18 - Our kit recommendations for macro photography

Have you ever stopped and wondered how close-ups of flowers, butterflies, etc., are taken? These pictures are the ones we repeatedly take regularly.

Over many years we have tested many bits of equipment. Some have been a help; others have ended up in a box somewhere. 

In this episode, we will tell you what we carry with us. Why we do it and how we use it. Learn from our successes and failures. 

You’re going to be surprised by some of the equipment we use. But over the years, we have refined what we take with us. What helps us create spectacular and individual pictures; of the intricate, macro world that surrounds us all.

Take a journey into the world of macro photography. Don’t make the mistakes we did. Find out what we have ended up using, and learn from us.

Companies that manufacture the products we mention in the podcast.

O’Tom Tick Twister - https://www.otom.com/

Zeiss Binoculars - https://www.zeiss.co.uk/

Gitzo - https://www.gitzo.com/uk-en/

Arca Swiss - https://www.arca-shop.de/en/

Manfrotto - https://www.manfrotto.com/

Sto Fen - http://www.stofen.net/

Lumecube - https://lumecube.com/

Wimberley - https://www.tripodhead.com/

X-Rite - https://www.xrite.com/

Helicon Soft - https://www.heliconsoft.com/

Our Social media links

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MarkandJackyBloomfield/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/mandjbloomfield

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mandjbloomfield/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/m&j-bloomfield/

