Don Wilson, my fabricator, made me a U-shaped piece of steel to place around the back and sides of the Bratcam. We left a bit of room between this steel lighting stage and the Bratcam's base, so that repositioning lights wouldn't have any opportunity to affect the camera or subject. I of course had the lighting stage powder coated. (The steel came from Don’s scrap box, and it took him rather little time to cut it and round off the edges, so this didn’t cost very much. Neither did the powder coating--$20, which included powder coating another small part.)
The light stands are Noga gauge stands with magnetic bases. While the arms and magnetic bases can be purchased a la carte, I found it most convenient to order them set up for machinists, from Travers Tool Company. I purchased them in two sizes: The big ones are MA61003 Big Boy Magnetic Base (about $200 each). I also have the number 001-154 associated with them—not sure if that is a Travers or Noga part number. The small ones are MG61003 Dial Gage Holder (about $80 each). The other associated number for these is 99-001-018.
What’s great about the Noga stands is how quickly they can be rearranged, and how authoritatively they stay in place once clamped. The “one knob to rule them all" (a phrase I'm stealing from AndrewC) midway up the stand locks or unlocks everything other than the magnetic base itself, which sticks and unsticks from the steel stage at the turn of the dial on the base. With these stands, I hold the light (or other object) in my left hand, loosen the knob with my right, place the light exactly where I want it, and tighten the knob. There--and precisely there--the light stays as if suspended by incantation. The cost of these stands is not small--my collection of them is the single largest expense of my macro system--but has proven to be worth it. I'm not rich enough to buy things twice, and did a lot of looking around. After serious thought, I decided to bite the bullet. Glad I did--it's like purchasing a really good tripod and ball head--hurts when you write the check, and feels good forever after. These stands sell on eBay for only a little less than the new price (I had a discount code--now expired--so got 20 percent off on some)--I've noticed this is true about top quality ball heads as well, and I think there is a parallel. This fact gave me heart--a world of bidders is probably not wrong, and these stands are obviously not depreciating like, say, my cameras. Anyway, I don't regret the purchase one bit.
In the setup below, two of them are holding hot shoe flashes, two hold a diffuser (using chip clip clamps), one is holding a background, and one is holding a reflector. The chip clips with rubber bands to hold them is a cheesy temporary measure, but works surprisingly well. I’ll address this in another post. This post showcases only a few of the lighting setups that can be arranged with this rig, but gives the general idea. For amusement, I set a rule for myself sharply limiting setup time between shots.
On the dangling wires are inexpensive eBay wireless flash triggers, attached to the Nikon Speedlights with FlashZebra cords.
After taking the above picture, I tried to see if I could move to ping pong ball illumination in under two minutes. Piece of cake.
Not sure who said it first: "If you want an image to be interesting, don't light all of it." Only one flash firing below. Oh, there is some mildly interesting mold on the lens-facing side of that leaf.
The next setup change--to "Krebsian illumination”--took under a minute, though I needed another half-minute to exchange the microscope objective for an enlarger lens. Since these plastic balls have been referred to as “elusive,” I’ve been meaning to post details of my purchase of them about two years ago. Toys R Us had a package of five for $3.00. The label says “Sizzlin’ Cool 5 Pack Softballs.” Sizzlin’ Cool is a trademark of Geoffrey, Inc., a subsidiary of Toys R Us. The SKU is #29130, but when last I checked, I couldn’t find it on the store’s Web site. I don’t call them Wiffle Balls® because this term refers to a particular brand of plastic ball, and when I was a kid, we only used that term if the white plastic ball had elongate holes in it. My guess is that if your local Toys R Us store doesn't have them now, stop in next May or June, when people are thinking about baseball and T-Ball. These balls might be called something else by then, but are probably perennial.
As I purchased them, the Noga gauge stands each came with a tip designed for holding a gauge used by machinists but of little use in my application. However, unscrewing this tip revealed a hole with M6 threads. Inserting an M6 to 1/4-20" thread adapter gave me a standard threaded screw end compatible with common photography equipment. Here is a Thorlabs AP25E6M thread adapter ($1.70) screwed into the M6 hole. I may switch to the Edmund Optics NT58-988 thread adapter ($5.50). The Thorlabs thread adapters work well, but do not have a barrier to act as a positive stop between the thread sizes, which would make using them more convenient. The ones from Edmund do. [Later note: I did, after writing this post, try the Edmund Optics NT58-988 thread adapters, but found that they are not long enough to reach the Noga threads--so I don't recommend them for this application. So far as I currently know, the Thorlabs AP25E6M thread adapter is still the best bet.]
A Stroboframe Shoe 300-405 ($9.50) screws onto the ¼-20” thread. I like this model shoe because tightening the red knob clamps the flash’s hot shoe very firmly. Also note how well it stays out of the way of the flash’s contacts.
Still on the “to do” list: Replace the chip clips, make clamps to hold fiber optic light guides on the Noga arms, and make rotatable holders for polarizing film for flashes and light guides (to use in cross-polarization). Hope this is of use to somebody; praise or scorn, suggestions for improvement, biting ridicule--all welcome!
Cheers,
--Chris
Is an really awesome illumination assembly, reminds me the robots in a factory car line!
