articles/Lens/marvellousmacro-page8
by Mike McNamee Published 01/04/2007
The image of the medallion shown above has none of the excessive flashing produced by a pure ring flash but does point up the perils of shooting in an open room setting. If you examine the reflections in the image above you can see the reflected burgundy of the wall units across the roses and the top left displays the reflected colour from elsewhere in the room. None of these effects is a problem if you use the DeVille dome. Our tests using the macro Macbeth Chart (available from Colour Confidence) showed that the TTL system was working within a third of a stop on exposure and just a couple of degrees off the correct white balance, a very impressive performance for such a complex lighting system and macro optical set up.
Stance is vital to the creation of blur-free macro images. The photo series shows some good and bad stances. At the top, the righthand stance is an improvement on the left as the legs are braced to reduce body movement to front and back. In the middle, the lefthand stance is extremely poor, the arms are not braced to the body and the weight of the head makes holding steady almost impossible. The right-hand of the pair is better - the buttocks are lowered and the elbows braced into the thighs reducing the movement. The bottom pair show a very useful technique, using a cane as a brace by gripping it to the camera and planting it on the floor. This will also reduce focus hunting if you have auto focus turned on.
There are 21 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025