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Tiny fly, not more that 3mm., found in a very humid habitat on a river bank in between high fens.
Novmber 11th 2007 river Sil Canyon (LUGO9 at 220 mts. deciduous forest.-
Thanks for ID.
Rafael

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great, great photo!!!

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Mist probably Homoneura but impossible to say for certain without a better view of the wing.

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Hi Rafael,

i'm coming again with the question:
if possible to say something about your photo technic, photo gear?
lens/camera/flash yes or no/tripod yes or no...

again a great photo,
cosmln

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He uses a long focal length lense. :) Sigma APO 150 mm (very good lense and expensive).
the material you can see here: http://www.fotona...chas/2030/ :D
See equipo (equipment in Spanish).
The photos are one of the best I've ever seen - butterflies and birds and some odonata.

see this :D http://www.fotona...tos/69561/

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C?mara Canon EOS 1 DMark III WOW! great camera!


Very soon it is possible to get a MPE lens :D :D

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hi Jorge,

i have the same lens and just buyed a new camera (40D) hope that i will try that one in the field next week.
Canon MP-E 65 will be my next lens.

now i know the gear i'm really interested in the technic he use.

thanks for this for now,
cosmln

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canon 40D is the next camera after mine canon 30D. It appeared in August this year. The review I read seems to approve the camera. :) I have a friend of mine that will buy a canon 40D too..

Canon MPE-65 is rather hard to use! Not just lightning issues but handling it. ;) I have a similar setup when I reversed a 50 mm lens on my Sigma 105 mm and it is not easy. You can see some photos here: www.flickr.com/om.... They are all mine.
I advice to buy a Tamron 90 mm instead a Sigma 105 mm lens, it is a little better (ok, the working distance is a little smaller) because delivers crystalline photos.
I use usually jpg format, but the RAW files are much better because there is no lack of information. jpg file compacts the information, and it has the disadvantage to loose some quality.


The first lens I will get it is a MPE-65 mm and then maybe a Sigma APO 150 mm. :)

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Hi Jorge,

i think you are wrong, the correct link to Rafael Estevez (Rafael Estevez Rodriguez) page is:
http://www.fotonatura.org/miembros/fichas/7957/
and a gallery at:
http://www.fotonatura.org/galerias/1205/

hi have a complete different gear, mainly Nikon.

the link you have gave is from another person.

still waiting from Rafael to say something about his technic (if he want).

cosmln

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yep. you are right. again ;)

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No, gallery is at http://www.fotonatura.org/galerias/3946/ :D

I think it is his excellent lighting technique that makes the photos special.

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I have the same Sigma ring flash (on Canon) and I think it sucks (or maybe I don't know how to use it) :(

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just partly



yes crex you are right, wrong copy/paste :)



in one month i hope i will have one too :)
just waiting

cosmln

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ring flash turn the light in someway "hard". more darker... :S
the better is to have a very good diffuser. :)
With MPE I will not use ring flash.

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We should perhaps discuss photo matters in another thread. In larger magnifications a ring flash doesn't work well with the MP-E 65. The focal distance is so short that the flash gets in the way ...

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one very good example of use MPE and no ring flash :D

http://www.flickr...ts/590338/

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I also got a SLR with a 105mm Sigma Macro and a Ring flash. Right now I am experimenting with it. I also found that many times the flash is too hard, particularly in low light situations, and when the TTL program can not judge the light conditions right.

I think it is a good idea to set the flash intendisty to -1. It consistently gives better results, it is much easier to compensate for low light in photoshop than get rid of overexposure.

I think I'll try to attach a sheet of fine paper or a greyish foil on the top of the flash to get a more diffused light. I think it will do the job. I'll experiment around with the flash in winter.

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try the famous diffuser of Brian - (lordv) made from... coca-cola cans. :|


See here :D --
http://www.flickr...312315664/

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first of all sorry for all OT on this thread (maybe Paul will move partly in other section).

on macro ring you can't use that diffuser.

cosmln

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this is precisely the diffuser that Brian use with MPE (even for 5x magnification.) :) Much better than ring flash... that has the problems crex appointed. :)

yep. it would be better to have another thread. :)

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With Paul?s license I am able to give you a reply directly by this thread:

Hello to all,

Before I go any further and above all I would like to say that I am not an expert photographer. Evidently, day to day each one of us learn more and more and in this sense I am the first one to do so.
In spite of this I will go ahead and let you know what little I have learnt and what little I have:

Equipment:

