Macro photography with flash
After opening the doors to the macro world with my Tamron 90mm lens, a flash didn’t even cross my mind for a long time in everyday use. I insisted on capturing natural light and, if necessary, doing long exposures. I stubbornly avoided flash. I used to make fun of people who shot landscapes with flash anywhere and everywhere. When I saw people photographing the dark Bosphorus at night with a flash, I laughed, “So they think they’re going to light up the opposite shore with a flash!”
For 1.5 years while doing my macro shots, I didn’t think I needed anything else. I hardly used any lens other than the Tamron 90mm. When I was really short on light, I’d set ISO to 1600 and extend the exposure time a bit. To avoid blur from camera shake, I shot at low magnification.
Handheld macro photos without flash. Heavy noise (grain) due to high ISO, and deep shadows have covered the details.
It’s fun to try to make something with whatever you have on hand, maybe—but that sense of satisfaction turns into frustration when you see someone else doing better with the same gear.
I kept seeing it while browsing the internet. How were they getting those crisp, sparkling photos? Same camera, same lens… Looking closer, I noticed a small helper: Flash!
Which flash should you choose?
Ring-type flashes used for macro were quite expensive. After a short search, I decided to keep costs down and get a Chinese-made Yongnuo YN-560 II. This device, a copy of the Canon Speedlite 560, looked like something that did its job well.
To have more freedom, I decided to use it with a wireless connection. I added receiver–transmitter pieces using the PT-16 standard (a simple triggering protocol that generally only fires the flash and doesn’t offer advanced features like TTL or HSS) to the order as well.
The wireless trigger above consists of two parts. The one on the left attaches to the camera body; the one on the right goes under the flash. Communication is wireless.
Before using flash, I tried to do all my macro shooting during bright hours. But during those hot hours the sun would beat down on me, and since insects are at their most active then, it became a chase. When I took the photo, the bright sunlight caused unwanted colorful reflections on the insects, and even the slightest shake during the shot created bright streaks because of those reflections. Since my hand shook differently each time, the sun’s reflections on the insect formed rows of odd lines with a different shape in every photo. As the sun retreated toward evening, things calmed down and dragonflies rested quietly on leaves—yet it never even occurred to me to take photos then.
Speedlight and DIY diffuser I had to wait almost a month for my flash order to arrive from China. Meanwhile I wondered what I could do with a speedlight. I simply needed to get the light to fall in front of my lens. I made a cardboard tube and lined the inside with aluminum foil. On the back of my cylindrical contraption I cut a hole so the pop-up flash could go into it when raised. I inserted the built-in flash through this hole and extended the tube over the lens. I placed a tissue like a cover on the front and fixed it to my lens with a rubber band. The light would bounce through the tube and hit this tissue. The tissue, lit like a lamp by the flash, would act as a diffuser and illuminate the insect right in front of the lens.
It was evening and getting dark when I made the first version of this funny, clunky-looking setup you see above. I immediately went out to the garden for test shots. The results weren’t perfect, but I’d found what I was after—being able to shoot without shake despite the dim light was very exciting. Until my YN-560 II arrived, I did many experiments with these homemade diffusers. It was hard to set the flash power. Sometimes I let light spill into the lens and got hazy photos; sometimes I caused harsh glare on the subject. But generally, I eliminated deep shadows and got bright, pleasing colors.
Macro shots with the built-in flash and a homemade diffuser
As I tinkered, things kept getting better—but there was a threshold to cross. Come evening, I couldn’t see the insect through the viewfinder!
LED flashlight I couldn’t focus on what I couldn’t see. I needed an auxiliary light source for focusing. After a bit more research, I found LED lights that attach in front of the lens. These are actually made with flash intentions, but they’re underpowered in terms of light output and compromise color naturalness. Since they’re continuous, I ordered one to use at the lowest setting as a flashlight for focusing.
The flash, the wireless adapter, the LED ring light—everything arrived. I should mark that date. With the flash, the number of macro photos on my hard drive exploded. I define this as step 2 in my macro journey. (Step 1 was a 1:1 macro lens.)
Since my flash is manual, I quickly learned which power to use in which situation and how to prevent the negative effects of wireless communication delays on the photo. And that I now had to keep 4 AAs, 2 AAAs, and one 23A (12V) battery charged!
Diffuser and flash trigger
In the photo above you see a small diffuser in front of the flash. You always need to spread and soften the flash light like this. Otherwise, you’ll get very harsh reflections. You won’t get color and detail. These diffusers come in different sizes. The larger ones work well on larger subjects. I used a small one so I could slip it more easily into bushes.
I started having a lot of trouble with wireless triggers after a while. The separate batteries on the body and flash sides getting weak or dying brought unpleasant experiences. Besides that, sometimes the flash wouldn’t fire at all, or it would lag and the photos came out dark—this started to bother me. So I bought a new wired trigger.
I was very comfortable with the cable you see in the photo above. Thanks to its very extendable, flexible design and its always flawless, instantaneous signal transmission, I came back happier from my shoots. I still use the wireless one for various studio shoots, especially portraiture. But if you’re going to use flash for macro, get a wired trigger.
Hands-on experience
Whether under the sun or in deep shade—day or night—I started using flash for every macro shot. Working at a low ISO and getting bright colors thus became possible. The very fast flash pulse froze time. The shake/blur problem was solved.
I also went out a few times for night shooting. Functionally, the LED flashlight did what I wanted; I could see what was in front of me and focus. But with four AA batteries, it added a significant weight in front of the lens. This becomes quite annoying with long lenses. A lot of load was placed on the lens mount side as well. Add the external flash to that and you have a weight that makes handheld shooting harder and tires the wrists. Since it made the mouth of the lens very wide, I couldn’t get between leaves and branches. As a result, I couldn’t use it much—but I don’t regret buying it.
While looking for examples with and without flash for this article, I ran into a surprise. The other day I came across a very different and striking mantis and took lots of photos. A few friends and I said we’d seen this species (Empusa Pennata) for the first time… Turns out it wasn’t the first. I had photographed the same species in a different place 2 years earlier. But since it was a period when I didn’t have a flash and the composition had light and shadow mixed together, I never even looked back at the photo. It didn’t occur to me to take closer detail shots either. I didn’t realize I’d missed a rare opportunity. Flash was that important.
Later on, I returned to natural lighting again—but using more advanced techniques. You can find many articles on natural light on the site. The main ones are as follows:
Open air – natural light – practical macro
Natural light in cool weather and focus stacking
I haven’t used flash for a long time. But my first recommendation to anyone who will shoot macro is to get a flash.
