Macro with a single strobe.

[The_blue]

Hi everyone.

I've used my strobe for years and have wide angle nailed down but have limited experience with wide angle work.

I've off to bali in 5 weeks and have bought a macro wet lens. Dry practice shows i can get fully zoomed it at about 20cms/8 inch from the camera

I've always tried to use edge lighting to stop scatter but on the few macro shots i've tried i've never figured out an ideal placement.

From what i can work out, i have 3 main options as detailed in this stunning drawing... Note the lesser spotted pickle nudi!


1 light head on.. Not a great fan as the subject looses any shadow and feeling of depth.

2 light using the leading edge, my normal back scatter setup.

3 light with the far edge - top down. Strobe over the camera. Tried this and like the shadows but i'm lighting the water in between..

I suppose options 4 and 5 are variants of 2 and 3 but lit from over the subject.

Any thoughts on these? Any examples would be great

 

[bvanant]

In general I think option 2 is the best, but for most people lighting from the left with the shadow on the right side is more pleasing than the same exact photo that is flipped with the shadow on the left.

Bill

 

[Interceptor121]

I tried a lot with edge lighting and sometimes got good results however it tends to fool the strobe TTL and I am too lazy to switch to manual on occasion so I shoot mostly with position 1 and I do not find the shadows to be bad at all but of course this is subjective

 

[gekodivebali]

I tend to start with number 1, then move the strobe around a lot. I'm willing to accept a fair amount of misses to get one exceptional shot. After a while, pictures of the same critter with the same lighting get boring...

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You can place a single strobe over the subject like this

or point the strobe inward like this.

 

[The_blue]

I've never used the TTL option anyway so not a problem.

I need to get in the water and have a play

Thanks folk!