Cameras:- Nikon D70S & Nikon D200 with battery grip MB200.
Lenses:- Sigma APO 180 mm 3,5 ? Mikro Nikkor 60 mm 2,8 ? Sigma wide angle 28 mm 2,8 which I some times use inverted with a Nikon adapter ring, and other lenses only used for landscapes and other purposes.-
Flashes:- Sigma 140 DG ? & Nikon R1C1 macro flash kit.-
Accessories:- 3 Kenko auto-extension tubes 12, 20 & 36 mm ? One Manfrotto auto-monopod 685B Neotec, (hight ranges from 74 cm to 1,70 cm) Another Manfrotto monopod ?cut down? (I shortened the length of each section to obtain a lesser height range: minimum 15 cm to a maximum of 30 cm.).

Practice/Hints:

As a general rule I solely use the D70S for two reasons: a) its lighter in weight (hand held) and it works perfectly with the Sigma ring flash 140DG, b) It is not compatible with the Nikon macro flash R1C1 and being my first digital camera... I stick to it, don?t ask me why.-

The D200 is great, but it is heavier (camera+hand grip+lens+tubes+flash) is by far a much of a burden to carry around during the whole day, even though from time to time I get on to it.
On the other hand it seems to me that the D70S (at least mine) tends to underexpose a little bit (which I prefer) meanwhile the D200 overexposes a little bit. As Xespok says I also get along better in compensating with PS the underexposures rather than the overexposures.-

I use plastic diffusers (a must) with both flashes, the Nikon flash brings its own ones, but for the Sigma I had to make them out of semi-transparent plastic which I placed with auto-adhesive velcro strip over the lamps. This " system " allows me to remove them easily when I need to do so.
I set up the flash in manual and select a different exposure for each lamp in order to avoid flat pictures and/or those dark shadows that these flash guns usually create.
I must say that I have obtained better pictures using the manual mode rather than the TTL or eTTL mode. In good lighting conditions TTL or eTTL work quite well, but when it gets tohigh contrasts/poor illumination the results are not that satisfactory. My point of view is that flat scenes, undesirable shadows or black backgrounds must be avoided. But this is only my point of view.

I usually get up early and try to take the photos when the insects are still somewhat sleepy, therefore when I am able, I prefer to use the 60mm lens with the Kenko tubes and the Sigma flash. The inconvenience is that I must get very close to the subject, some times only 8 or 9 cm away. For smaller subjects, from time to time I use the 28 mm lens inverted, this latter is much more problematic as you need to get very much closer: 4 to 3 cm, sometimes even less. Another inconvenience is that it is very difficult to focus in dim light, furthermore I must pre-select the f/stop manually and I also loose all the automatic readings of the camera, therefore its a bit of a challenge really, but some times you obtain brilliant results, specially with the smaller flies. But for the time being with this lens the real challenge is
the frightful reaction of the fly when she/he is reflected on the lens rather than the proximity of the equipment itself.

Fortunately, my favourite lens is the Sigma 180 mm which I regularly use with the 3 Kenko tubes, together with the Sigma ring Flash, it gives me an excellent working distance (between 45 & 25 cm depending on if extension tubes are fitted or not) the results are sharp, vivid and very well contrasted. It may look somewhat bulky but with the assistance of a small monopod a good stability is guaranteed.
Nevertheless in the past I did take pictures with this same equipment hand held, obviously lying on the ground and using my elbows or grabbing to whatever I could find near to stabilize my pulse, I'm sure you know about that as much as me. Anyway to my perception the use of a monopod is essential, this factor avoids blurred photos on account of trepidation. Monopods are very handy and much more suitable than tripods as these for field work are to my point of view cumbersome and practically useless.

When it comes to shooting, RAW files represent the best alternative which most of you may know by now.
Besides what I have already said, the settings I usually count with are the following


The settings I basically use are the following:-

- Mikor Nikkor 600 + tubes + Flash Sigma 140 Dg :- 1/320 seg., at f/ 18 or 22, exceptionally f/22 owing to diffraction.-
- Sigma 180 + tubes + Flash Sigma 140Dg :- between 1/320 & 1/425 seg., at f/14 or 16 not more than 18 also owing to diffraction.-

Last but not least, I some times use the integrated flash of the camera in iTTL for those casual encounters when I only have fitted the 180 mm and the subject is of sufficient size and safe working distance to do so.

Hope above gives you a rough idea of how I do things and that you may find it useful.-

Rafael

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Hi Rafael,

thanks a lot about the presentation on your equipment and technical aspects.
i'm particularly interested to see how is looking that diffuser you have made for the ring flash.
very usefull.

cosmln