my camera sucks, ideas to get quality pics? Options

[KVeMAN]

i have just begun tying and i have NO IDEA how to take quality pics of them. i only have tied 8 flies, of which only 3 are actually OK, but regardless i would lke to take pics to keep for myself and to share with you all.

i have some size 14's, 16's, 18's, and i think a 20.


ideas????

[pacres]

Do you have macro settings on your camera? A tripod or a stable surface is a must as well.

Flies can be tricky to take decent pics of and it might just mean playing around to find what works for you.

[Scruffy Fly]

Go to Charlie's Flybox when it is not busy and talk to Charlie about it. I bet he would be quite willing to give pointers.


You will want a tripod.
You will want a camera that has a macro focusing feature.
It is best to have one that you can do some adjustments on exposure time and shutter speeds and light balance. but with some digital cameras it is less important because the camera's exposure routines can adjust for it. but figuring out which ones those are takes time and effort.
For flies that are bushy or have wings that flair out you are going to need to be able to adjust the exposure to give a deep "depth of field" Depth of field refers to how much remains in focus front to back. In macro mode this becomes more problematic.

The flash on your camera will most likely not work adequately for close up work. That is; where you are using the macro focusing feature of your camera. The fly will either be way too dark because the surrounding background causes the flash to prematurely cut of the light because it thinks the object is adequately lighted. Or the picture will be washed out because the fly got too much light exposure.

Having three light sources available helps get good elumination of the fly details but many times I have just used my ring light in conjunction with the sunny light coming in through the window. With 3 light sources you can move each of the lights around to add or remove shadows and highlights to whatever strikes your fancy.


Keep the background plain and contrasting to the fly colors. Blue paper generally works well as a background. Gray works well many times. I think a mottled piece of sandstone rock can add a nice dimension to photographs of flies.

A number of point and shot digit cameras these days have some nice capabilities for doing these things. Search some ff forums and you will find some info on what cameras are decent.

My digital camera sometimes has a hard time initially focusing on the fly. The further away the background is the less of a problem it is. But sometimes that does not fix it. In that case I put my finger against the back side of the fly. I let the camera focus on my finger and the fly. Once the camera stops it focusing movements I quickly remove my fingers from the camera view. Then the camera re-adjusts the focus on the fly. This almost always works. Sometimes I have to repeat it a second time.

[Guest_Zero X_*]

damn you guys are lazy

 images_2.jpeg ( 3.87K ) Number of downloads: 8

[Eric Peper]

Here's an intro. Good stuff

http://globalflyfisher.com/gallery/digitizing/digital.html

Eric

Edited to replace film article with digital.

[flytire]

try reading some of this stuff

http://flyartstudio.com/wordpress/?page_id=2

[mofish]

A couple quick mentions here to some of the sources already provided.

Some of the newer small cameras, Canon's Powershot series, the G series, Pentax Optio have really good macro features. They also have a plethora of other useful stuff including manual exposure so you can adjust your settings instead of relying (and hoping) on the camera to always get it right- which they sometimes don't.

I have the Canon G9 and it's macro is excellent, plenty good for fly macro, even really small stuff (#18-20). They are no longer in production, you could find one used I'm sure- ebay. The newer G11 is very similar- $470 US.

Abe's of Maine has a Valentine's Day special on the Pentax Optio W80 ($200 US till the 15th) which is what I'm lusting for at the moment. I'll probably get one. I just put up a post on it, you can read it here. If you are interested in the G9 I wrote a review of it, you can read it here.

The G series are great little cameras but for what we are usually doing, hanging out in the water; I'd go with the Optio hands down, and it's a lot cheaper than the Canon. The other REALLY COOL thing that the Optio sports is HD video @ 30 fps. It's amazing what they are squeezing into such small boxes these days.

There are others out there, the Optio has a good reputation, its been around for awhile like Canon's G series.

One thing I saw missing in the Fly Art Studio setup that I've used is mirrors and either a light table or low angle light source to bounce from a mirror. Mirrors work on bringing up little fills on areas that aren't getting enough light (fill light).

Anyway, have fun! Don't forget to take those flies fishing...

[chewydog]

As mofish says, the w80 is a nice camera. Got one for Christmas. Haven't got it wet yet, but this fly pic was taken with it using a single light.

[Eric Peper]

This was shot with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 (6 Mp) using two standard 100-watt incandescent bulbs about 6-8 inches from right and left of the fly. Because of the Panasonic's design I was able to put a #2 close-up lens on the front of the standard Leica lens (a very nice added feature for what is otherwise a simple point-and-shoot camera). Exposure was 1/125 at f 4.5. The picture was loaded to Google's Picasa where I cropped it and adjusted the lighting. Of course the camera was on a tripod, and I used a timed shutter release. The whole setup took about two minutes to prepare.



Eric

[mofish]

This shot was taken with the Canon G9 in macro mode. I think it's a #18. Background is black poster board. Light was an overhead 12 inch florescent, under was daylight balanced light table. The florescent overhead was the dominant lighting so I set the cameras light balance for that. I used some little three inch hobby mirrors to bounce some light into the beads to make them show up a little better.

As a side note, I just bought my kid one of the Joby Gorilla pods for his pocket shooter, the smaller one and they are pretty slick. I'd recommend getting the bigger one though for the longer legs and supposedly they will support more weight. For shooting flies under lights it might be just the ticket.

[buzzlightyear]

This was taken with two "daylight" lamps (bulbs) and in manual mode, hand held. I use a Canon A720 IS.



Juan

[flybop]

I use a box very much like this one. http://www.adorama.com/VRPSIAB.html?sid=1265670398329085 As others have said, use a tripod, you can get a small, table top tripod for not that much at a camera shop. Also, go into your camera's menu and experiment with the light source setting. If your camera has a self timer, use it. Even with tripod you will get better pics with the timer. Getting the full blown Photo Shop may be a bit expensive and over kill for fly pics, but there is a much cheaper, yet still very powerful, program called Photo Shop Elements. If I remember right it is way less than 100 bucks.

The great thing about digitals is that you get immediate results and you can keep experimenting until your pics start coming out looking good.

[Eric Peper]

Another consideration . . . if your camera's menu has a "White Balance" setting, you probably have this set normally to "Automatic." If you're photographing flies with light from standard incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, you'll probably want to change this setting to a "Tungsten" option.

Eric

[mofish]

I ran into this today, might be of some help too.

http://digital-photography-school.com/macr...al-camera-users

[mofish]

i have just begun tying and i have NO IDEA how to take quality pics of them. i only have tied 8 flies, of which only 3 are actually OK, but regardless i would lke to take pics to keep for myself and to share with you all.

i have some size 14's, 16's, 18's, and i think a 20.


ideas????

Here's another simple little gadget which is about as simple and cheap as it gets- from The Strobist.