Macro Lighting - creative options for indoor macro photography 

Thank you Allen for your guidance in such a complex subject which is relatively ignored. Hats off to your creativity and sense of humor !!

Thank you so much, Allan, I really appreciate your advice on lighting. This is fantastic!

Allen… Thanks for this great video! I’m at this moment starting out with Macro and have decided to start with a simple home studio. Lighting has been a big challenge so this video has me off to IKEA…LOL

A great tutorial which covers a variety of lighting and background options. To achieve a truly black background, however, I think there's a better way, and it doesn't involve positioning baffles or using black cardstock or cloth background, though those items might be useful on occasion. It just requires a bit of space -- enough space that the distance to the background is many multiples of the distance between your principal subject and the lights (either constant or flash) which illuminate it. The operative principles? (1) black isn't a color; it's the absence of light. (2), light diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance from light to subject (the inverse square law). And (3), If the background is far enough away from a light source to be deprived of light, then it will appear black no matter what color it actually is. The "black" background in many of my shots is actually a white garage door. I setup my macro equipment in a cluttered garage (half of it filled with woodworking machines) because I don't have a dedicated space for it in my modest home, because the garage floor is concrete and less prone to vibration than the wood floor in my living quarters, and because the garage lacks window, which enables me to better control lighting. If I back out the car, I have a large, albeit it temporary, space to work in. Suppose I'm lighting my subject (an insect, for example) with either constant LEDs or speedlights operating at fractional power. And suppose that those lights yield proper exposure of the subject when only a few inches away from the bug. If the background is double the distance in inches from those lights, then it will receive only 1/4 the amount (inverse square) of light as the principal subject. If five times the distance, it will receive only 1/25 the mount of light. If ten times the distance, then only 1/100 the amount of light. If twenty times the distance, then only 1/400 the amount of light, and so on. If the lights are only inches from the subject and background is situated many feet away, then the fall-off of illumination is so dramatic that it's equivalent to far more stops than the dynamic range of your camera sensor. Voila, a truly black background. Try it! Hank

Another excellent video with a wealth of valuable tips and tricks. Thank you. Looks like I'll be back in IKEA once restrictions allow.

Thank you again, Allan.

I bought a couple of those inexpensive LED lights from Ikea that you mention in the video and have been very pleased with the amount of light they provide as I photograph spring flowers, but I have (until now) not been able to get the colors right. Yesterday, I finally had a DUH moment and realized I should check my camera's (D7200) white balance. My white balance was set at 5000+K, and the Ikea web page for the lights says they produce light at 2700K. Once I have set my white balance at 2700K, everything looks great! Also, I have been using the self-timer to eliminate camera shake between focus stacking shots and have now switched to a manual shutter release (MC-DC2), and that has sped up the process considerably.

Thank You Allen 🤗🤗🤗

Thank you Allan!

Really enjoy your video"s...keep up the good work!

22 mins into the video and I realised I'd made the right decision and the right purchase! As you were demonstrating the LED desk light! Also the smaller Gooseneck lights. I cannot understand for the life of me why certain companies are charging a small fortune for devices that do exactly the same job! Thanks for a very informative video.

Excellent advice. Thanks

The last one using light as bed lamp is awesome

My go to setup to get a black background would have been to shut the aperture down to like F11 and shoot against a black background that sat back a few feet. Your method seems to work really well, preserves sharpness, and is a lot more compact. I'll be giving that a try soon, thanks for taking the time to make these videos! I for one appreciate you sharing your hard won expertise so freely! Cheers!

Thank you Allan I have recently discovered your channel and am new to photography so these tips and tricks walk throughs are a God send. This one was particularly useful and will be a huge benefit moving forward, great stuff.

Hi Allan, yes once again a really informative and enjoyable video. Fingers crossed for the video showing the design and making of your lighting frame/rig that you mentioned. Thank you and Happy New Year from the UK.

Hi Allan, thank you for your video, It was the first time i have watched one of your video's. I am glad to report that i tried lighting up a bottle stopper from underneath a blue piece of card with a small LCD light and i got great results and improved my likes on the Macro monday's group of Flickr that i enjoy being part of. Thanks again ..

great tip with the light attached to a metal straw. something that makes a great light scatter is putting a light source through a drinking glass with engraved/cut pattern on it. nice for a bokeh background or funky light on your subject

Hi Allan, once again I really enjoyed your video. Some really useful advice. Looking forward to 2020 line up. Cheers and happy new year from NZ

I always walk away with a useful nugget or two from watching your videos. Love the wrapping paper "gel" idea. With a little imagination you can save tons of money on your photography (which is expensive enough!). Happy New Year to you Sir!

Thsnk you for that honest session ❤

First time on your Channel, and I really liked your explanation. Thanks for the class.

Thanks for that really gave me lots of ideas !

Very informativ Video. I will try some of these settings to improve.

Another great video. New subscriber.

Allen, I certainly enjoy your creative ideas for indoor micro photography. The one thing I was interested in is how you attached your focus rail and camera to your homemade lighting stand. Thank you

Colleague I like the Ikea yellow natural light 💡. you mentioned in. 36:02 not harsh and very consistent.

