• Home
  • About Alex Wild
  • Articles
  • Galleries
  • Myrmecology News

Myrmecos Blog

the little things matter

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Things that look like ants but aren’t (Part 1)
New Species: Mystrium maren »

Photo Technique: Backlighting

December 2, 2007 by myrmecos

texana1.jpg

A few months ago I started playing about with the placement of the flash unit, and almost immediately hit on a new favorite trick.  When lit from behind, insects look even more zingy than usual. Their translucent bodies glow, they are ringed with little halos, and they stand out dramatically against the background. Below the fold are some samples:

coronatus1.jpg membranifera1.jpg swainsonii1.jpg

Backlighting involves two major elements. The first is a relatively high-intensity light shining directly on the subject from the opposite direction of the camera. This light gives translucent insects their glow and provides the halo that rings the subject. An easy way to apply the backlight is with an off-camera flash. I normally use Canon’s MT-24EX Twin Flash, a nifty device whose two detachable heads allow me to hand-hold one behind the subject. Any flash on a cord will do, however, and natural sunlight is also effective.

The second element is a dark background. The dramatic effect of backlighting stems from a strong contrast between subject and backdrop, and this can be created by directing a flash to just the subject, causing the background to fade to black with fast shutter speeds. Sunlit shots need to be composed with a careful eye towards the background. The shot below works because the backdrop, a shaded palm trunk, is darker than the sun-splashed leafcutter ants:

 

attatrail.jpg

Combinations of frontlighting and backlighting give an interesting effect. In the image of Acacia ants below, the front of the thorn is lit by a single low-power flash head mounted on the camera. The other head is given full power and is free-held above and slightly behind the subject:

psespi10.jpg

Motionless subjects don’t require the high light levels provided by sunlight or flash, and when the camera is stabilized on a tripod any light source can be used. These honeypot ants in a captive colony were shot using a 10-second exposure lit with a florescent bulb:

mexicanus17.jpg

 

Feel free to share your own backlit images in the comments below.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Insect Links, Photography Links, Tricks of the Trade | Tagged lighting, macro, Photography Links | 11 Comments

11 Responses

  1. on December 2, 2007 at 11:09 am fotokew

    nice work!


  2. on December 3, 2007 at 12:24 am Liquido

    Very nice work !
    Photos are very beautiful !


  3. on December 4, 2007 at 6:05 am Benoit

    Thanks for those precious tricks and for all the pictures of course. 😉
    I will try it.


  4. on December 4, 2007 at 9:16 am myrmecos

    Hello Benoit. I look forward to seeing how you go with your photography. You have some very nice shots of Amblyopone on your web site!


  5. on December 5, 2007 at 10:20 am k2rantitache

    Thanks for this, it’s very interesting.
    I will try too;)


  6. on December 7, 2007 at 12:58 pm mutmut

    From a Nat Geo book I read, I learn that backlighting is used to create bright outline of the subjects, especially when the subjects blend too much with the background.

    I just bought a slave flash which I’m still learning to use. At this stage, I think up-lighting is hard enough for me (considering I only have two hands and I’m shooting small moving macro subjects).

    Nice blog!


  7. on February 22, 2008 at 9:45 am The Making of a Cover « Myrmecos Blog

    […] The shoot took about 2 hours and resulted in 210 RAW exposures. The small size of the wasps- which appear a bit like dust specks to the naked eye- posed an unusual problem. My standard macro lens, the Canon MP-E 65mm, wasn’t really enough even at 5x, so I added the only extension tube in my bag to bring magnification up to about 6x. Still not as much as I’d like. One nice thing about Encarsia is that they sit still for a few minutes to lay eggs. This provides the leisure of trying a variety of lighting and composition arrangements. The shot that was eventually used by the journal employed the backlighting technique I described previously. […]


  8. on January 4, 2009 at 8:01 am On gossamer wings « Myrmecos Blog

    […] was captured by pointing the camera at the sun while standing behind the mating swarm.  I find backlighting to be one of the most pleasing effects for translucent […]


  9. on July 2, 2009 at 7:31 am The essence of leaf litter ants « Myrmecos Blog

    […] settled on a  strategy of backlighting a decaying oak leaf for the image.  This technique emphasizes the darkness and complexity of the […]


  10. on September 29, 2009 at 11:23 am Kit Martin

    Using back lighting I caught this megalomyrmex tending her aphids.