Buzzsprout - https://wildlifeandphotography.buzzsprout.com/1491085

Transcript

0:11

Welcome you're listening to Mark and Jacky's Wildlife and photography podcast. Explore and learn about the natural world and how to take pictures. This podcast is all about photography. Our aim is to help you improve your pictures. It doesn't matter what camera you use. We want to stimulate your creative side, get you taking pictures that you want to share with other people. Episode 18 Our kit recommendations for Macro Photography. Welcome to episode 18 of our Wildlife and Photography Podcast. In this episode, we're going to make some suggestions about the equipment you might need if you want to take macro photographs. These suggestions based on the equipment we use when taking pictures of insects and flowers. Now, if you don't know what macro photography is, let me explain. Macrophotography is taking pictures of small subjects. It's a bit like looking through a magnifying glass, then taking a picture of what you see. You can get beautiful details in objects that would be just too small in a normal picture. Macro photography could be described as one of the most technically demanding branches of wildlife nature photography. With so many things that can and do go wrong, that would spoil your picture. You need as much help as possible. This leads to the accumulation of loads of gear in your efforts to get a picture. We're no exception to this. We have a storeroom that pays testament to all the equipment we've tried and set aside as not being useful. When we look back on the things we've tried, an idea for podcast came to us. It might be of interest to others to know just what we've ended up using. Hopefully, what we carry about gives you ideas about your gear, and if you've never tried macro photography before, some of our suggestions may encourage you to try it for yourself. Before we get to the kit. I want to make sure we're all talking about the same thing. An explanation of what I call macro photography would be useful as when you look it up on Google, you do get a lot of different answers. My definition macro photography is a close up picture of a small subject that has a magnification of less than five times. A simple definition. But on second thoughts it may have confused people into thinking, What's magnification? After all, it's something that doesn't worry anybody taking normal pictures. It's just one of the joys of macro photography. You start to need to know all sorts of things that you didn't even know existed. Magnification is important. You really need to understand what it is and how it will affect your picture. You can make allowances for it. Think about it in terms of picture composition. There and just a minute ago, you were blissfully unaware. So what is it? Take a picture of a coin. That's ten millimetres across, for example. If your lens and camera produce an image of the coin that is ten millimetres on the film or sensor. It's said to be a magnification of one times and a reproduction ratio of one to one. Reproduction ratio and magnification are for our purposes, the same. It's just another way of saying it. The image on the sensor of film is the same size the coin is in real life. When taking pictures, you tend to think about the size of the image on the film or sensor rather than the finish size of the picture. Well, at least some of the time. Move back a bit. Take another picture of the same coin. And now the image on the sensor or film is five millimetres. It's said to have a magnification of 0.5 times and a reproduction ratio of one to two. Move closer to the coin. The image on the sensor or film is 20 millimetres. The magnification is now two times and a reproduction ratio of two to one. Phew. That was a very brief explanation. If you want to know more, your best bet is to get on to the Internet. There you'll find everything you need to know and a lot more besides. Bear in mind, through all this, what is important at the end of the day is the image you take the fact that you know what magnification you used isn't going to make a better picture. Right on with the equipment after that short detour. We will be mentioning the equipment use by name. We have no sponsorship agreement or financial connection to any of the companies or products we mentioned. Everything was purchased by us because in our opinion, it works. For us at least. But consider the storeroom full of other bits that we have tried and found not worth the effort. These are suggestions you must make up your own mind. What works for you, and in doing so, you're going to accumulate a fair number of not so useful bits. So, let's get started. First off, which camera? You can, of course, use anything that takes a picture. And you'll get some truly special pictures. It doesn't matter if you've paid tens of thousands of pounds for it or it also let you make a phone call and watch a movie while you're taking the picture. I'm not going to tell you what make a model of camera you should be using. It's up to you to find something that works for you. But I will let you in to a secret. I have three golden rules about the cameras I use. Rule number one. It works. If the camera has a fault of any sort, don't use it because at some point it's going to let you down. And normally, a critical moment. These days, I would also include are the batteries fully charged. Golden rule number two. Do you know how it works? It's really no good taking a camera that you haven't used before, or one that you're unfamiliar with. If getting the picture has any sort of importance, take a camera you know well. Golden rule number three. Will it take the picture I want to take? Don't expect that every camera and lens combination is able to take every type