Taking Pictures of flies.

I was told about this by a guy called Mike Connor on another forum. He used this device to help the camera focus on the fly while it was in the vice you can get very detailed pictures with it (mine are not as good as you can make them though :? ). To make the device I used a plastic lid that you get on a tower of Cd's the one that twist on. You have to line it with something to reflect the light I just used white paper and used some card as a background so the camera can only focus on the fly. [img]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r30/jack01986/DSCF1059.jpg[/img]

Don't use a flash with this but use a lamp or something bright to illuminate (I used the camera flash on my phone) it you can see in this picture where I cut out a section for the light to shine through and the hole for the vice to go through. [img]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r30/jack01986/DSCF1060.jpg[/img]

You can put some tinfoil on the bottom to help illuminate it from below as well. I take the picture in macro mode and try to fill the frame with the fly. Id use a mini tripod if I had one to keep it steady. Once you get the hang of you can take the pictures without the device. I also use picasa software from google to sharpen the up if i need to (its free). You can get some good pics with a fairly simple setup. The first one probably needs to be sharpened up a bit and the second one is the best one Ive done so far.

[img]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r30/jack01986/DSCF1056.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r30/jack01986/DSCF1049.jpg[/img]

Nice pics. I've tried it before and its a difficult thing alright. If you have flies that aren't very 3-dimensional i.e. don't have spread out wings, etc, say buzzers, wetflies, I've found using a flatbed scanner is brilliant for capturing them. Obviously wouldn't work too well for fanwing mayflies, but most wets and some dries work fine. Other advantage is the plain white background and no vice holding the fly.
Will try to post some pics up tomorrow if I get a chance...

Thats a good tip there Jack01986. Will have to give it a go...

Some pics from the scanner, resized for posting so they're not as detailed as the originals.

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Looks good Bradan they look pretty detailed there. I have a old scanner somewhere must have a look for it. Some trouble with the device is its awkward for bigger flies like for SWFF as they don't fit in properly. The scanner is a good idea for them.

Great idea Bradan, the results are really good.

use aperture priority setting on the camera and use the highest aperture setting this will ensure that the depth of focus is at its highest it also means that shutter speed will be really long so rest the camera on something if you do not have a tripod

use aperture priority setting on the camera and use the highest aperture setting this will ensure that the depth of focus is at its highest it also means that shutter speed will be really long so rest the camera on something if you do not have a tripod

Bob,

Could you explain that in a bit more detail...like what symbol on the dial knob ? to use......I am a complete beginner with settings.....once I leave "auto" I am in space :oops:

BTW.....does a digital have a shutter ?

Tom.

Yes digital cameras still have a shutter they are still pretty similar to film cameras they replace the film with a sensor which record the light coming in through the lens.

Aperture: is the measure of how big an opening is made when the shutter is opened (the Click) a large lets alot of light in but has a a shallow depth of focus (only a little part of the shot is in focus) a small aperture only lets a little light in but has a large depth of focus most of the shot is in focus.

And just to confuse you further a small aperture number (f1.8 ) means the shutter aperture is really big (it opens really wide)

people who designed cameras must be such geeks.

To be honest I only got my head around apertures and focal lengths in the last year. and it is still kinda fuzzy.
on a canon the Aperature priority setting marked as AV and the shutter priority is Tv.

In this example you want a big fluffy fly in all in focus so you would use a high Aperture number so you will get the bits of the fly pointing towards the camera (Nearer) and the bits further away all in focus.

most pros will just use the auto setting on their camera for most shots
but this photographing flies could get quiet techy if you wanted it to.

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/ here is a glossary on dpreview which is a great site.

hope that helps.

"Id use a mini tripod if I had one to keep it steady. "

Have a look here

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product ... s_id=99649

I've got a couple of these and they are great value. Had a look and they charge £7.95 postage to Eire but if you're buying a few bits and pieces it soon offsets the cost. I usually wait until I need a few bits such as photo paper, spare memory card etc and the service is very good.