| Joined: | Wed Apr 18th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
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Eric wrote:
Adco wrote:Generally, the insects are either stationary or moving very slowly anyway. The fast moving or flying insects don't get snapped because they just become a blurry mess.
I have a D3100 and I am using it with a Sigma 105mm Macro lems. I want to take pics of insects primarily. I was advised to get an external flash to help me light up the subjects. At the moment I get reasonable shots (see my gallery) using ambient light only.
The question is this: how do I make the camera fire the flash even if it thinks it is not needed? I am shooting in "P" mode. I am looking for a setting like the one on a mobile phone where you can force the flash to fire every time.
Also, am I going about the Macro route correctly? I see there are also LED Macro rings available but the reviews aren't great. Any comments on LED rings?
It's my experience that the more hardware you wave at an insect, the more likely you will scare it off! This is especially true in the field.
Switching the flash on, in P mode, will force the camera to use its flash shutter sync speed. Not sure what that speed is for the D3100 but it may be too slow for moving bugs...and it may cause the camera to choose too wide an aperture ...that isn't ideal for macro.
I don't think the additional bulk will make a difference. Either they don't care and stay put or they see you coming and move to the other side of the leaf or stalk. I found that a fly on a leaf can stay put for a long time. It's as if they are sleeping. A leaf hopper never seems to sleep and I always only get a fleeting glimpse of them as they disappear.
I haven't done any bug photography for some years. This is the last and it was 6years ago.
. Time really does fly!Attachment: 8FD92CF4-BAF6-4A86-8506-FD0C66B332F0.jpeg (Downloaded 5 times)
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Eric