of picture. It's just not going to happen. If the camera won't do it. You have two choices. Modify your expectations or take another type of picture. Right. That's the camera sorted out. I know it's perhaps not what you wanted to hear but trust me. Find a camera that works for you. Get to know it. Whatever works for you is the right camera. Let's move on to lenses. Now you can go out and buy a dedicated macro lens. And to be fair, it's going to make your life a lot easier. But it's not vital that you invest in a special lens. If you're starting out, there are other ways to get into close up photography. And don't forget, it's another lens you have to carry. The good thing about using a dedicated macro lens is that they get very close without any extra additions. Normally, they focus all the way from infinity to one to one in one twist of the focus ring. This makes life a lot easier when you're doing things like chasing butterflies. If a dedicated lens is not in the budget just yet, don't give up the idea of macro photography. If you own a zoom lens, you may have one with a macro setting. This makes the lens behave just like a dedicated macro lens. If you're not sure have a look for the word macro on the lens barrel. And if you're desperate, you could always look in the manual. You may find you have a lens for shooting macro, but just didn't know it. Don't despair if you lens hasn't got a macro setting. There are not too expensive alternatives that turn your normal everyday lens into a macro lens. Extension tubes are one option. These are steel or plastic tubes with a connector at one end that attaches to the camera body just like the lens at the other end is a connector that you attach to your lens. You now have a lens and camera with an empty tube in between them. Effectively by fitting an extension tube you've moved the rear of the lens away from the sensor. The lens will now be able to focus on an object a lot closer than it did before. How close is determined by how far you've moved the lens away from the camera and the focal length of the lens? Extension tubes normally come in sets of two or more tubes of different lengths. If you use them all stacked together, you've moved the lens the furthest you can from the sensor. This gives you the maximum magnification for that lens. If you don't need all that magnification. Just take a couple of tubes off and the lens will not focus so close. To determine the greatest magnification you can achieve. You need to know the length of the tubes and the focal length of the lens. Using this information, you can work out the magnification you can achieve. This may be of use if you need to take a picture to set magnification. But for most of us, you just put the tubes on, see what you are getting. Mutter of few words under your breath and take a few tubes off or put another tube on. Try again and again and again. I did warn you that it's not easy. Make sure you buy a set of tubes that are compatible with your camera body and lenses. Also, make sure whatever tubes you buy retain the ability to use the meter, Iris control and autofocus. Extension tubes are great for turning any lens you own into one that can be used for macro. You can take it to a bit of an extreme. We use them on 500mm lenses when taking close ups of dragonflies in mid-air. They're simple to use and take up very little weight or space in your bag. Don't forget, as well as converting your normal lens you can use them within macro lens. This increases the maximum magnification you can achieve. At this point. A word to caution before you rush out and buy a set. When tubes are fitted, you won't be able to focus the lens to infinity, which is not such a big deal. And you will need to give a lot more exposure to get your picture. So, you may need to crank up the ISO. As with everything always practice before you go out for real. The things to check for are that your camera, meter and autofocus still work with the tubes in place. Look at the final images and check to make sure that you're not losing the corners of the picture. The second method of converting a normal lens into a macro lens is to use a close up lens. Does get a bit confusing here. But a close-up lens is sometimes referred to as a close-up filter. It's a supplementary lens that screws onto the filter ring found on the front of most lenses. Working a bit like reading glasses, they enable you to bring subjects that are close to the lens into sharp focus. If you give them a try one suggestion look for close-up lenses that are couplets or two lenses. They will be more expensive than the single lens type, but the increase in image quality is very worth the extra money They're easy to carry and can make a better option than extension tubes with telephoto zoom lenses. If you're looking to get the maximum amount of magnification you could always try the macro lens, extension tube and close up lens combo. I would also suggest going with a brand that is well known for manufacturing high quality filters. Some camera and lens manufacturers also make close-up lenses, and these tend to have a better performance. For full disclosure, we use close-up lenses and extension tubes manufactured by the same company that make our camera bodies. So that's a very quick look at your camera options. Ah! I just thought I haven't said anything about smart phones, have I? Some phones these days will allow you to get very close to your subject, giving you a macro image. But to take it further, you can buy lenses that clip onto your phone. These give you a greater magnification than is possible with just the phone by itself. I would again urge anyone thinking of going this route to remember you get what you pay for. That's the camera lenses sort it out. Next is