Great tutorial Allan. I've been shooting macro for a few years and have hacked together many bits and bobs. I'm making a copy of your light cage now as its clearly a great way to pull it all together. I have also added an arduino microcontroller and stepper motor to my focus rail that moves and fires the camera - works very well and was fairly cheap to make. I'm sure with this much room I'll find a place on the cage for the electronics. Thanks for sharing all this great info. Robin from Calgary in Canada.
Thanks Robin - your projects sound like a blast. I am huge fan of the Arduino - I have put together a bunch of flash and shutter triggers, a sousing rail, and a time-lapse rail. I'm always looking for new IoT projects to work on. Send me a picture of your final setup - I'd love to see what you come up with! Thanks, Allan
I have two Nikon SB900 flashes and one SB28. You're right about trying to use flashes of the same make and model. It's a lot easier when the adjustments of flashes are all done the same way. Killing Yellow jackets is doing man kind a favor! Love your videos! Thanks for all the information.
Thank you Allan for another fantastic video. Your Teaching method is very precise and done in a very Calm way and made very easy to understand what and why you do things. Thanks again from your Number one Fan from Manchester UK
Great video, Alan. It is so very helpful to see you go through a setup, with all of the frustrations included, and then a phenomenal result. I look forward to seeing more. Take care.
Great presentation Alan! I've been gradually working through your RU-vid videos since the lockdown here in the UK. I have a particular interest in macro photography and find your easy going style of presenting the various techniques very good. Inspiring and exciting stuff. Thank you very much. Regards Keith
Allen thank you for the Great Video. Again I have learned a lot of good useful information from you. I also have had problems with GodOx 685 flash units, I won't be spending my hard earned $$$ on these flashes any longer...I have an 860 that is over a year old now and seems reliable, too, just last month I purchased the V1 and we'll see how that goes..
Very well explained! Cheers from Italy, I have plenty of time for your lessons being at home quarantined ... (I see you used the 18 bucks sled... so it's not so bad ;-))
Hi Allan, Lots of useful and helpful information from this. I am slowly putting into practice the of knowledge I am picking up from your great videos! Many thanks, Barry
If (when) your Speedlights fail, this will often solve the issue. Remove the batteries and scrape the light's internal battery contacts. You may not be able to see the fine , insulating layer of corruption and might need to use a longish, fine bladed screwdriver. This has worked for me several times.
Thanks Michael. I use a product called Deoxit to treat all my electrical contacts (batteries, cameras, flash) periodically, so they do stay very clean. The problem with my speedlights is overheating. They have plenty of power, but once the thermal protection kicks in, the recycle time gets longer and longer, until I start dropping shots. It can be very frustrating.
I had a speed light that I was rather fond of, which stopped working. I took it in for repair. Eventually, after weeks of being away, told me it couldn't be repaired, as parts for it were ni longer made. They offered me a small sum towards another speed light. But they wanted to keep the broken speed light. I declined, took it home, dismantled it to find one de-soldered wire, which I fixed. The first thing to do, was to discharge the large capacitor - as it will give a nasty shock if it holds any charge. They can hold charge for years. I re-assembled, turned it on, and it still works 30 years on. I have since got the Nikon speed lights, but it comes in useful to have around. How to discharge a large capacitor? A screwdriver across the two leads on it - or some heavy insulated wire. It discharges in a flash (second).
What do you have great stuff to share. Harvard Avenue suggest that instead of camera being on yourself please show the stuff you were talking about it will be helpful for newbies
Absolutely - it pays to think about pin placement right from the get go. Use clean black enamel pins and you will find them very easy to remove. Look at the pin before you take the shot and it it is lying on a dark structure you want to see, rotate the subject to get separation. That way removing it will take a few seconds at the very end of the editing process - it is one of the last things I do.
