Digital SLR Photography - UK (2019-10)

BACKLIT BEAUTY!

Holding the LED light behind the butterfly

creates the most attractive and dramatic

effect. It was well worth the trial and error.

Exposure: 1/160sec at f/11 (ISO 1000)

to his camera, but front light can produce
quite flat, shadowless results. Instead, I
encouraged Chris to handhold the device
and move it around the butterfly until he
found an effect he liked. Side-lighting
worked well, but placing the light behind the
insect worked best, creating a lovely backlit
effect. We were able to adjust the light’s
intensity by simply positioning the light

closer or further away from the butterfly.

Chris hadn’t used his LED before and

couldn’t believe how dramatic its effect was.

An hour whizzed by and with natural light

quickly fading away, it was time for us to

call it a day. Chris packed up his kit and we

headed back to the car, but not before we

said goodnight and thank you to our little

six-legged friend for posing so willingly!

WORKSHOP SUMMARY:

ChrisColyer

“When I met Ross at his house, I was

feeling a little apprehensive to be

honest. I’m relatively new to

close-up photography and not

accustomed to shooting at high

magnifications without a tripod. The biggest

challenge for me was to capture handheld

images of busy insects using a macro lens.

Damselflies were abundant at the nature reserves

we visited, but they were quite active and would

often rest on distant reeds that did not allow for

close access. Ross gave me some good advice

on fieldcraft and camera placement. I quickly

discovered that autofocus struggled with such

small subjects, so I had to quickly get to grips with

manual focus techniques, being careful to place

subjects on the correct focal plane to maximise

subject sharpness. By the time we visited our

second location, I really felt I was getting more

competent at stalking subjects, and also

selecting the right combination of aperture,

ISO rating and shutter speed to get the results I

wanted. My favourite shots were from our final

location. Using a tripod gave me far more control

and I we were able to light the butterfly creatively

using a LED light panel. I really enjoyed the day

and feel my close-up skills and knowledge are

now much improved. Many thanks to Ross and

Digital SLR Photography m a g a z i n e .”

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October 2019 Digital SLR Photography 75