killing jar advice. There is abundant information on collecting/killing insects on the internet. As far as arranging the insect for photographing I usually super glue them to a toothpick. Prior to glueing I color the toothpick black with a permanent magic marker. This helps with glare as a toothpick can reflect a lot of light. I have a forked holder that I stick the toothpick into (a round type toothpick, not square!) and it allows me to twirl the bug as well as tip it.
2. I have photographed bugs in my basement studio for ~ 2 years. My rule of thumb regarding the sacrifice of bug life is don't kill it if you are not going to photograph it. Many more folks see my photographs than would see these insects in the wild. I think of myself as an ambassidor to the invertibrate world...
3. Regarding insect preparation, I have had good luck killing bugs using the freezer. They stay relatively fresh (in the freezer) for a few weeks. However colors may change. A damsel fly I photographed when it was "fresh" had golden eyes. A few days later the eyes were black. My best photographs are from bugs caught, killed and photographed within 24 hrs. Spiders and insects with soft sides (butterflies, moths, dragon flies etc.) don't store well in a dry condition and may not have a natural appearance as the soft areas dry and droop. There is quite a bit of information on the internet about perserving dragonflies in a variety of fluids. Perhaps this works well for other soft sided insects that don't have scaled wings... One of my pals photographs spiders that are immersed in alcohol so that the bodies appear more natural. That is pretty hard core and it is not what I would recommend for a beginner. Occasionally I have arranged "fresh" dead beetles on strips of bark to make it appear that they are perched there. The little hooks on their feet snag the rough surface and it is relatively easy. That has made for some very nice photos, but was a lot of work...
4. I don't use goose neck lamps. My first photographs were taken with an incandecent trouble light (like you would use under the hood of a car). I quickly added a second light as one light was not enough. I found that the heat from the bulbs dried out my subject very quickly and made many of the items in the setup hot. I also did not like the glare. I made a custom LED light ring that fit on the end of my macro lens using a sawed off styrofoam cup, some tin foil and electrical tape. This worked well for bugs with dull surfaces, but not for shiny ones. I then made a second LED light I call the "tunnel of love" that has ~ 48 bulbs. the bulbs are on the inside of a white water bottle (ends removed) The bulbs are arranged tangentially and shine on the interior wall and not directly toward the bug. This works well for most bugs. If it is a really shiny metalic looking insect I have a paper liner that removes all the glare and really works well. Unforunately it also attenuates a good bit of light and increases the exposure lenght... I don't drive the LEDs at full current and on my growing list of things to do is to crank up the amps a bit and see how much brighter it will go... The "white" LED lights that I use are rather blue and so I have to use a custom white balance (probably described in your camera manual). I have found that with the colors turn out OK after the custom balance is applied. Many of the really good photographers on this forum use flash lighting that they diffuse with various paper or celluoid setups. I suspect that the "goodnecks" that you refer to may be optical fiber light pipes. I don't own one so I can't speak with any experience on the topic. My dad photographed hummingbirds in my youth and I have seen and helped carry in the field many whacky lighting arrangements. Bugs are relatively easy.
Good luck!
Keith
1. I started killing bugs with Black Flag spray... Bad idea... Very messy and the bugs looked oiled. I now use ther freezer. 15 minutes in the deep freeze in the basement, or 20-25 in the side by side in the kitchen. If you are "serious" about this hobby, you may wish to get a killing jar. I have not done this so can't give good killing jar advice. There is abundant information on collecting/killing insects on the internet. As far as arranging the insect for photographing I usually super glue them to a toothpick. Prior to glueing I color the toothpick black with a permanent magic marker. This helps with glare as a toothpick can reflect a lot of light. I have a forked holder that I stick the toothpick into (a round type toothpick, not square!) and it allows me to twirl the bug as well as tip it.
2. I have photographed bugs in my basement studio for ~ 2 years. My rule of thumb regarding the sacrifice of bug life is don't kill it if you are not going to photograph it. Many more folks see my photographs than would see these insects in the wild. I think of myself as an ambassidor to the invertibrate world...
