Beetle

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Nikon N70, Vivitar 100mm macro, flash, handheld, Fuji Sensia II 200.

This image is not exactly what I wanted, but I'm not sure how bad it is compared to other beetle pics. The problem, it seems, is that the beetle is so dark and reflective it looks underexposed, despite the fact that I was using spot metering! Any comments and/or suggestions for improvement?

This is my first beetle series, by the way. To make things worse, I have no idea what type of beetle this is! My apologies to those of you who are disturbed by that sort of thing. Anyway... Thanks in advance.

-- Joe Cheatwood (cheatwoo@ufl.edu), August 11, 1998

Answers

The only suggestion I would make is to try one of the flash diffusers, it looks to me like the lighting is just too harsh to show the beetle well. Normally the head of a regular flash is large enough to give fairly diffuse light with these small creatures, but if you are holding it far enough away, it acts like a specular source anyway. A 6 or 8 inch diffuser held 6 inches away will give a softer light and larger reflections that may improve the look of the beetle's dark and shiny body. Photographing this kind of creature is much like photographing jewelry or other small shiny objects where the real trick is controlling reflections more than anything else.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), August 12, 1998.


Oh, I forgot something else: get an off-camera flash cord, too, and hold the flash more or less overhead or even a bit to the rear and off-side of the beetle. This is real tricky with the camera in hand and tiring, too, an assistant would be a big help.

Another option is to make a bracket that holds the flash and diffuser in the right position well in front of the lens. It makes the the camera rig a bit heavier, but, what the hell, it's the finished image that counts, not how much you suffer to get it, right?

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), August 12, 1998.


Yes, Joe, I'm very disturbed, but that's another matter. This is a real common carabid (ground beetle), perhaps in the genus Pasimachus, but that's a guess. They have a real pretty, delicate stripe of violet along the sides of the pronotum that your picture just hints at on the left side (the beetle's left). These and most other beetles are so shiny that to avoid the flare and highlights I think you have to either go for natural light and longer exposures (tough, because these guys don't like to sit still - you can try chilling them for a minute or two to slow them down) or go for a moderate to large softbox and get really diffuse lighting. Either way, it makes photographing them in the field tough. As for the exposure, the N70 has an autobracket feature that will take three consecutive shots of any subject at f-stop increments you decide upon. You might try that for any tough exposure problems and hope one of them hits. The focus and depth of field are fine here, though.

-- Nine-pig Pete (peter.may@stetson.edu), August 12, 1998.

Disturbed? Hardly! Hiking near Boulder CO I and my SO happened upon what looked like a mushroom converted to a motel by some blue/pink metallic covered beetles. She wouldn't get near them. I wish the photo was of a quality to post here, it would be nice to have a description. The beetle photo started a habit of trying a few macro shots on each roll.

Anyhow, I like the photo. It has a nice, non-distracting backround that doesn't lead my eye away from the beetle. ESP

-- Eric Peltier (espelt@winternet.com), August 12, 1998.

On my screen, he looks perfectly exposed (which is not easy to do with a black subject. He's just too reflective. The shot needs diffused or side lighting.

-- Mabel Huber (rurpho@tele-net.net), September 01, 1998.


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