Are those 600's the new Godox black lights? A very helpful and interesting video and may I say very well narrated with your usual dry humour added. Well done Sir 👍🇬🇧
Hi Andy, they are the TT600s and they have been around for some years now. You may be thinking about the VING V860II from Godox? I think that is a much newer release. Even after losing two units in making this video, I will be replacing both with the Godox V860II. I think their products are mostly excellent, and I've been thrilled with the V860 that I have.
Hi Allan , l do enjoy your excellent in depth exploits in macro and Astro photography! I do have a question re:- the failed Godox TT600 flashes of which I have two, as to the batteries that you used? I have a Yongnuo YN560 11 which will not switch on and never got to take a single picture!! No problems with my old Nikon SB 800 and the New SB910 though! Cheers from “Chook” in Australia!
I apologise if you have covered this elsewhere - I'm dipping into your excellent tutorials in an idiosyncratic order. When an insect has been preserved and prepared as you describe here, for how long will it remain useable? Could it be popped back in the alcohol for another day? Thanks!
Hi David - once all the cleaning and prep is done and you have finished photographing the insect, just drop it in a fresh alcohol container. Ethanol is best, if you can get it, but isopropyl will also work. Make sure it is submerged. It will stay clean and positioned for ages if kept in a cool dark place, and if it is not disturbed. When you want to shoot it again, just take it out and let it air dry. Don't store it with the pin in place, they will discolor the alcohol.
@@AllanWallsPhotography That's good to hear! The question just came to mind as you were having your technical... Not having to worry about spoilage must be a help! Thanks
Allan, great instructional video as usual, unless you mentioned it and i missed it , could you please tell me what, and where the flash grips can be obtained that first appear at time stamp 5 mins and 9 secs, thanks tony
Thanks Allan. I picked some useful tips here. Re the Black Pins. Do you find it easier in post processing to erase a black pin rather than a silver one? I priced the black ones here in AUS. Pricey is an understatement. I have been using Silver and so far have not had a problem erasing them in post.
The reasons I use the black pins are that they are very thin indeed and don't reflect local colors like silver pins do. Sometimes silver pins result in a halo or fringe that looks like bad chromatic aberration, and removing them in PS can leave a blurry artifact. Obviously they can still be effectively removed, but the black skinny pins save time. Before I found these pins I was using needles (silver) dipped in matte black paint. But if you aren't having any problems with silver pins, I would stick with what you are used to.
@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks Allan. Now you mention it I do recall you saying this in an earlier video on preparing and mounting insect specimens. I can see why it is important when true colour is important. For the sort of stuff I have been doing which are more studies in light and shade not so much. But point taken.
I have a red face. I said these pins were very pricey here in Australia. That is not true. In fact they seem ridiculously cheap. I priced them from Australian Entomological Supplies 38 mm size 0 pins $16 each. Ooops!! Make that per 100. So have ordered a box. Postage about doubles the price. Not sure if they ship overseas.
@@ianhagan7656 I would love to have been a fly on the wall when you called to order one pin! Believe me, I wouldn't have bought even one, at that price! Amazon has them for $8 a packet, when last I checked.
After two years did you get an offer for a beeping paper weight? Current outrageous prices for an 860 could make me gamble that your problem was only a bad battery.
It is nice to meet you, becoming acquaintance, I enjoy your videos, learning a lot, I don’t photograph bugs, but all the macro are helpful and can be applied to what I do. One critique I could make, your videos are way to long, make them more to the point and no longer that 10 min, use the magic of editing.
I came across your videos a couple of days ago and have watched plenty of them since, including the four parts of your Macro Lighting Cage. Very impressive apart from the demise of two speedlights, for that I am sorry. A question: When you are normally shooting a subject, (not making a RU-vid video) do you have your camera tethered to a computer and use a program such as Lightroom, to allow you to analyse the shots in greater detail, as they are shot ?