3. Regarding insect preparation, I have had good luck killing bugs using the freezer. They stay relatively fresh (in the freezer) for a few weeks. However colors may change. A damsel fly I photographed when it was "fresh" had golden eyes. A few days later the eyes were black. My best photographs are from bugs caught, killed and photographed within 24 hrs. Spiders and insects with soft sides (butterflies, moths, dragon flies etc.) don't store well in a dry condition and may not have a natural appearance as the soft areas dry and droop. There is quite a bit of information on the internet about perserving dragonflies in a variety of fluids. Perhaps this works well for other soft sided insects that don't have scaled wings... One of my pals photographs spiders that are immersed in alcohol so that the bodies appear more natural. That is pretty hard core and it is not what I would recommend for a beginner. Occasionally I have arranged "fresh" dead beetles on strips of bark to make it appear that they are perched there. The little hooks on their feet snag the rough surface and it is relatively easy. That has made for some very nice photos, but was a lot of work...
4. I don't use goose neck lamps. My first photographs were taken with an incandecent trouble light (like you would use under the hood of a car). I quickly added a second light as one light was not enough. I found that the heat from the bulbs dried out my subject very quickly and made many of the items in the setup hot. I also did not like the glare. I made a custom LED light ring that fit on the end of my macro lens using a sawed off styrofoam cup, some tin foil and electrical tape. This worked well for bugs with dull surfaces, but not for shiny ones. I then made a second LED light I call the "tunnel of love" that has ~ 48 bulbs. the bulbs are on the inside of a white water bottle (ends removed) The bulbs are arranged tangentially and shine on the interior wall and not directly toward the bug. This works well for most bugs. If it is a really shiny metalic looking insect I have a paper liner that removes all the glare and really works well. Unforunately it also attenuates a good bit of light and increases the exposure lenght... I don't drive the LEDs at full current and on my growing list of things to do is to crank up the amps a bit and see how much brighter it will go... The "white" LED lights that I use are rather blue and so I have to use a custom white balance (probably described in your camera manual). I have found that with the colors turn out OK after the custom balance is applied. Many of the really good photographers on this forum use flash lighting that they diffuse with various paper or celluoid setups. I suspect that the "goodnecks" that you refer to may be optical fiber light pipes. I don't own one so I can't speak with any experience on the topic. My dad photographed hummingbirds in my youth and I have seen and helped carry in the field many whacky lighting arrangements. Bugs are relatively easy.
Good luck!
Keith
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rjlittlefield
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Regarding ethics, you might be interested in my earlier post HERE. It's long enough that I'll skip copying it into the current thread and just consider it "included by reference".
Regarding LED bulbs, the issue is a bit complicated. Given any decent LED, it's easy to set a custom white balance so that a gray scale does photograph as gray, no colour cast. However, the spectrum of an LED is certainly not the same as daylight, flash, or halogen, so there's guaranteed to be some chance of metamerism -- two materials can appear the same under one illumination but different under another. In addition, the spectrum of an LED is not as smooth as a thermal source, so arguably the metamerism will be more extreme and thus more likely to produce noticeably enhanced or subdued colors with some subjects. Notice that I've been very careful to say "arguably" and "likely". Despite much discussion around this topic, I have yet to see anyone do a careful study of how much this matters in practice. Maybe it doesn't. The new white LEDs have much smoother spectra than older ones did, and even the older white LEDs were much smoother than the arrays of red, green, blue, and sometimes amber LEDs that are promoted for gallery lighting based on their absence of UV and their tunable colors. Search the forum for "metamerism" and you'll probably find several other discussions around these same ideas.
--Rik
Regarding LED bulbs, the issue is a bit complicated. Given any decent LED, it's easy to set a custom white balance so that a gray scale does photograph as gray, no colour cast. However, the spectrum of an LED is certainly not the same as daylight, flash, or halogen, so there's guaranteed to be some chance of metamerism -- two materials can appear the same under one illumination but different under another. In addition, the spectrum of an LED is not as smooth as a thermal source, so arguably the metamerism will be more extreme and thus more likely to produce noticeably enhanced or subdued colors with some subjects. Notice that I've been very careful to say "arguably" and "likely". Despite much discussion around this topic, I have yet to see anyone do a careful study of how much this matters in practice. Maybe it doesn't. The new white LEDs have much smoother spectra than older ones did, and even the older white LEDs were much smoother than the arrays of red, green, blue, and sometimes amber LEDs that are promoted for gallery lighting based on their absence of UV and their tunable colors. Search the forum for "metamerism" and you'll probably find several other discussions around these same ideas.
