Taking pics outdoors on a sunny day in the shade works great on all subjects whether it is flies or portraits.
I have found that my scanner does a better job of photographing flies than a medium priced camera. It does not do a better job than the high end digital cameras. I place the fly on the scanner bed and prop it up if necessary by putting the point in a small piece of wood, pencil eraser etc. I place a frame around the fly [anything from some pieces of wood moulding to a pie tin with the center cut out]and support a piece of paper on the frame so it doesn't compress the fly. However this will not work for doing a sequence of pictures of how to tie a fly as the original posting asked. If something will be reproduced in b & w I have found it necessary to convert it to a b and w image. This is something you can do with most imaging programs. What may look like high contrast in color can look like mud in black and white. Ed -- Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org) ---------- Original Message ----------- From: "Deborah Duran" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, 22 May 2006 08:01:36 -0400 Subject: RE: [VFB] Spezio on photographing flies > I use a lot of Black and White backgrounds. One thing I have to > take into consideration is every picture I take ends up in Black and > White in the UFT newsletter and then ends up in color on the > website. I use my Nikon 995 Hans recommended and it's really > improved my pictures. It took a lot of trial and error trying to > figure out how something will look when it's in print. I have to > keep the background very bare and the contrasts sharp when I know it > will be printed in B&W. When I don't have to worry about the B&W > then I look at a lot of my favorite books that Radencich as done the > photographing for. He does an amazing job at adding small things to > the pictures I never would've thought of like a vintage vice, tools > or large solid colored feathers as the background. Russ Morris sent > me some really nice pictures he took. He did something very similar > and it was a nice touch. His flies really popped out of the > picture. I prefer natural light preferably an overcast day. I have > a soft box to diffuse the harsh light but I haven't used much... http://www.ezcube.com/documents/ezcube_features.htm > Regards, > Deb > > www.uftri.org > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:majordomo- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Arne Halvorsen Sent: Sunday, May 21, > 2006 7:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VFB] Spezio on > photographing flies > > Try a peice of black paper. > > "Jimmy D. Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks Tony. I have a stand-mounted LED flashlight, the one I used > at Sow Bug to light my flies when I was tying, that I can set behind > the white paper, aimed at the fly. I'm gonna try the white poly > drip tray first and if that doesn't pan out, I'll definitely switch > to the LED flashlight. > > How close to the sheet of white paper does the LED light need to be? > > JD > > Anthony Spezio wrote: > > Jimmy. Another thing I have done is use a LED Flashlight to light > up the back of the fly through a sheet of white paper This gives > some defused light to the back of the fly and eliminates the > shadow. It is something you have to play with. This is a "quick and > dirty" way of doing it in a pinch. > > Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great > rates starting at 1¢/min. ------- End of Original Message -------
