> I've been considering getting a ringlight for closeup and macro > photography. The choices of Pentax equipment are the no-longer-made > AF-080C, and the newer AF-140C.
Thanks for the info about the ringlights. To rehash a bit... The big difference between the AF-080C and the AF-140C is: The AF-140C has modeling lights and can fire either L/R/L+R strobes so you can control the light and provide contrast, even at macro scale. Timothy Sherburne mentioned: > John Shaw's "John Shaw's Closeups in Nature" (ISBN 0817440526) is a great > book for getting started with macro photography. He shuns ring flashes in > favor of using small ordinary flashes mounted on a "butterfly bracket". And, > indeed, his images do make use of shadow perfectly. I took a look at the book, has a lot of good info. However it made me realize that perhaps "Macro photography" is the wrong term to describe what I'm trying to do. It looks like a good book about Macro, though. Jostein mentioned: > However, there's a lot of nice things that can be done with ordinary > flashes too. Take a look at Mark Cassino's site; > http://www.markcassino.com/index.htm > he's using a Z-1p with a A*200/4 macro and a AF500-FTZ. Ahhh, I remember reading that now that you mention it. Same note as with the Shaw boo, though ... perhaps Macro is the wrong term. Describing the subjects that I want to photograph as "macro" may be misleading. Most of the things I want to photograph in this style are typically quite a bit larger than the negative, so perhaps 4:1 or 3:1 at the best -- with most work requiring less magnification. Because of the non-macro size of the objects (for example a model RR locomotive or some other scale object), in addition to being small one often needs a great DOF to record the object. So, that is one thing a bit different from "Macro" work which is done at such a high mag that DOF is very small. The next difference is that the subject often has a number of interfering structural details which cast shadows when using a strobe on or off camera. The ideal setup for shooting subjects in this vein would probably be some sort of "light stage" which reflects the light of the strobe a bit to diffuse it and eliminate the shadows. However, that doesn't work so well when you are at random venues and trying to photograph these items. Multiple off-camera strobes only work so-so, since they all cast shadows. They are also a chore to setup when you don't have the time or leisure or environment to do so. So ... I was thinking that perhaps a ringlight is the right solution; it is easily portable, it will push all the shadows to locations that can't be seen by the lens. If I use it in combination with a second, easily portable, strobe to provide some contrast and shadow so that things look 3d .. but without huge black strobe shadows. Comments, suggestions!? Thanks again! Bolo -- Josef T. Burger - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
