1x to 5x lighting solutions

[UncleChip]

Would you care to share your lighting setups for 1 to 5 X magnification,
Do you have different lighting for different subjects?

I have only been doing this a short time, yet I seam to have lots of diffusers and tried many many lighting setups, it seams logical to ask experienced members their solutions,

Reflections and small hairs bleeding into the background seams to be my main issue, I tried cross polarization for the highlights but I found the light too harsh, I came to the conclusion that you need a bit of highlights and much softer light for reflective bugs, but still need to work on it,
I am getting decent results with double diffusion on the light and another diffuser very close to the subject, I seam to be fighting the inverse square law, so the hairs on the periphery start to blow to get enough light to the center of the bug,

[rjlittlefield]

Do you have different lighting for different subjects?

I have only been doing this a short time, yet I seam to have lots of diffusers and tried many many lighting setups, it seams logical to ask experienced members their solutions,

Reflections and small hairs bleeding into the background seams to be my main issue, ... I came to the conclusion that you need a bit of highlights and much softer light for reflective bugs, but still need to work on it,
I am getting decent results with double diffusion on the light and another diffuser very close to the subject,

I suspect that all of us who work in this field have quite a collection of different setups for various situations. The ones that I use most often are highly diffusing, either a hemisphere that surrounds the front of the subject, or a cylinder of sheet diffuser that surrounds more of the subject. In rare cases, such as when photographing shiny subjects like integrated circuits when I want very precise control over reflections, I will use just a small light source with a diffuser added close in front of it. Other people who lean toward more artistic control and more intense shadows will use that latter approach more often.

You seem to be on the right path, using lots of diffusion for reflective bugs. I note the cylindrical holder and Lee 216 material that is mentioned in one of your earlier threads. Both of those are excellent.

In general, to get good results you need to have either a diffuse light source or a matte textured subject. Most subjects start to act shiny as magnification increases, so 5X is tougher than 1X.

I tried cross polarization for the highlights but I found the light too harsh,

Cross polarization will tame the intensity of specular reflections, but does nothing to change the distribution of light.

I seam to be fighting the inverse square law, so the hairs on the periphery start to blow to get enough light to the center of the bug,

Inverse square law will not be a factor unless you have remarkably small diffusers so that the hairs can be a lot closer to the diffuser than the rest of the bug is.

It sounds more like a problem where hairs are unexpectedly shiny so that some of them produce specular reflections that you weren't expecting.

Alternatively, you may be running into an effect that sometimes appears in stacking, caused by contrast enhancement of isolated bright things seen against a dark background.

You mention "small hairs bleeding into the background", but that could mean several different things.

It would help a lot if you posted an image showing some of the difficulties that you're having. I have looked back through all your previous posts, but can't get my eye on anything that looks relevant here.

--Rik

[UncleChip]

Cheers Rik
I have Just come to the realization that there is not one lighting/diffuser that will do all subjects, I was trying to achieve this end,
I have just started on the dome diffuser but I think I need 3 lights, I have attached a photo below,
I also made a glass tube for trying to stack live subjects, I cover it with the diffusing film, used a uv filter on the front

[iconoclastica]

I use a single photo lamp with a deep 30cm reflector, covered with a thin layer of diffuser material (a white bag from the supermarket, attached by a rubber band going around. The lamp is mounted on a boom stand so it can move everywhere. So, my light is nearly always unidirectional. Without shadows there is no sense of depth in a photo. I always position the lamp to get the required shadow contrast (and always top-left).
Moving the lamp further away will get me stronger shadows, moving the lamp more into the plain of the subject emphasizes the surface details.
For 1-5x situations I move in the lamp quite closely, aboutish 10 cm from the subject. The large lamp/reflector surface acts like an overcast sky that still produces directional light.
With high magnifications and unstable subjects, I replace the lamp with a speedlight. I prefer continuous light though, so I can preview what the result will look like.

Sometimes I need to balance the light fall-off from left to right. A reflector card (white cardboard, polystyrene) takes care of that.
Hardly ever I have metallic subjects. Even shiny subjects are rare to me. When shiny subjects have disturbing specular highlights, a polarizer comes handy.

[Bob-O-Rama]

I love the cookie jar diorama thing! Totally stealing that idea.