getting yourself outfitted. You'll find yourself crawling around on the ground among all sorts of sharp and squidgy bits. You'll be glad that you remembered to wear long trousers or pants. And if it's very wet and muddy, waterproof is the way to go. Even in summer, we wear long trousers. Ours are treated to help prevent getting bitten by Ticks, a sensible precaution if you're out in the summer and Highland Scotland. Ticks are parasitic arachnids. They bury their mouth parts into your skin and suck your blood. Luckily, they're only a few millimetres long. Any bigger and they would have starring roles in a horror movie. The thing about ticks is they carry a thing called Lyme Disease. This is a bacterial infection that is very nasty. If not treated quickly. If you can try and prevent a bite by wearing suitable clothing. You're off to a good start. But at some point you are going to get bitten. If you spend time in areas that have a high tick population. So we always carry with us a tick removal tool called a O'Tom Tick Twister. That's o t o m t i c k t w i s t e r. If no when you get bitten, the sooner you remove the tick, the better. Quick removal is especially important if like us you live in an area that has high incidences of Lyme disease. Don't worry too much about ticks because there are plenty of other nasties lying in wait for the unsuspecting photographer. Lots of things that bit, sting, and carry vector borne diseases. Whenever you're in the great outdoors, it's a good idea to have a working knowledge of what you're likely to encounter from mosquitoes to venomous snakes or the odd angry hippo. Know what is likely to be sharing the same undergrowth your photographing in? If you're crawling about on the ground for long periods of time, get yourself a pair of knee pads. You can pick up a pair at most builders or DIY merchants. You're knees at the end of the day will thank you. If you're lying in wet, muddy conditions some sort of waterproof mat is a great idea. An old bit of tarpaulin or plastic bin liner or what we use, which is rubber pond liner. Next essential is a pair of binoculars. Yeah, I know it sounds a bit daft. Get the ones that focus as close as possible. Why? It's all about finding a subject to photograph. You're looking to take a picture of a flower. Now, I'll bet you any money you like all the examples close to you will have some damage. And you don't want to take a picture of one of those. What you need is a perfect specimen. Get out your binoculars and have a good scout around. Chances are you'll find a perfect specimen somewhere. It's a lot easier using binoculars than crawling about, looking at hundreds of flowers, trying to find a good one. So binoculars are useful thing to have with you. What else do we carry? Well, in no particular order, these items find their way into our bags on a macro photography day. A shutter release cable I know what people say. You don't need one. Use a delay timer built into the camera to fire the shutter. It's true. Of course, you can. And we do use the delay timer to release the shutter. And to be fair, if all you're trying to do is to avoid shaking the camera by touching it, it works fine. But we find a lot of the time with macro photography, you're waiting for the subject to stop moving. If it's a flower, even the gentlest of breezes will be moving the head about. You'll have to sit and wait for the right moment when the wind drops and it stops moving. When you're using a delay timer in the few seconds it takes the timer to run down, chances are the wind will have picked up again. One other thing you can do with the shutter release is you can go and stand or lay between the prevailing wind and your subject. While acting as a windbreak. You can still have control of releasing the shutter. What else? I know this may be a bit contentious, but for us the good tripod is a must. Plenty of people who are brilliant at macro photography, would tell you you don't need one, and I would agree. In fact, using a tripod in some circumstances would be all but impossible. Having said that, we nearly always carry one. There are just times when it's better to set up a tripod and take your time. We use Gitzo g i t z o carbon fibre tripods and have done so for years. For macro, we use one that is no longer in production, so we can't make a recommendation based on our experience. But the things to look out for are. Can the angles of each leg be adjusted and locked at different positions? If you can find a model that has a swivelling centre column, these are wonderful for all types of close up in nature work. Being able to alter the angle and length of each leg allows you to set up in some very awkward places. A swivelling centre column comes into its own. You can turn it upside down and hang the camera between the legs of the tripod. This allows you to get the camera very close to the ground. You can also manoeuvre the camera into tight spaces while the tripod is not destroying your subject. Try entering swivelling centre column tripod into Google. There are lots of examples of the sort of tripod, I'm trying to describe. Don't skimp on the tripod head you buy. We use Arca Swiss ball heads. That's ARCA SWISS. They are built like a tank and will last most of your lifetime. What are you looking for in a tripod head? Is being easy to use. And when you lock the head, it doesn't sag or creep. Normally when you tighten a tripod head, you're going to get a little bit of sag. That's the slight movement, the head as it settles into place. This is not going to be noticeable in normal photography, but being so close to your subject, any sort of sag or movement is going to ruin the composition. The other tripod accessory that's nice to have is a focus rail. These fit