Tutorial Finalist Photograph

This tutorial will teach you to master your point-and-shoot camera for fly tying pictures.  It will serve as an introduction to what is possible with that little piece of equipment you thought was only good for taking grip-and-grin photos on the water. Oh the power of knowing your equipment.  A lot of topics will be introduced here and in the future we will expand on each individual concept.  For example, white balance, ISO, lighting, and backgrounds each deserve a full discussion.  However, it is often fun to put it all together in story format to provide a more active experience.

Equipment:

Olympus Stylus 770SW waterproof point-and-shoot camera

The User’s manual for the 770SW

Black material background draped over a simple PVC studio square.

Gorilla tripod

Ott Light from my tying bench

Models: Chartruse bluegill fly and a double bunny fly

See, not much equipment!

Set up the fly art studio.  For this shoot I used a simple background square I made from PVC (1/2 inch PVC from Home Depot, cut to shape and use the 1/2 inch elbows, found in the plumbing section, cost about $5).

Create a background. You could use white paper or material.  Below is an example of a roll of white paper.

But for this tutorial I used a long piece of black material.

Normally you would place this about 4-6 feet from your fly subject, but I wanted to show that it could be done on a desk.

Mount the camera on a gorilla tripod (get the tripod at Office Max or the local camera store, about $10).

Get out your camera’s user manual (seriously). I download all my manuals in .pdf format from the company homepage.

Now let’s introduce ourselves to the camera.  Look around, get to know the equipment.
Back LCD and controls

Front.  You can tell this camera has taken a beating on the water.  Still works very well.

Turn the camera on.

Now it’s time to understand the user’s manual and what your camera is capable of doing.  

Mine has programmed settings like Portrait, candle, water, available light.  ALL of these modes mean something!  The camera manufacturers take pride in making these modes available for the “average” user.  They are more than dummy settings – they are computer algorithms that adjust the settings automatically (i.e. things we will eventually do ourselves on the more advanced point-and-shoots or dSLRs). For this session I chose “available light” mode, I recommend you do the same to start (candlelight or cloudy day are also good alternatives).

Now we are ready to start the process of finding our picture.  And that is exactly what you do . . . change the settings until you “find” the right recipe for the shot.

Place the hot lamp (Ott light in this example) over the fly subject.

I always start with exposure compensation.  

Here exposure is set to zero.  Way too bright.  The fly has a hot spot on the head the highlights are blown.

Exposure compensation set to + 1.0.  Whhhoooo, way to bright.

Exposure compensation set to – 1.0.  Almost there.

Exposure compensation set to – 2.0.  Perfect.  Done with that variable.

Now choose your shooting mode.  My camera only has P and auto.  Always choose anything other than auto.  Here it is P for program mode (this lets you have more control over adjusting your settings).

Aaaggghhhh, the dreaded white balance.  This is a huge topic and deserves it’s own tutorial . . . more later.  For now, realize that you must adjust the white balance based on your setting.  Here I am indoors, in a darkly lighted room and using a halogen lamp as my sole lighting source.  IF you choose auto white balance the camera will not give you the best color correction, trust me.  Instead pull out your manual and LEARN how to adjust white balance.  My camera only allows for dummy wb adjustments but it is still pretty powerful.  Notice the color differences on the LCD screen as I adjust wb.  The daylight settings gives a purple/magenta color and the light bulb (tungsten) is not very true, but the fluorescent number two seems just right. Notice the nice yellow fly in the background, that is what we are after (by the way, how did I manage to get that subject fly to look true color?  HHMMM, more later – teaser).

The manual

auto wb

light bulb wb (crap)

fluorescent wb.  Pretty true. Keeper.

ISO.  For now just think of ISO as the ability/sensitivity of the sensor to capture/expose light.  The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor.  Thus you can “brighten up” your exposure by choosing higher ISO settings.  But you will open Pandora’s box because there is a lot about ISO I don’t mention here.  For indoor shooting you usually want ISO 400-800 for point and shoots.  ISO 200 is better for bright sunny days and ISO 1600 should be great for indoors but, as I will teach you later, higher ISOs create noise and grain in your image.

The manual

ISO auto

ISO 400.  I used this setting.

Metering.  Again, this a big topic and will covered later.  Know that the camera will scout out the scene and adjust exposure based on how you tell it do so (i.e. metering).  Advanced cameras have lots of knobs and settings for metering and it is very important to know.  But this point-and-shoot only has auto and spot metering.  For fly pictures you always want spot metering.

The manual

Spot metering

So what is macro mode?   O.K. now we are getting honed in.  Macro mode is the point-and-shoot version of managing shallow depth of field and focusing on near objects.  It is a crucial setting for taking fly pictures because it allows you to focus right up close and bring the subject into the field for a tight composition.  However, there are a  few basics you need to know.  First, macro shots require a tripod, period.  That is why we use the gorilla tripod; without it you get shake rattle and role.  Furthermore, you often (nearly always) need to use the “timer” function when shooting because that allows the camera to settle after focusing which negates shake and blur.  