Hello Allan, Just discovered your videos. Very informative. I already had one of these Ikea led lamps for domestic reasons. The shop in question being round the corner i'll buy two or three more. I very much appreciate your sharing of your expertise. In my case the actual shop in Haarlem (The Netherlands) is closed because of covid-19, but they have sort of a takeaway in the parking lot so I can pick them up tomorrow or the day after. That's all folks. Wish you all good health.

Hi Allan!!, this is a magnificent video about the different ways of using various lighting sources, with this video you have helped me a lot to clear the doubts I had about how to use the flash, how to get the black and white backgrounds, how to use the led lights, in short many tips on what can be done with things we have at home. I have learned a lot with you these days, I am recovering from a surgery that was done to my face and I cannot do some things, so I am taking advantage of these moments to learn everything you are teaching in your videos. I am going to send you some of the photos that I have taken and also one of my work table that is similar to the one you have for you to give me your opinion. Personally I thank you all the time you take to prepare your videos with very precise and detailed information in addition to showing all the material we can use and how to do it economically. Allan God bless you. With best wishes Enrique.

Amazing video... thanks for sharing all that knowledge. Try reading by speedlight LOL

Happy New Year 2020 to you Allan From Singapore :)

where can I get those LED at 4:43 in your video, sir, and what brand? Your beatle shot there was magnificent.

Allan, Could you please make a video about Gemstone photography and what will be your setup? and what type of Lens do you use?

Thanks for the great tutorial. What brand are the small round led light on the arm with the clamp?

Great tips! Thank you, sir. Do you think it's a good idea to put a raynox near lens infront of a dedicated macro lens, to get closer to the subject? Or it'll destroy the image quality? Thank you in advance.

Get info....where did you get that little softbox and battery pack statue

The flat round LED lights are probably "Habitat Dotty LED Clamp Lamp - Black" available in the UK from Argos, price £15.

Hi Allan, very interesting and informative, could you possibly let me know what is the model no etc. of the Ikea clip on lamp, they look great!

Hi, found your channel couple days ago...very nice content! Macro photography is my favorite , so really enjoying your tips. Would love to see your version of a platform/cage. Happy New Year!! Regards from Athens,Greece

can you explain how did you build yuor "macro table" and what are the 3 screws for???

you were getting a thumbs up anyway but the clamp trick did it!

Hi Allan, Love the video. I have found similar lamps on ebay but they are a LED warm light 3000k is a daylight lamp preferable

I want to step up my macro photography and have recently gotten a couple of flashes and also a Mcoplus 14EXT-N 5500K Macro TTL Ring Flash. The ring flash is a definite step up from the smaller, less expensive ring light (I may not be phrasing that correctly). My lack of knowledge when it comes to flashes (of any type) is really showing its head. Are you familiar with anything like that or do you have videos (that I haven't found yet) on using a flash properly? The A and B options and just using the flash, in general, are all very confusing. I have only found a couple of videos on that particular macro flash. Thanks!

Happy new year 🥳 all.

Hello Allan - I've had issues with LED lights flickering (when using constant lighting sources) - any comment on that one I wonder ? I've ordered up the Ikea LED flexible arm lights you suggested to try with my macro work. But I wondered - with a Nikon Z7ii and Helicon Remote for focus stacking I have suffered with LED flicker in the past. So hoping the Ikea lights I've ordered don't suffer with that !! Thanks for some great inexpensive and creative ideas in your videos on macro photography !! Richard

Hi Allen, you don't worry about the CRI values an IKEA light is probably only CRI 65 or 70.

Would you agree that the only reason for focus stacking is because of insufficient depth of field, or are there other reasons?

Just wondering if a small BBQ lid painted with flat white or silver spray paint on the inside as DIY.

Such a great video and so underrated! I am learning about macro photography and I know small spot light would be the best for my photos but I can't find anything cheap which will have rgb. There is adaptalux but its so overpriced. That IKEA light is so amazing, shame its not multicolour. Thank you for that amazing video!

Do you have any idea of the color temperature of the LED lights?

Why exactly do you need the black light blockers? What would have happened if you didn't use them?

nice video, by the way the reason there is a problem with mixed lighting is two fold, one is that differing light/ energy frequencies refract at different angles in a lens, so you can get flare and glare, regardless of if the lens is coated or not, also the MAIN reason is that the camera itself gets confused as you can ONLY set ONE white balance at a time!, using two lights may confuse the Auto W B in the camera to select the wrong light temp. as the one for the photo, and if you use flash, the "flash" setting is selected Automatically, and CAN NOT be altered.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a set of Adaptalux macro lights.

The danger of using wrapping paper over actual gels will become apparent this very first time one melts onto your light.Even if you can't justify Lee or Rosco gels even the off brand ones on Amazon won't melt and won't need to have layers taped together to achieve adequate colour saturation. If you just need them for speed lights, Rosco sells swatch packs very inexpensively that have every colour they make. Under 10 bucks.

Be careful wrapping paper is it photo graded as color shift light quality wise