between your camera and the tripod head and literally are a rail allowing the camera to slide back and forth along it. Why? I hear you ask. Well, when you're working so close, sometimes you need to move the camera a bit towards or away from the subject. Without a focus rail you have to move the whole tripod to make that small adjustment. Now, with a focus rail, you loosen the camera, slide it backwards or forward, tighten it up, and away you go. Much easier than having to move the whole tripod and having to spend another 5 minutes readjusting the leg centre column and everything else to move the camera just a few millimetres. It's worth investing in a good tripod and head they come in handy in so many situations. I've heard arguments with modern cameras. You just don't need them. And I have no problem with photographers that don't use a tripod. But for us, they are important part of our armoury. If you invest in a good tripod, it's going to last for years. We've had some of ours for over 20 years and they're still going strong day in, day out. Another way, if you want to get your camera very close to the ground, is to use a bean bag, a cloth or canvas bag filled with rice, beans or sand. Put the camera on the bean bag and mould the bag around the camera. It'll hold the camera still while you're working. We use this method a lot when taking pictures of very small mushrooms. It gets you at mushroom eye level. We also use a Platypod that's p l a t y p o d a flat plate that you can attach a tripod head to again, allowing you to get the camera very close to the ground. Small and easy to carry. They can be used both your camera or your flash gun. This leads me to another essential lighting. At some point, you're going to need to add light to your picture. It could be as simple as using a reflector or it could be setting up multiple lights. For reflectors and diffusers. We use Manfrotto m a n f r o t t o. They make a range of small round folding reflectors and diffusers. These fold down into about a quarter of the open size, which makes it very easy to carry about We use white and gold reflectors. Reflectors allow you to add light to the subject, and utilizing the gold side can also add a bit of warmth to the scene. We also carry an old white plastic shower curtain great for laying in front of your subject to give you a bit of fill in underneath You can also create a white background behind your subject. Great thing is, it's washable and very tough. Diffusers come into play when the light is very harsh. A diffuser between the sun and subject creates a very large, diffuse light source. In the middle of the day, a diffuser kills the harsh shadows. You can then use a reflector to add modelling to your subject. In wooded areas dappled light is wonderful and atmospheric. Other times it's a pain. A large diffuser placed in the path of the main light source. Can reduce the contrast between highlights and shadows of the dappling producing a much nicer result. Flash and other lighting. We use flash guns produced by our camera manufacturer. These are dedicated flash guns and are normally fired either wirelessly or by cable. In this way, we retain full exposure control, making it easy to balance flash and daylight. If you want to add a bit of drama, using a strong flash off camera gives dramatic lighting. This is where flash triggers or long cables are a must. Flash triggers are preferred because trailing cables are just a pain to manage, but you may find some triggers and not that effective outside. You need strong wireless triggers rather than the infrared variety. You can use a flash gun on the hot shoe mount of your camera. But you'll find in most cases, the light from the flash misses your subject completely. Our flash guns come with the stand as part of the package. We use these a lot when we're working close to the ground. It's also a good idea to carry a small tripod with a cold shoe head to hold your flash guns. We use Manfrotto Mini Tripods, but just this purpose. The mini tripod also comes in handy. If you switch out the cold shoe for a smartphone clamp. You now have a tripod for your smartphone. To diffuse the harsh light the flash guns produce ours are fitted whit Sto-Fen s t o f e n Omni bouce o m n i b o u n c e diffusers. These are not necessarily designed as flash diffusers. The description is a bounced flash product. They do however, give very good diffuse light and are very robust. They take a lot of punishment and are easy to push into tight spaces. You should also consider using small LED light panels. Lume Cube l u m e c u b e mini panels, are very small and easy to carry. You can vary the intensity and colour of the light. These panels produce. Which makes balancing lighting between natural and your introduced light a lot easier. Some models, like Lume Cube, have the ability to give you different colour temperatures. In daylight you can turn down the colour temperature, to add warmth into the shadow areas, rather than the blue from the sky. If you want to take pictures of flying insects like butterflies, bees or beetles, it's best to hand-hold your camera. Although it's not impossible to set up on a flower and wait for your subject to arrive. But handholding allows you to move about and chase your subject as they move from place to place. You'll need some sort of additional light to make the hand-holding process easier. Using flash, as your light gives you a lot of light directly on your subjects. Lots of light means you can use a smaller aperture, increasing the depth of field at your disposal. A greater depth of field helps you when you're holding because you get a bigger chance of getting the focus right. The other advantage of a flash is short exposures. This is achieved either with