gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

I had a chance to photograph some small white moths the other day, and didn't have much success. I couldn't seem to get any balance in which the other things in the photo looked normal, but the whites weren't washed out.

Any ideas?
Thanks

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Post Processing is your friend! For white subjects such as certain moths & crab spiders, I (under)expose for white detail, then tweak in PP to recover detail in darker areas of image. The trick is to maintain exposure balance between highlight and shadow, during PP.

I also find contrast & exposure control is easier when I illuminate to a 2:1 lighting ratio, using my O-Flash set-up. Direct, natural sunlight is at least 4:1 contrast ratio, which is hard to retain detail in both highlights & shadow. A strong fill light will drop contrast significantly, as well as allow smaller aperture for better DOF.

Salt Marsh moth (Estigmene acrea) using O-Flash in strong sunlight