will47 Loc: Indianapolis, IN

I have two Canon 580EX ll flashes and I want to start using them for with my Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro. I have no idea about how to go about this or what equipment I would need. I've even though of a ring flash?? I would not object to going with something other than the 580's that would fire remotely. In fact since I want to start using flash, for things other than macro, more often, what Canon product would do that? Thank you.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Will, I have a number of Nikon strobes. In addition, I have a ring flash. I drive the strobes using a Godox transmitter and receivers. Godox probably makes similar equipment for your setup.
--Bob

will47 Loc: Indianapolis, IN

So if I have the Godox transmitter it will be compatible with Canon? I looked at Godox before and almost got that.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

If you had a Godox transmitter on your camera and Godox receiver on your flash. They make them for most models.
I think Godox has the most options on the market. Very reasonably priced.

Ringlights are great at getting light into holes. They were originally made for doing intraoral photography (inside the mouth) The drawback is that the nearly axial lighting is really flat, rendering almost shadowless results. That’s not usually interesting. I think off-camera looks better when done right. I used to teach the dental students to take the flash off the lens for some things to better show the “geography” of the teeth.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Light is light and lighting is lighting regardless if you are working closeup or far away from the subject. Basically, a ring light will usually deliver coaxial lighting with will evenly light a macro subject but may tend to be rather flat. Directional or off-camera light will yield more texture and dimensionality. The basic concept of distance- the closer the main light source the softer transition of highlight to shadow and the farther away the harder the effect. Also, the relative size of the light source to the subject also influences contrast- the larger the softer and the smaller the harder Transillumination, that is, backlighting and allowing light to pass thru the wings of insects and the petals of flowers may reveal interesting details.

Exposure wise, you can set your exposure manually or via the TTL system in your camera.

All of the above "rules" apply, you may just find that work closely with lights and subjects things that change incrementally might be more critical.

An example. if you were shooting a small insect, even a Fresnel spotlight may be too large a source to get a spotlight effect so some photographers may use a very small concentrated light source to achieve the desired effect. There are some rather tiny light sources that are specifically intended for ultra-macro work.

I am not familiar with your specific command or triggers system, however, I can't see any reason why it would no work in macro mode.

Waht are you shooting? just lie non-macro subjects and techniques, the use of different lighting methods for specific subjects may apply.

If you mention what you are shooting, I can make more specific recommendations.

Better yet- rig up your gear and shoot a few images and post them. I'm sure I and others will contribute many good recommendations once you post the results.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You just need one of your flashes, an off-camera shoe cord, a roll of white gauze bandage and a rubber band.



There are flash brackets that are adjustable so you can position the flash various ways, but I usually just hand hold the above for various shots.

That's what I used for:



The purpose of the white gauze bandage, which you can get at a pharmacy or most grocery stores, is to reduce and diffuse the output of the flash. The 580EX is way too powerful, even at lowest settings, to use up close. Two or three layers of gauze bandage work well. The rubber band holds it in place.

There are both Canon and third party clones of the off-camera shoe cord. Either should work fine. They often show up used on eBay, too.

I also have and use the Canon MT-24EX Twin Lite Macro and MR-14EX Ring Lite Macro flashes... But they are rather bulky and I don't always take them with me. Only when I'm sure I'll be shooting macro.

On the other hand, I pretty much always have a 580EX or 550EX in my bag, in case it's needed. It's quick, easy and cheap to set up and use as shown above. Put the flash in ETTL mode and you get auto exposure. If you use one of your camera's auto exposure modes (Av, Tv, P or M+Auto ISO) the flash will act as FILL. The camera will set exposure based on the ambient light conditions and the flash will fire 1.66 stops reduced output, as fill. If you put your camera into fully manual exposure mode (M without Auto ISO) and the flash is set to ETTL, you still get auto exposure though this time it will be done with FULL flash. The camera still meters and adjusts exposure, but now it's only measuring the flash and ignores ambient light. That is, unless you have the camera's exposure controls set to include more of the ambient light in the image. You can control it.

Regardless whether you are using the flash as fill or full, you can dial it stronger or weaker using Flash Exposure Compensation. In ETTL, that's done with the dial on the back of the flash, much like you do Exposure Compensation with the dial on the back of the camera.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

My Sigma 'Ring-Flash (EM 140-DG)has adjustable settings to give different light outputs to the two heads, so soft shadows can be created if desired. The unit works on manual , or TTL settings. I've had it for some time, might not be the current model on the market.

Julian Loc: Sarasota, FL

Thank you for translating 'intraoral'

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

Because someone way before me couldn't (or didn't) read the quantity and we had quite a few, we/I used to use spotting gloves instead of gauze. You could double the fingers over for more diffusion. 40 years in a medical environment and I probably only used gauze a handful of times. As to the flat lighting on a ring flash that you can always go cheap and dirty and cover part of the flash to get a lil' texture. As a side note, show of hands, who remembers the big ol' honkin 120 Medical Nikkor? It was a beast and about the only thing I "did" like about it was it could print the scale (1/2x. 1/4x etc) on your film. Didn't use it much but when you pulled it out and hooked the lens to the battery pack it certainly looked you were ready for the big time.

tcthome Loc: NJ

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

We had two of them.
Rarely used them in documenting surgery as they were too cludgy to use, but they certainly looked impressive! Opted for a micro Nikkor and an early Sunpak ringlight that had a battery pack. So much faster to use.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

It looks like you can do wireless flash with one of those on camera. Connect one with a long flash sync cable and you have two off camera units, good for macro.

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

Yeah you're right. I'm wondering if it was made more for "show" I used it more in the clinics. My OR rigs changed numerous times and depending on surgeons choice. The Plastics kids were really ring light oriented, Orthopods were 50-50, the Cardiothoracic folks didn't care as long as you stayed out of their way (And why on earth would they raise the table to the nosebleed section and stand on stools to operate is way beyond my paygrade)

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Please keep in mind when using flash that you will still need some sort of continuous ambient light source for FOCUSING ! Strong continuous sources are much simpler/easier to use - WYSIWYG - but, ultimately flash provides the most power to the subject for smaller f-stops/lower ISO's .
.