the duration of the flash or a fast shutter speed or a combination of both. Any slight movement you will be making will be stopped from blurring the image. You'll also find that your subjects are moving from the wing beats of a flying insect to the movement of their perch. Being able to freeze the subject is important when undertaking any type of handheld photography. Using the flash on a camera without some sort of deflector diffuser is not going to be an option. Most dedicated flash guns when attached to a camera hot shoe, just fire the light way over what you're trying to photograph. You're going to need some sort of flash bracket. These will hold the flash gun and you can position the light to its best advantage. We use Wimberley brackets. w i m b e r l e y. For all sorts of photography. We have a selection of different brackets, arms and plates. The great thing with having a selection of elements is you can change your lighting rig from day to day. If you want a top light, then one flash mounted above the lens. If your subject is a bit bigger, maybe two flash heads mounted left and right. You can also use a dedicated light to illuminate the background so you don't get that black background. I'm sure you get the idea Wimberley brackets are robust, well-made, but a bit heavy. They're able to handle the weight of two big flash guns with ease. There is also another advantage for us. We break down the macro brackets, then use the bits to build a system that adds fill in flash on our telephoto lenses. Having only one system to carry for us is an advantage. Whilst talking about Wimberley. They also make another product which over the years we found invaluable, namely the Plamp p l a m p. What's a Plamp? It's a must have accessory of all time. It's two clamps joined together by lock line. Lock line. What's the best way to describe it? Flexible arm made up of bits of plastic shaped a bit like badminton, shuttlecocks. These click together and move in relation to one another. You have an arm that you can move almost anywhere, but when you let go, it stays put. At one end you've got a big clip that attaches to things like tripod legs. At the other, you have a small clip that holds reflectors and can be used for steadying flowers or other things that wave about in the wind. A Plamp may not be the most exciting, bit of kit you can get. But apart from the camera, it's probably the most used bit in our bag. Now you've found your subject, got your camera all set up. Now you need to look at what the camera is pointing at. Almost all digital cameras these days come with a screen of some sort on the back of the camera. If you're lucky, it will flip and swivel. But here's the thing. I don't like looking at the screen when composing an image. I may be a Luddite. But I've spent too many years looking through viewfinders of cameras. For me, an angle viewfinder is a must have. It allows me to concentrate on the image and make composition adjustments without distraction. I just can't get the same feel when looking at the screen. If, like me, you like to look through the camera viewfinder, you're going to need an angle finder. Without one, you have to learn some very yoga like moves to be able to see what you're photographing. If you find using the camera screen gives you enough information. Save money and space don't carry an angle finder That's the main kit we carry with us on a macro photography day out. We also have a carry a lot of other small bits and pieces, all of which are used to get the pictures. Clamps and holding things. In addition to the Wimberley Plamps, we carry a range of clips and clothes pegs and bits of string. These come in handy when you're trying to move things out of your way. A cloths peg will hold a bit of undergrowth down or to one side. You can put the stem of a plant that in your way through the peg and just use the weight to hold it down. Bits of string and fishing line also come in handy when trying to move things out of the way. The point here is to move the undergrowth out of the way while you're working, not to cut it or uproot it. When you've finished. Return it to the way you found it. So no one can see where you've been. Also in our kit, the tweezers and haemostats. These prove useful for arranging and moving small objects that may be in the field of view. You can move small bits of natural litter out of the way. Just don't forget to replace it once you've finished. We also use a ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 c o l o r c h e c k e r. From X-Right x r i g h t. This is a set of coloured chips in a protective case. You have the normal 24 patch colour reference target as well as a grey card. You photograph the colour checker either before you start or when you've finished. A quick tip. Do it before you start because you will forget if you try and do it after. The reason for using the colour checker is to get the correct colours in your finished picture. When you come to process your images, you'll find sometimes you have very funny colour casts. More noticeable, if your subjects are surrounded by green or other bright colours. Trying to correct the colour balance can be a challenge when all you have in a frame is a lot of pink and green. This is where having the colour reference can be a time saver. You know what the colours are on the checker it's easy to get a good colour balance. We also carry a small but powerful pocket torch. There are times you just need more light in order to see what you're focusing on. Disposable gloves are a good idea. If you take pictures of poisonous plants and fungi. Some innocent looking plants, have a sap that if you get it on your skin will cause a burn. Some fungi although deadly if eaten, can cause skin irritation in