Jostein wrote:
http://www.oksne.net/paw/herdingants.html
Those little critters are hard to keep in focus when working hand held.
It's pretty much hit and miss, and this is the best I've managed so far.
One particular problem with ants is that their hide is hard and shiny.
With a bare flash, the highlights become specular and burned out. Using
a miniature softbox lessen the problem, but it's not all gone. Does
anyone know a good way to handle this without resorting to ring flashes?
I can tell you for a fact that a ring flash won't solve your problem
with highlights. I once found a bunch of ants dragging a caterpillar
across the yard and shot the action using a ring flash. Every spherical
surface on the ants had a circular highlight.
Your shot has much better lighting than mine did with the ringlight.
I'm guessing that you were pretty close since you were using that
stacked lens set-up. I have a suggestion that I haven't tried myself
(yet) but I've heard works well and it's cheap. Get a white plastic
kitchen bowl and cut a hole in the bottom of it just big enough to poke
your lens through. Mount the bowl on the lens and fire your flash into
the side of the bowl. The bowl supposedly gives you really nice diffused
lighting.
The bowl can also be used for close to the ground macro work. Put the
bowl over the subject, poke your lens through the hole and fire the
flash through the side of the bowl.
I can't guarantee this will work but it's something to try.
Tom Reese
