got the glass, now what

<p>i have in the past month acquired the 40mm micro "g" lens<br>

and the 55mm mf micro lens</p>

<p>this brings a few questions --- ring flash? which ones are good that will work for both my f4 and my digital?<br>

or should i just use a light box when possible and light everything up like candlestick park?<br>

any tips for macro/micro lighting?<br>

not getting into the bellows yet --- are there any off brand ring flashes that will work? pretty sure i don't want the newer led lighting kits for micro = but don't want to spend $700 on the newest nikon micro flash setup either -- have considered the sb-21b --- what are my other options?</p>

<p>If you want cheap, you'll be dealing with manual units for film and digital. How can you lose for 40 bucks?</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Macro-Digital-Cameras-Lenses/dp/B006T4UUN8</p>

<p>SB-21 units are just fine but often hard to find with the adapter rings. SB-29s aren't cheap.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Are you sure you really want a ring flash? I don't know what kind of subjects you want to shoot, but a ring flash may not give you the look you want. I might suggest a macro flash bracket and a reflector, first. IMHO, you'd get more flexibility to experiment with lighting. Cheaper, too.</p>

<p>Light is light, the concepts for small objects are similar to large objects. Decide what kind of light you want first: hard, soft, directional, non-directional, etc. Then decide if it needs to be portable or not (studio or outside nature).</p>

<p>Ring lights create flat lighting, maybe good for some objects, but not for most. A light tent will create very diffused non-directional light, maybe good for some objects, and maybe the best compromise if you need to shoot a lot of different objects, but not the best for many objects.</p>

<p>Many of the LED lights are too weak for macro work without a tripod, so they are not as portable. </p>

<p>In the studio, it is easy to rig up a few speedlights and white reflecting cards. For really small objects I have used the back of business cards.</p>

<p>Outside, you will probably want a macro flash bracket. There are 3rd party brackets available. Or, If you have DIY skills, you can make one for $50 using cheap manual flashes.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I am usually handholding one of the speedlights from the Nikon SB-R1C1 kit and is triggering it with the D300's built-in flash in commander mode. I get the TTL flash meetering by doing that. There might be a problem depending on your focusing distance. I am not sure how close you can go. I am using the Tamron 90mm. When I bought it, they would sell the units seperately. I am not sure if they still do that.</p>

<p>You won't be able to use a SB-R1C1 speedlight with the F4.</p>

Hold on to your hat Blake. There's a whole new level of crazy that happens with close up work. I think it

divides up into 2 broad areas. There's close up work where you use a macro/micro lens to get pretty

close. This would include flowers and other things that are probably around the size of a quarter or

bigger. This doesn't require anything special really. I use a couple of SB600's (refurbs that I picked up

cheat), an SB900 and if I need more juice I'll use my D300 and it's on board flash (for light output and

not just triggering). I have several Frio's that I use to position them. They are cold shoes that easily

mount on anything with a 1/4" stud.

 

Once you start getting smaller, you need to start getting into extension tubes/bellows, reverse lens

mounts, etc. All of these things make the focus ring on your lens pretty mush useless. You have to

move the camera or move the subject to actually acquire focus. Using these things, the subject gets

really close the front element. I can't see how an LED ring would even produce enough light to help you

focus let alone light the scene. I haven't gotten into this to much but I've been using an Olight tactical

flashlight that is super bright and it barely lights the subject enough to focus when I put it 15mm away

from the subject.

 

One of my coworkers has gotten into super close up stuff. He's strung together enough bellows, tubes, reversed lens and tele-converters to get an individual grain of sugar to fill the frame of his D7000. He

used two SB600's, an SB700 and his pop up flash to light it and it was still pretty dark (probably 2

stops, maybe 3).

 

Here are a couple of samples that I've done. The first is with a 105mm, two SB600's and my D300's pop-

up. The second is with my 24-70 reversed at 24mm and two SB600's. It's dried thissle. The DOF is

probably 1 to 1.5mm. As I recall, it was just a centimeter or so in front of the lens.

 

Good luck.

--Wade<div></div>

Here's the second one...<div></div>

<p>I've never actually used mine (it was the last thigh I bought for Canon before I switched to Nikon), but Marumi make a cheap ring flash - so long as it's big enough to go around your lens. There are some ring flash adaptors that are just an optical path from a dedicated flash gun.<br />

<br />

For very close up (e.g. jewelry), I've just used cheap white LED torches - or even coloured ones, which gives me some coarse white balance control (I really ought to hook up some potentiometers to a tricolour LED so I have a better way to do this). But for just illuminating something, light is light.</p>

<p>Sorry, last <i>thing</i>, not thigh. Must have been a freudian slit.</p>