I need a flash for Macro's

[Royal]

I like shooting the little guys and have a Canon Rebel. I am using an expansion tube because I can not afford a dedicated macro lens for it. It works fine but by the time I get my lens and expansion tube on it the flash doesn't get to the target if I am close.

I understand I need a ring flash. I have bought two of them and one didn't work for what I needed and the other I was screwed by the dealer. It blew up on my camera, blew the battery door right off the unit and the sucker made me pay to return it. I contacted the maker of the flash and he told me the one the on line vendor sold me was not even made for the Canon Rebel.

I am a bit gun shy now. I see on ebay there are a bunch of ring flashes but I have no clue who I can trust and what the best for my needs are. I can not afford to spend any more than necessary and would like some advice from you folks.

What is a good ring flash? Is it what I need for shooting insects?

I hand hold my camera for the most part and for my shaky old butt to get a clear picture I need to crank up the shutter speed. In doing so I need more light on the subject. If in bright sunlight things are better but I can not depend on having bright sunlight.

Thanks for any help or advice anyone can give me.

Royal

 

[silvernail]

As rank amateurs go, I am just Rank and haven't got to Amateur yet. Tom knows everything. You didn't mention whether your Rebel is digital or 35mm. With film, you are stuck with the film speed but digitals let you adjust the ISO from shot to shot if you want, which helps if you need a faster shot for something. My impression is the D70 lets you use higher ISOs than most without serious degradation and I've been trying ISO 640 lately, with the Lacewing also. I think it was at 1/250 sec. when the hammer fell on that one. I have no clue as to why the flash volunteered to pop up an let him have it anyway. I shot a few outdoor bugs with the Nikon N70 (35mm) with limited success - mostly because of lighting issues and machine film processing issues, and am hoping the digital will be a little more flexible there. After you shoot a few, you will likely decide macro is a waste of time without a tripod because of the extremely shallow depth of field. Try to make sure the eye is in sharp focus in all cases. So far, I haven't tried a hand held or bracket mounted angle flash but have thought about it some. Good luck.

 

[Royal]

thanks for the information. I liked the macro that you posted. I got a few today but am not happy with them.

The first two were just messing around, trying to figure out what to do with the camera. They are not super sharp but the best I got today between the rain squalls

[attachment 94875 bugone.jpg]

[attachment 94876 bugtwo.jpg]

These next three are just me fooling around with the sport selection and taking a series of shots at a butterfly. They are not great shots but I thought the shadows were interesting. The Canon will take 7 shots a second, I think it is and this is what I got. Thank you for replying to my post

[attachment 94877 bug3.jpg]

[attachment 94878 bug4.jpg]

[attachment 94879 bug5.jpg]

 

[Tom/Cocoa]

Hi Royal,
I did a search for your camera and was unable to find a flash like you need. I haven't owned a Canon since the AE1 Progrma which has been quite a few years back so I'm not educated much with Canon. . I'm sure Canon has a flash like you need but the only place I know to get a fast answer would be DP Review on the Canon forum.. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1031
I have never had a flash for macro because I can't afford it. What I use is either my 80-200 mm with extension tube or my Sigma 70-300 macro with good light... The Sigma lens although not a true macro gives results I can live with. I'm still learning my D200 and don't have many close up photos with it yet. This was taken with the Sigma at 300 mm hand held and the flower is extremly small. Sigma4Less has this lens for a good price and even better on e-bay. There are two of these lens made but the one with the red ring is much better but more expensive.. It's a sharp lens and for the money a good buy. I will try to get more close up pictures tomorrow and post some.


http://sigma4less.com/sigma-zoom-telephoto-70-300mm-f4-56-apo-dg-macro-autofocus-lens-for-canon-eos.html

 

[silvernail]

.. .just didn't happen to catch the Perfect Pose or the Perfect Exposure. Nice Try though. For giggles, I messed with one of them a little more ... a little crop, a little more "sharpen," a dab of "lighten shadows," and a pinch of "mid-tone contrast." I don't know what any of that stuff actually does, but it's kind of fun to mess with. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Tom/Cocoa]

I love the color in the first shot and love the shadows with the butterfly. Considering the butterfly was flying I think you did a great job. It is hard to get a picture of flying butterflys because you never know which direction they will fly...
thanks for sharing.
hh tom

 

[Royal]

did a quick aim and shot a series. I think the focus was actually on the ground as there is little chance I had the crosshairs on the bug. I just though it was interesting.

 

[Royal]

and I had the camera ready and shot away. No skill to it.

I was kayaking yesterday and an eagle supprised me as it flew over abut 30 ft over my head. We were on a bend under some trees so there was no chance for a shot.

I then saw a big buzzard soaring over us. I didn't have my long lens but just put it in sport and held the shutter down. I shot a quick 30 shot burst and hoped for the best. Actually it did a nice job of freezing the bird but I did not have my long lens and the fact I was shooting against the bright sky made the bird too dark for a good shot. Fun to play with though.

There is so much the camera can do that I have no clue of and I want to know it all NOW. Don't work that way.

Hey, is Rick still coming around? I used to talk to him occasionally but have not heard from him in a long time

 

[Sodbuster27]

.. .just didn't happen to catch the Perfect Pose or the Perfect Exposure. Nice Try though. For giggles, I messed with one of them a little more ... a little crop, a little more "sharpen," a dab of "lighten shadows," and a pinch of "mid-tone contrast." I don't know what any of that stuff actually does, but it's kind of fun to mess with. Hope you don't mind.

You might also play with the Saturation levels of the colors. Be careful though, you can get carried away pretty quickly and end up with something that doesn't quite look real.

Sodbuster

 

[bobnoodle]

Just a couple of thoughts...

One thing that I've found for me is that I do better when trying to shoot flying butterflies and birds and such is if I make my center focusing point the hot one.
Then I know if I keep the object closest to the center of the frame that I have a better chance of getting a clear shot when the action is hot and heavy.
Seems like the focus will stay locked onto the moving object better that way also.

I have both the Digital Rebel XTi and the EOS-40d.
The XTi will shoot around 3 fps max while the 40d will do 6.5 fps...
It sounds like a machine gun compared to my XTi!
When the pitcher winds up and pitches and you get 3-5 frames with the XTi, you'll get double that with the 40d...



I haven't popped in for a while and I'm seeing some great shots!

Bob