As most macrographers know, if you shoot a scene where there's no immediate background, it'll turn out dark or pitch black in the shot. I am talking about full flash photography here, not fill flash or natural lighting, of course.
All images were shot with a Canon 40D, MP-E65 1X-5X macro lens
, and MT-24EX Twin Flash
The shot will look something like this:
a robber fly with prey, a hopper
Black background can be cool, and I do like how the shot turned out. But too much of it and it gets a little boring. So whenever I can, i try to set up the background or change my angle to get some colorful leaves in the near background. I discovered this after a couple of months of shooting with my newly acquired D80 and Tamron SP90 some time in August 2007.
white flower with black background, Aug 2007
As mentioned, i do think black is cool but whenever possible, i try to add colors to my shots whenever circumstances allow and the bugs are cooperative:)
A longhorn beetle with bromeliad at the back to provide a pink bg
A lime butterfly with a Carrefour CNY red/pink envelope as bg
a newly emerged fly (horse fly?) with green leaf as bg
Don't try this as soon as you see a bug though, as most bugs will just fly away as soon as you try to set up a bg. Just shoot it as it is first. Once you're sure you've got a few good shots, then you can try whatever you want. Good luck!
All macro images shot with a 40D, Canon MP-E65 1X-5X Macro Lens and Canon MT-24EX Twin Flash
Yep, black gets old very quickly.
ReplyDeletei think black background complements some subjects really well, such as the robberfly shot. it really brings out the subject into attention, in comparison to other background, such as green or brown.
ReplyDeletethe longhorn beetle on the other hand, looks very good with a red background. btw, i think that's not pink lah.. it's red :P Okay, fine.. it's reddish pink :P
Thanks for dropping by and commenting, Nick and LM:)
ReplyDeleteNick, gets olds easily? LOL...don't get it:D
LM..i'll give u purer pink next time :D