[Ben Dixon]

Both nice pics Magnus.  I think the Cruncher is better, image wise.  Less lost and more more of the fly is in focus (viewed from a very amateur point of view).

Ben

[Iain Goolager]

Poles apart.

Interesting reference the camera being mounted on a stage.

I'm planning macro shot's of naturals this season and having experienced some annoyances while trying to photo artificial flies (marrying the camera and fly in the correct plane while moving the camera fore and aft to get the fly the size and position I wanted on the sensor) I'm looking to see if there is some form of adjustable 'table' something about 4"- 6" square or circular that has little screw handles or the like as the working window with a chilled specimen is very limited and I want to zap that bad boy into position super quick.

My method to date is to get the fly correctly sized and biased if req'd on the sensor, set focus then carefully shuffle the paper or holding medium until I get the eye and point in focus'ish then refocus (manual). It can be a fart about especially as you are aware the slightest bit of clumsiness or even greasy finger friction on releasing the 'medium' can throw everything off again.

Know ye of such a device? Is this stage you talk about some form of calibrated rail for the camera to move back and forth on?

Iain

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Ben

I like 'em both. Just playing with techniques and styles.

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Iain

Yes - google Focusing Stage

http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=5531

There are many models at all sorts of prices. If you get into Bellows they usually come fitted on a stage or rails so you can focus independent of magnification - distance between lens and sensor.

Lemme see if I can find a fascinating site on this

[Ben Dixon]

The Cruncher is interesting.  If you'd have suggested to me that I photographed a brown fly using a a brown cape as a background, I'd have suspected a wind up but.  It works well, mainly because it is different.

Ben

[Magnus Angus]

Ben

100% agree! Shoot 40 or 50 flies on white in one session and you get desperate for some variety

Iain



I thought this was a wind up when I stumbled on it - the guy is genuine - and an inspiration! His technique is so simple.



from http://www.thomasshahan.com/

He uses the sort of gear we already have...or less...

[Iain Goolager]

Eye of the beholder an' all that but the crop shows too shallow a DOF for such a bushy style of fly and I'm sure does little justice to a nice tying?

I see the eye is the point of focus and the fly's angle tapers away towards the hook bend, perhaps I'm wrong but it looks like one of many general snaps that a guy would take of tied flies at a show if he wasn't looking for any specific effect......................... then again the eye, red head, JC and some of the fibres are on the 'in focus plane' so maybe it's what the guy wanted, is it your shot?

Iain

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Iain

Yep, the dabbler was the last picture in a tying sequence so the effect is always going to be different. The idea is you get to know the fly step by step. I like that some of the fly is out of plane, adds some depth...

The cruncher was a fly from a sequence but is not part of the sequence - sort of a fly portrait I suppose - very static, very stylized. Those of us who tie flies normally see flies that way - right handed tyers anyway - so I think of that as 'the good side' of a fly - seems to hold true a lot of the time.

This uses a style, on white (yawn) low angle, shot from the front, so the fly is receding into the surface of the page...again a different effect and not really aimed to be analyzed by Ben for tying tips...we normally shoot a tying stage separately for that one.

[Iain Goolager]

Cracking macro video.

AH! I have just looked out my Roundabout NP Pano head and if folded and fitted to the tripod centre ( set at 90 deg's) has a rail with adjustable q/release plate that should assist no end. Champion.

All I need is a hatch, a fridge & some free time.

You know it! keep it real!

Iain

[Magnus Angus]

That macro was take 'freehand' no tripod and a setup that can't really focus, just move the whole lot in an out to find focus, and the insect is in the wild, no chilling. He uses a home made softbox on a flash so the exposure will always be the same. All pretty simple and reasonably primitive so he concentrates on the bug.

Incidentally he stopped chilling bugs when some died. 

[Iain Goolager]

Yup, have heard of 'giving a fly a sense of depth' and as said IF this is the intention AND as a resultant 'life shot' after an SBS the it'd work.
 Along the same lines (or conversely in fact) I shot a Silver Vermin fly recently on a white ('yawn' to you 'new' to me  ) background and PS'd the shadow out................what an absolute lifeless boring heap of horridness - so artificial - binned the shot.

What is the in vogue method of holding a fly? I remember your Royal Wulff on a rod handle against a yellow background, seemed unlikely to me at first but in the flesh it worked so well I used yellow as a backdrop for many of my flies. Just goes to show how little I know.

Respect 'innit

Iain

[Magnus Angus]

The vogue?  

You need to ask someone young and trendy about that....Ben perhaps...he might know someone young....



Having said I dislike blue backgrounds

[Ben Dixon]

Magnus,

You maybe picked me up wrong, I was not analysing the tying.  My comments were squarely aimed at the way the picture was taken.  I prefer that to the white background and even the dark stuff on the fly shows up well.

Cheers
Ben

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Ben

Sorry, I just put your name in there, I shouldn't have implied anything about how you see pictures of a fly - my bad.