sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Rich, thanks for asking as I enjoy sharing what I do and how I do it. The camera, lens, and other gear are the mechanical part of the process which makes them controllable, predictable, and repeatable. Illumination is the most dynamic and difficult part of the process and light is all that the camera sees.

I've tried using Speedlight flashes. Monolights and softboxes, and a gosh knows how many other sources of lighting until I fell in love with the simplicity and reliability of the IKEA JANSJÖ desklamps.

I find that lighting and diffusion go hand-in-hand. I tend to think of it as the sunshine and the soft light produced by the clouds. With that as the basis of my theory, the light source must be a distance away from the diffusion (again..the relationship of the sun to the clouds). THEN...the diffusion becomes the source of illumination...not the lamps themselves. THAT is the light that must be managed. That soft diffused light. Placing the lamps in a way that one is forward of the subject and another pointing toward it from behind produces a hint of a rim light helping the subject stand out from its black background. I use the physical law of light to create the black backgrounds which is that the intensity of light varies with the square of the distance from the source.

By placing NOTHING behind the subject for a foot or so, there is nothing to reflect light back to the camera past the subject which is softly illuminated. This results in a pure black background. At times I'll set a "free sample paint swatch" or pastel-colored scrapbook paper behind the subject to create a pastel color background.

Attached is a picture of the IKEA LED desk lamp that sells for under $20 and a picture that shows how I diffuse them by placing the specimen inside of a "light tunnel" made from a cardboard toilet roll tube and vellum tracing paper.

(Download)

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

RPSteiner, thanks for viewing. I've seen the things around me all my life. It wasn't until I retired that I actually started "looking" at all of the wonderful things around me which spurred me to appreciate and want to learn more about them and to do that I felt the need to see them in ways that I could not do without the unaided eye.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks for the reply, Jeff.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks for viewing, Angler.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, Manglesphoto. I appreciate your reply.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, Jaymatt. There are a lot of weevils living in farm country.

dborengasser

Thanks for the work; it's things like the detail on your picture that continue to cause me to question evolution, even after 13.7 billion years!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

The Master at work, Gary!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, Dborengasser. Mother Nature has a design plan for each of her creatures and when things change, she changes her plan.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, UTMike. I appreciate your viewing and replies.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good macro, Sippy.

tcthome Loc: NJ

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Earnest, thanks for the feedback.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, Tcthome. Glad that you could stop by.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Wow - that's one of your best stacks, Gary.