--Rik
I'll splatter more bug on my windshield than i'll ever kill for pictures....
I read the post about the lawnmower...once when i was mowing suddenly all i saw were baby bunnies running...managed not to kill any...found the smallest one under the machine scared stiff..we gathered them up and raised them till they were old enough to go out on their own..
as for running over bugs...run faster or die
I read the post about the lawnmower...once when i was mowing suddenly all i saw were baby bunnies running...managed not to kill any...found the smallest one under the machine scared stiff..we gathered them up and raised them till they were old enough to go out on their own..
as for running over bugs...run faster or die
..............................................................................
Just shoot it......
Just shoot it......
Setting up a Home Studio.
Thanks for advice so far. Helps a lot and gives me scope for research. Just one thing, BugEZ. you mention having a "forked holder" that you stick the tooth pick into. Could you please describe the forked holder - not sure what it is. The rationale for killing an insect makes sense but it will be hard killing the first one. I think I will pick on a wasp or another nasty.
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Harold Gough
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BugEZ rig
Yardman,
I have posted illustrations (see the equipment forum, BugEZ rig) of some of my rig that illustrate the "fork". It is just a shish-kabob stick with a slit that is a bit smaller than the shaft of the toothpick. I wedge the toothpick in the notch and rely on compression and friction to keep it steady.
There are many more elegent support systems for the bug in the forum. Mine works for me, but as I start to pursue greater magnification, I suspect I will have to make it less rickety.
Keith
I have posted illustrations (see the equipment forum, BugEZ rig) of some of my rig that illustrate the "fork". It is just a shish-kabob stick with a slit that is a bit smaller than the shaft of the toothpick. I wedge the toothpick in the notch and rely on compression and friction to keep it steady.
There are many more elegent support systems for the bug in the forum. Mine works for me, but as I start to pursue greater magnification, I suspect I will have to make it less rickety.
Keith
Re: Setting up Home Studio.
You might be thinking of those Jansjö LED-lights from IKEA.yardman wrote:
4. I have seen studio set-ups with small goose-neck lamps. I have been unable the source any such lamps. Anyone know where they can be bought?
5. Do LED bulbs produce a colour cast?
I don't think IKEA have stores in New Zealand at the moment, I've saw in another thread that you plan to go to the US and IKEA have stores in California.
The Jansjö LED-lights are quite cheap, in the US the price is $9.99.
I've ended up with four of them, for the most part I use them as focusing aid and support for reflective materials. When I use them for continuous
lightning I also have to diffuse them.
IKEA have now stated the color temperature as warm white 3000 Kelvin, so they produce a little orange/red color tone.
I think that IKEA have change the led-lights over time, when I bought mine I think they was stated to 3500 Kelvin and when I measured the color temperature I hit 3200 Kelvin.
The IKEA Jansjö LED-light
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20169658
Regards,
Conny
Setting up Home Studio.
Thanks for replies so far. They have been very helpful and far more than I expected.
I have one other associated question. I have the option of using two rooms for my set up. One with a window and the other with no window or natural light. If I am using artificial lighting to assist focusing and flash is there any advantage to have natural light from a window?
I have one other associated question. I have the option of using two rooms for my set up. One with a window and the other with no window or natural light. If I am using artificial lighting to assist focusing and flash is there any advantage to have natural light from a window?
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rjlittlefield
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You may find it more pleasant, but for photography it's generally better to avoid mixed light.is there any advantage to have natural light from a window?
In the portrait of a wasp HERE, the blue highlight in one eye comes from daylight through a window, when the main illumination was tungsten. (See explanation near end of thread, HERE.) Since you're using flash, the difference would be much less, however.
--Rik
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Craig Gerard
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