[PIC_THREAD] All Things Macro, Micro

Shot of an obese lava in my ant colony (messor barbarus)
literally illuminating with a 2.5watt map reading red pen light and looking through a red Perspex screen so it's not an amazing photo but I thought it was still worth sharing..

every other lava has been elongated and more tube shape, could be a first major worker, will try to get a shot of its pupae when it hits that form.

Matt_Hirst · Thursday at 20:08

One from a few weeks ago, work in progress for fungi light painting.

Fungi by Matt Hirst, on Flickr

DD_Crash · Friday at 15:11

That is a very nice image.

Matt_Hirst · Friday at 17:12

DD_Crash said:
That is a very nice image.

Thankyou.

arknor · 2025-10-25T19:03:32+0100

What lighting are people using for macro?

I bought a Godox LITEMONS LED6R RGB which is kinda bright, but even if I hold it next to the end of the lens it's way too dark for macro.

bare in mind these are handheld with a6700+tamron 90mm macro VXD

DO I really need a flash?
iso 800, f8 for both images.
I think I tried 1/360 and 1/60 exposure time.

They are eating an oat sized piece of chicken btw, it's yellow cos I dipped it in a supplement for ants (basically sugar concentrate packed with nutrients and minerals)

0 editing btw and full sensor coverage, just downsized from 6k res

Pigeon · 2025-10-26T14:49:21+0000

Matt_Hirst said:
One from a few weeks ago, work in progress for fungi light painting.

Fungi by Matt Hirst, on Flickr

I like the light on this, I sometimes see similar subjects or flowers but without the light to make the photo work. Have you lit this up from the bottom or the side, and what did you use to light it.