Scott Murray
Senior Member
The more I have been experimenting the more I realise how much Macro and Portrait photography have in common, the lighting affects it drastically just like a portrait. And the more I experiment wit Macro and diffuser setups the more I realise that it is just a mini studio setup for portraiture and the lighting principals are much the same but on a smaller/closer scale so you need to adjust for this. But you can use the same lighting principals in macro as you do in portraiture so long as you have a few common things, with me I do insects or amphibians etc but if I want to practice my macro lighting my Green tree frog is my model and will just sit there while I take shot after shot. This allows me to see what works and what doesn't. I am thinking in my head in regards to an ideal set up but like portraiture it is all about the impact you want the photo to have. So instead I am thinking about a portable flexible solution to my macro which varies from 1:1 to around 5:1 at times. And tonight I learnt a valuable lesson. You do not always need the best diffuser. This last photo was taken with a speedlight pointing straight while holding a piece of A4 white paper above my model.
Nice diffused lighting and small catchlight, now to experiment with a front on diffuser and maybe some A4 above aswell.
Nice diffused lighting and small catchlight, now to experiment with a front on diffuser and maybe some A4 above aswell.