some people. The advice is, if you're not sure wear a pair of gloves. A multi-tool or penknife or pocket knife is a good idea to have about your person, or at least a small set of tools. It amazes me how many times things will come loose after a busy day. Worse still, becoming stuck and reluctant to come undone. An on the go repair kit is a good idea. We also carry hand lenses. There are just some plants and fungi that you need to look at very closely to identify A small notebook is a good idea. You can note down things that will help you identify your subject later. Don't think just because you've taken a picture of it, it's going to be easy. When you get back to base and look it up. You'll find at least two different possibilities. And the only way to distinguish which one you took is by the small barbs on the underside of the leaf. Did you get a picture of the underside of the leaf? It is at this point you wish you'd paid more attention and had a hand lens and a notebook. We're coming to the end of this episode, but there are a couple of extras that are really nice to have that you might like to consider. Focus stacking software or hardware. It sounds like something they use in supermarkets. But what it actually is, is the means of producing stacked images. For those of you who don't know, one limitation in all close-up photography is the depth of field, the amount of the subject that is in sharp focus. You can stop the lens aperture down, and this increases your depth of field. It also affects the quality of the image the lens produces, making it less sharp. So, a solution for a stationary subjects, is focused stacking. By taking a series of pictures and moving the sharp, focused point of the lens between each image. You get images that are a series of sharp slices, a bit like a slice loaf. Then using specialist software, each image is processed and only the sharp bits are kept. The other bits of the frame are discarded. Do this ten, twenty, maybe a hundred times and you get a large depth of field. We use Helicon Focus from Helicon Soft h e l i c o n f o c u s. It's bit of software installed on our smartphones. You connect your phone to your camera using a cable you can now control the auto focus of your lens. It's simple to set the near far points that you want in focus. Set the lens and aperture using and the software does the rest. Press start and off it goes taking all the pictures you require. When you get back, you can use the Helicon software to stack the images together to produce one picture that has an amazing depth of focus. If you don't want to invest in dedicated software, you can move the focus manually, then use Photoshop to stack the images. We have used this method and it works. But and it's a big but. In our opinion, it's very hit and miss. The chances of getting a perfect picture are quite small. A ring flash literally a flash tube that surrounds your lens. The reason you might consider this type of flash is the front of your lens is very close to the subject. It can be a problem to get enough light into the scene, a ring flash, can help you solve this problem. They also have a few problems of their own. The lighting they produce is very flat. Even if you alter the lighting ratio between the left and right tubes, and on shiny surfaces, you get to see a bright white ring of the flash. Our suggestion is to use them as a filling flash when using another light source as a main light. They're also very useful when taking pictures of insects and flowers in the heat of the day. You can move about easily when using a ring flash. We have talked a lot about portable flash guns as a source of light. With some macro photography, you need these flash guns to recharge very quickly. If you get an external power source for them, it shortens the recycle times. You can fire them every second or so rather than every four or five seconds. If you're hand holding and moving about a lot, an external battery gives you a lot of advantages. It doesn't sound much, but when you're trying to take pictures of insects collecting pollen from flowers, being able to shoot three or four pictures before they move off gives you a better chance of a picture. I could go on about different equipment for different subjects, but you now have an insight into what sort of kit we carry on a day-to-day basis. And as always, the reason for giving you this insight, is that it might help you. Our suggestion is to try things out and see if it's being a help in your image taking. If after a few attempts, you're not using it or it's just getting in the way. Ditch it and something different. Over the years we've tried and retired more bits of kit than we would care to remember. The point is, find things that are useful and keep those. The rest forget. If something new comes out, look carefully at it. What you're trying to do is to make it easier to take pictures. The easier it is, the more time and attention you pay to getting the perfect image. We've included in the show notes some information about the companies that supply the items we've mentioned. We don't get anything for doing this. We have no agenda to try and get you to buy something. Also, in the show notes, are our social media details. If you want to ask a question or get in touch, please reach out to us on social media. We hope you found this episode interesting and of some help in your macro photography. Until next time. Thank you for taking the time to listen. My name is Mark Bloomfield. You've been listening to a wildlife and photography podcast produced by M and J Bloomfield. For more information, details about us and our work, visit our website mandjbloomfield dot com. Thank you for listening and we hope you join us again soon. Chun an sin, mar sin leat.