Hi Roger, I used to do all my studio macro tethered, as a matter of routine, and it is definitely my favorite way to set up stacked images. I always used LR to tether. But unfortunately, my aging laptop no longer functions reliably when separated from all the external drives that contain my LR libraries, photographs, etc. Also my wifi cuts off when I take the computer into the studio. The minute I can afford to replace my computer I will go back to shooting tethered again, but for now, it causes more headaches than it relieves!
@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks for the reply Allan. Have you checked out the possibility of buying a Wifi booster to extend the signal into your studio. I think the one I bought was around £40. Cheaper than a new computer and still usable once you do get a new one.
I like your videos and it gives me some ideas and inspiration's. One cuestión. I use like you two to 3 flashs but the shiny parts I don't like so much. I tried to eliminate this but I don't have really some luck. I used different defusers, Different papers and so on, but the shiny parts don't go really away. You have some tricks for this?
Hi Dirk. Yes... highly reflective surfaces add a layer of complexity to speedlight macro. I didn't have time to get into the ways I manage that in this video (but I have one coming up that does). One thing you should try is aiming your flash away from the subject and onto a white card. The white card should be positioned so that the scattered light bounces back onto your subject. It takes a bit of practice to get the flash power and angles perfect, but when you do, the images will lose much of the ugly specularity. Let me know how it goes!
@@AllanWallsPhotography thanks I will experimenting with this. Ah And thanks for the comments for the Bellow, cleaning before using. I was wondering why my sensor get so dirty. It's logical but sometimes the brain don't make Klic 😬🤣 and localized the cause. 🤣 Thanks You videos are very informative.
Too bad about your Godox flashes dying; I have four Nikon SB-800 flashes still going strong after having them for over 20 years; they just don't want to die. I use the Phottix Odin transmitter and receivers to trigger the Nikon SB-800's wirelessly for my macro work.
No doubt! The SB-800s are fantastic. But for the price, the Godox lights have given me good value over years of reliable performance (until this video!). I haven't replaced them yet and I'm struggling to decide whether or not to switch to Nikon.
Hi David. Every now and again I will send an insect to someone who doesn't have access to one, but they don't ship well. Even pinned to a card and submerged in preservative they end up getting shaken and arrive in pieces. It's also expensive to ship them, because of the preservative, and it's illegal to send them out of the country (I believe). I don't capture and kill insects anymore, so I really don't have that many on hand, just a few hundred. Mostly I just pick up dead insects when I find them. It is still a good idea! Cheers!
excuse my ignorance, but why don't you use constant light? is flash light better than constant light for macro? there are very powerfull led bulb, is there a reason? Thanks for your help ;)
Continuous light using LEDs is certainly another option and I do use that method. In fact I have several other videos dealing specifically with the use of continuous lighting and LEDs. I think there is value in learning how to use both lighting techniques, as different subjects respond to lighting differently, and neither method is perfect!
@@AllanWallsPhotography thank you for your answer. as i'm just biginning macro with my new PB6, i think i way try continuous light as i've plenty of powerfull led bulb ;)
@@AllanWallsPhotography thank you very much for all your great video , very instructive. I've one more question, what very good manual lens would you recommand to use (reverse or not) on the PB6 bellow ? thanks again
@@ricomx29 For the best of all worlds, I like the Nikon AF 35mm f2/D. It works beautifully on extension (reversed), has a manual aperture ring, is extremely sharp, and will give you more magnification that the Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D (also a fantastic lens). It costs about $350 new but they do show up occasionally in the used market for less.
I use 93% isopropyl alcohol - it is not as good as pure ethanol, but you can't purchase that here. There is also a 70% isopropyl alcohol that I wouldn't recommend - specimens deteriorate quickly in the more dilute alcohol.
Sir in BEGNING it was interesting to see your video but now it is not so because you talk about your flash,and how many and how strong no body wants to know,if you could give more time in practice Then in theory.because most of the time is wasted in thing which one should experiment self,may be I am little bit hard but is fact.You Dont Transfer your know how but what thing you have and repeating again and again.thanks.