  11. on April 5, 2010 at 11:08 am Robert Lord Zimlich

    I’ve recently been experimenting using one my studio soft boxes to light my sheet. Then I noticed some insects flying to the soft box. Since I can vary the output, I’ve dimming the light and shooting them. I am pleased with the effect, if I could only get everything go to the light.

    http://bugguide.net/node/view/381086



Comments are closed.


  • This blog is an archive; the Myrmecos blog has moved.

    Please update your bookmarks!
  • Alex’s Galleries

    alexanderwild.com

  • Recent Photos

    DarkQue bonito trabajo el de la Luna...iluminar vidas cuando andan a oscuras.Elephant HeadEastern Coyote, Southern OntarioWindowsジュエリーアイス
    More Photos
  • Biology Links

    • Tree of Life
    • Understanding Evolution
  • Blogroll

    • Ainsley Vs Livejournal
    • Ammonite
    • Anna’s Bee World
    • Archetype
    • Arthropoda blog
    • Backyard Arthropod Project
    • Beetles in the Bush
    • biodiversity in focus
    • Bug Dreams
    • Bug Eric
    • Bug Girl’s Blog
    • Burrard-Lucas Photoblog
    • Catalogue of Organisms
    • Creature Cast
    • Dan Heller
    • Debbie's Insect Blog
    • Dechronization
    • Drawing the MotMot
    • Entomoblog
    • Evolving Thoughts
    • Fall to Climb
    • Generant
    • Historias de Hormigas
    • Life on Six Legs
    • Macromite
    • microecos
    • mirmekolozi
    • myrmecoid
    • Myrmician
    • Natural Imagery
    • Nature in the Ozarks
    • NCSU Insect Blog
    • No Cropping Zone
    • omit needless words
    • Photo Synthesis
    • Princess Peppercloud
    • Science Blogs
    • Snail’s Tales
    • Stu Jenks
    • The Ant Hunter
    • The Ant Room
    • The Bug Whisperer
    • The Loom
    • This Week in Evolution
    • What's Bugging You?
    • Wild about Ants
    • Xenogere
  • Insect Links

    • Ant Farm Forum
    • Ant Insights
    • Antweb
    • Bug Squad
    • bugguide.net
    • Xerces Society
  • Photography Links

    • Canon Photography Forums
    • Digital Photography Review
    • DIY Photography
    • Igor Siwanowicz
    • Mark Plonsky
    • photo.net
    • Piotr Naskrecki
    • The Strobist
  • Popular Posts

    • What does it mean to be an eyeless ant?
    • Must we call them meat ants?
    • Things that look like ants but aren't (Part 2)
    • The Rogue Taxonomist
    • Photo Technique: Working With Ants
    • Speed bumps for our understanding of ant evolution
    • The trouble with phylogenetics
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: Dendroides Larva
    • How to Identify Queen Ants
    • Specimen Request: Army/leafcutter/bullet ant queens for morphometrics
  • Recent Posts

    • This blog has moved.
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: The Hollyhock Weevil
    • The Friday Beetle will be late…
    • Bed bugs reach an all-time high
    • Answer to the Monday Night Mystery
  • Recent Comments

    • Donald Byron Johnson on Reader question: who discovered the sex of ant workers?
    • Anonymous on Update on the Rogue Taxonomist
    • Ant on Arizona Daily Star covers “Planet of the Ants”
    • Ga. Girl on Beware the Cow-Killer
    • Anonymous on Beware the Cow-Killer
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • animation Ants aphids arachnids Argentina arizona army ants art Bees beetles behavior biodiversity biology Biology Links bugs Canon carabidae coleoptera copyright Darwin desert diptera E. O. Wilson ecology entomology Evolution fail fire ants Flies formicidae genetics google haiku Harpegnathos imaging Insect Links Insects invasive species lighting Linepithema macro macrophotography macro photography Martialis media miniscule muppets music myrmecology mystery natural history Nature new species odontomachus Parasites Paratrechina pests pheidole Photography Photography business photoshop phylogenetics phylogeny Pogonomyrmex politics predation Scarabaeidae Science SEM social insects spiders Taxonomy termites travel wasps
  • Nature Blog Network
    Add to Technorati Favorites

    Follow this blog

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Join 91 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: