Dan Perovich's Cyberfront Property

1/200 sec @ f/14, ISO 100, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)  While I was doing my cardio workout at the gym tonight, I watched some on location segments of the Strobist Lighting DVD’s.  One particular segment was about constructing a do it yourself macro photo studio.  In the segment, David Hobby demonstrated how a $10 project could greatly improve your macro photography at home and while on site.  Lucky for me, I had already built the same macro lighting studio several months ago when I was photographing jewelry and custom-made coins.  The segment made me want to rush home and set it up with two flashes instead of the two desk lamps I had used in the past.

When I was photographing the coins and jewelry, I used constant light sources.  In fact, I used two totally different light sources with different qualities to their lights.  After watching the segment from the DVD’s, I learned that I could use my two hot-shoe flashes instead.  Once I got home, I promptly pulled the macro box out of storage and found an old camera in the office to be used as my subject.

The final setup had the 580EXII at 1/128 power and the 430EXII at 1/64 power.  Each was positioned about two feet away from its respective side of the macro box using the stands which came with them.  Getting to the final image was a process of trial and error playing with aperture settings and subject orientation.

If case you are interesting in building a $10 macro studio of your own, there is a post on the Strobist blog which offers the same information as the DVD.