featherdusters (hammer me)

Took these photos last night. I've been experimenting with lighting techniques. What do you think?

Wow! No critique here, but can you tell us about your lighting technique for this shot?

Cheers

James

No trickery here. I was shooting my E-20 at its min aperture of f11, and a shutter speed of 1/640s. Shot with 2 strobes - 1 YS120 and 1 YS 90. I believe I fired the strobes at about 1/4 power, from a distance of less than 9", but directed laterally away from the subject to minimize backscatter. I also used a LMI video light from my Mako bolted on to my Titan. I use that light on its minimum setting to focus at night. It is a very broad soft beam, and although they are way too expensive to purchase for this purpose, they make great focus lamps. I'm not sure whether they are bright enough to contribute to the exposure at small apertures, and perhaps they add a small amount of backscatter because they are near the lens.

This was a surgy dive (for the F'sted pier, most of you would probably consider this mild), and focusing was very tricky. I used the closeup lens, zoomed in all the way and set the focus to minimum distance. I then fired off about 6 shots trying to catch perfect focus as I (and the worms) surged back and forth.

I'm always amazed at the detail in these guys when you get close enough. These featherdusters are TINY - no more than 1/2" in diameter.