Rangefinder Magazine
September 2005

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Photographing Tiny Critters by Bob Garas

Sometimes your schedule or life’s situations don’t allow you to be in the right place at the right time. Such is my life. So, instead of concentrating on trying to be at the photo opportunity, I try to bring the photo opportunity to me.

In my town of Clermont, FL, we certainly don’t have a shortage of bugs, frogs or other tiny critters. I try to create photographic situations involving these subjects, which are so abundant in my area.

In the studio, armed with a Canon EOS 10D, Sigma 24–70mm f/2.8 lens and two White Lightning strobes, I try to create a clean, well lit setting that you probably wouldn’t experience in the normal habitat of these subjects. The Sigma 24–70mm f/2.8 lens lets me get close enough to my subjects (around 15 inches) at all focal lengths.

With the Canon 10D and external strobes, the fastest I can shoot with proper flash sync is 1/250 second, usually keeping the aperture at f/13 or f/16. This usually gives me plenty of depth of field and keeps the gradient background light smooth.

One strobe with a softbox is used to light the subject; another strobe with a colored gel is used to light the background. The foreground strobe with softbox is placed roughly two meters from the subject, at about 10 o’clock as the subject faces, and slightly higher than the subject.

The background light, with its attached colored gel, is placed slightly below the subject, facing the wall or background paper to create any color I desire. The gels are thin sheets of transparent colored acetate, and they come in a variety of colors. They fit in a gel holder that attaches to the studio light and illuminates the background. The light is angled downward, so the edge of the light produces a nice gradient on the background—light tone behind the subject fading to darker tone.

I don’t use a flash meter because I have found that you really need to experiment anyway to see what size you want your gradient to be and how much overall light you want. This will depend on the size of your subject. With small subjects you might want to move the light closer to the wall or background for a smaller gradient fall-off so it is proportional to your subject. To start, set both light sources to the same f-stop. Adjust the lights + or - to accommodate the minimum f-stop that your lens allows.

With the Canon 10D, my strobes are in X-sync at 1/250 or slower. Therefore, I usually start off with an aperture of f/16, and then I evaluate the image and adjust the aperture for the best-exposed image.

These little critters are totally unpredictable and can be very amusing. I create a small scene, and without ever hurting them, I place them on a flower or a prop. I just let them do their own thing. The results speak for themselves.

Don’t expect these little guys to perform on demand. Be prepared to spend most of your time retrieving your subjects, as butterflies like to fly and frogs like to jump. Most of your session can be spent trying to find them, so have patience. I try to keep an eye on them through the viewfinder as they jump or fly away so I know where to look for them.

Digital is cheap, so take a lot of pictures. Delete those you don’t like, keep those you do, and be thankful if you get a few shots you really like. Let’s face it, for what these models get paid, you can’t expect much more than that.

Bob Garas is a photographer from Central Florida specializing in macrophotography. See more of his images at www.bobgarasphoto.com and www.geocities.com/bgaras2001/.