Too shiny macro photos

[catbee]

Have recently started taking insect macro photos. Many are too shiny regardless of whether I use a flash or not. Am trying to get the sun behind me and I use a lens hood. The flash when used is the camera's own pop-up one.
The wasp was without flash.

The hoverfly is with flash.
Have heavily cropped both.
Many thanks for advice.

[nutmeg]

Some insects are shiny and unless the light is diffuse you'll get blown highlights. Happens a lot to me. I don't use flash so need quite a bit of light in order to get high enough shutter speeds to stop motion blur - and the downside of that can be burnt out patches. Try to avoid the brightest times of the day.

Can't really help with the flash - other than I suppose it also needs to be diffuse.

I actually like your hoverfly shot and don't see the shininess as a problem.

[DorsetDunk]

Hi Catbee

I really think your images are OK you are going to get some highlights blown out
you can dial down the exposure compensation to combat or try to meter the brighter areas
myself I use flash at all times with a DIY diffuser, a Tupperware lid fixed to the lens itself or a hood fitted to the flashgun,white kitchen paper off the roll is said to be ideal and easy to experiment with and that really what its about experimentation I try to fire off nine or ten shots of each subject dialling down exp comp to suit and rocking the camera back and forth to obtain maximum sharpness and trying different angles and plains of focus and hopefully I will get a couple pin sharp and correctly exposed shots when reviewing on the computer on my return

Hope I have been helpful
and happy snapping
Mark

[catbee]

Thank you for suggestions nutmeg and DorsetDunk. Will read up about burnt/blown up and will try altering exposure compensation and the metering. Hopefully future insects wont be too shiny.

[nutmeg]

I'd be wary of using much exposure compensation to avoid the small areas of 'blown' highlights in the shiny bits as you risk underexposing the rest of the insect.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by nutmeg

I'd be wary of using much exposure compensation to avoid the small areas of 'blown' highlights in the shiny bits as you risk underexposing the rest of the insect.

I agree. There's not a lot you can do to avoid blown specular highlights. You've just go to accept them.

Jim

[Geoff F]

To be honest. With those photos I would worry more about getting the focus sharp than any small areas of over exposure.

If you can see bright spots when you look through the lens you will get bright spots in your shots. There is nothing you can do about it. Even a polarizing filter is limited in effect.

However, if you are photographing in dull lighting and are introducing over exposure where it didn't exist you may need to add a bit of compensation, as other answers suggest.

The danger is that you end up with too slow a shutter speed which causes a blurred photo.

But a few slight highlights can actually improve an otherwise dull shot.

Alternatively, some reduction can be created by careful editing; although too much editing can seem artificial.

[catbee]

Many thanks. More reading about exposures, compensation etc tonight I forsee. Interested about the polarising filter comment - was thinking of trying this but you have saved me the money!

[Geoff F]

With the experiments that I tried with a polarizer, I found it sometimes made the problem worse. Shiny insects are much the same as reflections from metal subjects.

And with Through The Lens metering I found that it reduced the overall brightness levels but there was still an over exposed area when I edited the images. Although, in theory, working with an Adjustment Layer plus mask and editing the mask can reduce the problem slightly.

But if you aren't careful you just end up with a grey area where the over exposure happened; which can actually look worse.

[marvin]

hi

i've never used them but the other thing to think about re polarizing filters as well as the loss of light light, is that it's another thing to fiddle with and get right when you're trying to catch a moment! possibly beneficial for studio work and things that don't move but for bug macro in the field they could end up being more trouble than they're worth.

tim