Bocianka1
Member
As i set out to take some pictures of the flies from the fall patterns swap, i realized i didn't know much about successfully taking pics of flies or anything that small. After searching here and not finding much, i ended up finding some great hints buried among comments in a thread from a different forum. I thought it might be a good idea to gather them into one place here on this forum and see what others might have to add to them. I can't be the only one who had trouble taking pics of their flies. Maybe this thread will help others as they start taking photos.
So here are the nuggets of wisdom i gleaned so far. Please correct me if any of this is wrong. my understanding of photography is minimal at best. Which is why i was reading forums on it to begin with.
• Start with good lighting.
• Best option is to set your camera up on a tripod very close to your vice - we're talking inches, not feet.
• Make sure you have a solid color background behind the fly that offers some contrast. Light background for dark colored flies, or dark background for light colored flies. Remember the background may reflect some of it's color onto your flies and change the look of the colors in the photo. if all else fails, use white as a background.
• Take photo in macro mode, which may take some playing around with and is, in fact the hardest part. You need macro if you want those close-up shots. It allows the focal point to be much closer to the lens, which in turns allows you to shoot much closer to the fly.
• Get yourself some diopter lenses (they are pretty cheap on eBay). They will allow you to put the fly right up to the glass, and it adds a magnification factor as well.
• The only problem with "fake" macro photography with point-n-shoots like this is the depth of field (DOF) is extremely shallow. The f-stop doesn't go down far enough. With flies it's really no big deal, you're only normally shooting on one plane anyway. With more 3D objects, it's a much bigger problem. True SLR cameras with very large apertures will solve this problem for you.
• The more magnification you use, the shallower the DOF gets.
• A fast shutter and a large aperture will give you very crisp close-ups.
• Definitely make sure you're not shooting in low light. This will force the camera's metering system to decrease your shutter speed. If you have an SLR, stop it down to f/22 at least for the superb DOF. I sometimes go down even more. Just know that the more you stop down with an SLR, the greater chance that you'll notice specks and dust bunnies in your image. That's the dust that collects on your sensor from changing lenses.
• Low depth of field will result in the body of your flies being in focus but the hackle is slightly out of focus (or vice versa). Manually lower the aperture to increase the depth of field. If you can’t manually change your aperture, add more light and "trick" the camera into using a smaller aperture.
• Check you pics afterward. They can look good on your small viewscreen but different on the larger computer screen.
• too much light will wash out your picture, so don't hold your light source right up next to your flies.
(i don't know if this topic is best here in the fly-tying section, or in the Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing section. Mods, feel free to move it if you feel it's better placed elsewhere).
So here are the nuggets of wisdom i gleaned so far. Please correct me if any of this is wrong. my understanding of photography is minimal at best. Which is why i was reading forums on it to begin with.
• Start with good lighting.
• Best option is to set your camera up on a tripod very close to your vice - we're talking inches, not feet.
• Make sure you have a solid color background behind the fly that offers some contrast. Light background for dark colored flies, or dark background for light colored flies. Remember the background may reflect some of it's color onto your flies and change the look of the colors in the photo. if all else fails, use white as a background.
• Take photo in macro mode, which may take some playing around with and is, in fact the hardest part. You need macro if you want those close-up shots. It allows the focal point to be much closer to the lens, which in turns allows you to shoot much closer to the fly.
• Get yourself some diopter lenses (they are pretty cheap on eBay). They will allow you to put the fly right up to the glass, and it adds a magnification factor as well.
• The only problem with "fake" macro photography with point-n-shoots like this is the depth of field (DOF) is extremely shallow. The f-stop doesn't go down far enough. With flies it's really no big deal, you're only normally shooting on one plane anyway. With more 3D objects, it's a much bigger problem. True SLR cameras with very large apertures will solve this problem for you.
• The more magnification you use, the shallower the DOF gets.
• A fast shutter and a large aperture will give you very crisp close-ups.
• Definitely make sure you're not shooting in low light. This will force the camera's metering system to decrease your shutter speed. If you have an SLR, stop it down to f/22 at least for the superb DOF. I sometimes go down even more. Just know that the more you stop down with an SLR, the greater chance that you'll notice specks and dust bunnies in your image. That's the dust that collects on your sensor from changing lenses.
• Low depth of field will result in the body of your flies being in focus but the hackle is slightly out of focus (or vice versa). Manually lower the aperture to increase the depth of field. If you can’t manually change your aperture, add more light and "trick" the camera into using a smaller aperture.
• Check you pics afterward. They can look good on your small viewscreen but different on the larger computer screen.
• too much light will wash out your picture, so don't hold your light source right up next to your flies.
(i don't know if this topic is best here in the fly-tying section, or in the Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing section. Mods, feel free to move it if you feel it's better placed elsewhere).