 

Here is a picture taken in macro mode without a tripod and without a timed delay.  Yuck!

 

Instead, mount the camera to the tripod and focus appropriately, don’t rush.

Much better!

Finally, you need to understand the “types” of macro mode your camera offers.  Here we go again . . . get the manual. There is standard macro (you can use flash), super macro (allows for very very close minimum focusing distance, but flash is disabled), and S-Macro LED (allows for very very close minimum focusing distance, flash is disabled like with Super Macro, however, the camera’s LED turns on to “illuminate” your subject).  I never ue S-Macro LED because the LED light adds another variable to your white balance equation and negates all the work you did above when setting up the shot.

Now take a breath, we are done.  Let’s shoot!

 

Well there you have it.  Done.  Not bad for a point-and-shoot and a single light source. Notice how the metal vise seems to blend away with the background?  Pretty cool huh?  Bet you never thought it could be so easy to do that without Photoshop.  Again, it’s all about light and here we didn’t use flash so WE controlled the light and made the subject appear in a softer, more rounded light without harsh shadows.  The principle of white balance management helped us “paint” the fly the correct color and avoid the incandescent/tungsten yellow glow.  

 

 

But I can’t stop there . . . so much more we can do with this basic studio setup.  Let me give you a preview of some advanced lighting techniques we will discuss in future posts to show how easy it is to apply knowledge to any studio/subject.

I used the same studio setup as above.

New model: Double Bunny, size 6, natural zonker.  I chose this fly because it is a good example of a hairy or furry fly.  I am going to show you the basics of how to bounce/reflect light and a hairy fly is necessary for clarity.  Also, the eyes will serve as a focal point as we change the light.  

Here is a shot straight out of the camera on auto mode (portrait) with flash.  Look familiar?  Ah, how many shots like this riddle the internet.  Too many.  No more, no more.  

 

So it goes . . . run the menus, change the settings just like we did above.  But, why does this look so much worse than the green bluegill fly above?  We used the same light, the same macro setting, etc.  Well, take a look, a good look.  First, we have a DIFFERENT model.  This one has hair, a lot of hair.  Those fibers act as a light reflectors and they also show hot-spots such as we see in the dorsal aspect of the fly.  Second, the white balance settings need to be changed.  Third, the eyes throw off reflected light.  However, you must concede that this manually manipulated shot is much better than the auto generated shot above.  That’s the freedom of manual.  

How do we get rid of that hot spot on the dorsal hair?  The answer is to diffuse the light.  Again, this will be a full topic for later, but realize you can put a white material overlay (or tissue paper) over the light to change the character and diffuse the output.  

Nice!  MUCH better.  Notice how the dorsal hot-spot is more diffuse and the remainder of the fly is light-balanced.  Cool.  Hint: this is one of the most important secrets to taking better fly shots – diffused light.

Great, we introduced light diffusion.  Now let’s look at reflection and bounce.  Look up at the previous picture, sure the light is more diffused but the fly is darker and lacks detail in the midtones.  We need to bring those back.  We will use two methods to bounce the light back to the fly while avoiding hot spots.

The first bounce technique is a white card.  I have many variations.  Here we see the bifold white card made with balsa wood shanks from the craft store (25 for $3) covered with shelving paper.  Notice the way the card is angled . . . The right side is directed to the fly ON AN ANGLE (more later, it’s actually important).  You can imagine that the light from the primary source is being bounced to the head of the fly, trust me it is.

Now the finishing move, my favorite!  The homemade macro studio reflector kit!  This is the silver reflector (it is a $0.99 cake pan cardboard from the party store).  

Ooohhhh, aaaahhhh, looking like a professional photographer!  Take your time, move the reflector around until you get a nice light on the fly.  Then put the white material over the hot light  to diffuse the output and you have a diabolic combination – diffusion with reflection.  Now you are a light shaper!

Without further ado  . . . the finished product.  Have fun exploring your own point-and-shoot fly studio.  Feel free to post questions or comments below.

Olympus Stylus 770SW, f/4.0, 1/6s, focal length 9.13mm, 0 EV exposure bias, ISO 100, spot metering, no flash.

 

P.S. . . . I woke up the next morning and grabbed this shot on my balcony at 7:45am.  Rich, natural daylight with corrected white balance.  Nothing beats natural lighting and we will explore this in upcoming posts. Also, we will discuss why the eye looks so much better in this last shot as compared to the hot lamp.  At this point, ask yourself why did the pink hue in the eye suddenly reappear with natural light? Good question!  Yes, there are limitations to the basic one-light studio setup (but they can be manipulated, if you know how). I almost forgot one final question, how did I get that nice “blurred” background on a point-and-shoot (kinda artsy, that’s the ticket)? Until next time . . .