Photographing Flies, An Amateur's Frugal Approach

[DGC]

Just about every magazine and book insists on photographing flies in front of a blue background, usually clamped in a vise and enlarged so much you can count the specks on a single soft hackle fiber. I am no expert, but I presume doing that involves some fancy/expensive equipment. I also don't really like it that much but that is irrelevant.

For us amateurs with limited means and time, I find a point and shoot camera that has a macro mode is fine for my purposes so long as I do the following:

--Avoid using flash. Wait for a time when there is bright, natural sunlight, and position yourself and the fly there. (The first picture below was taken under the round florescent lamp at the tying table, but the room also had lots of natural light. The second picture was simply near a window on a sunny day)

-- Just keep taking shots using macro setting as close as you can until you get one that is close enough yet in focus. Like I tell friends about their Facebook pictures, you can take 301 pictures, keep the only good one, dump the 300 lousy ones, and no one is the wiser. I'm sure most photographers do something similar.

-- For flies I have always thought that a natural color background and a well known item for scale comparison were helpful when it came to duplicating the fly's appearance. I like to use my thumb.

--I tend to use 640 X 480 size since that seems to load fast yet gives a good presentation.

--I also use a free hosting site, in this case photobucket, to save bandwidth.





1st, Starling and Dark Hare's Ear Fore and Aft Soft Hackle, # 16, 2XL nymph hook.

2nd, Experimental Long Tail generic nymph, March Brown type, # 12, 1XL nymph hook.

Camera is Canon A560. If I were buying a camera again, it would be waterproof.

I am not tech savvy in the least, so there are bound to be many ways to get better results.

 

[Wildfish]

Nice pictures--and great advice. I have the A540, which is a generation earlier I think. What is the symbol for the micro setting? Not sure I have one.

 

[gfen]

Usually its a flower.

My own addition to this advice: Use a tripod, if one's not available you can still often get by with a bean bag or even crumpled shirt on top of some other objects as a way to cradle your camera.

Along with the tripod, use a remote release. Where one isn't available, the self-timer will do quite nicely. This way your working of the shutter release won't cause movement.

 

[shakey]

some people say making a light tent out of cardboard helps.

now tell me about this starling and har's ear fore and aft soft hackle.i like that fly,never heard of it before.when where how does one use it????

 

[ErnieBall]

A good site on this topic:

http://flyartstudio.com/wordpress/

 

[Fredrick]

Here are some of mine

 

[DGC]

Nice ones, Frederick.

Wildfish, I use the Auto setting, and then press the macro button which, as mentioned, is the flower button just to the right of the lcd screen.

Saw the fore and aft hackle used subsurface in New Mexico, though there mainly with peacock herl bodies, basically heavy hook versions of the Renegade. I can't say it is any more effective than a single hackle version, just that I like the look of it and it has caught a few fish as a dropper off a dry. Haven't tried it much any other way.

 

[Fredrick]

Thxs your aren't to bad either :-D

 

[OldLefty]

What is an ameteur?

Here's a sample. Anyone know what this is?

Dave

 

[ErnieBall]

OldLefty wrote:
What is an ameteur?

Here's a sample. Anyone know what this is?

Dave

PT variation?

 

[FishOn247]

The trick is to adjust the background based on the color of the flies.

 

[Maurice]

OldLefty wrote:
What is an ameteur?

Here's a sample. Anyone know what this is?

Dave

Easy, its a hendrickson nymph. The light color spot on the abdomen is the giveaway.

But the picture could have been more easily viewed on a lighter background.

 

[OldLefty]

Maurice, you're right on both counts. I tend to use wood for a more natural effect. But, there's that blue background again...

Dave

 

[mute]

$150 p&s

 

[flybop]

Along with the tripod and the timer, both of which greatly improved my fly pics, go into your camera settings and find the section that enables you to adjust the camera to the light source that you are using. This will really help with the overall quality of your fly pics.

I found a reasonably priced, 50 bucks, light box online. This will really help take your fly pics to a new level.

 

[Chaz]

Not sure why they want a blue background, it probably has something to do with presentation. I always though that unless you have a good lighting system you're better off with natural light. Never us a flash. There is a limit to all macro lenses as to closeness to the subject and the depth of field is very short. It takes many photos of the same fly to get a good usable photo. You can help yourself by tying the fly in a large size so it fills more of the frame.

 

[SkyBlue]

I use a blue background and a good Ott Light (google) to fill the area with light and turn off the flash.

 

[franklin]

SkyBlue wrote:
I use a blue background and a good Ott Light (google) to fill the area with light and turn off the flash.

I use an Ott light but a photo gray background.
A tripod is a must.

 

[YorkFlyGuy]

Great! :-x I don't have time to tie, fish and the other half dozen things I want to do. Now with this post, I have the urge to get home and snap some shots trying to see what I can do. Thanks for the motivation guys. Some nice ties and cool photos.

Can anyone help me slowing down the hours of the day?