Polarizing filter to remove shine

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davholla

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A friend (not a macro photographer) said of this photo, "use a polarizing filter to remove shine".
Now I think that, probably will not work - much as I would like it to, has anyone tried this? (This was with a Canon 7D MKII, ring flash and Canon MPE 65mm)
EF7A9949Harlequin by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
A polariser will only remove polarised reflections, not direct reflections.
It may take away the reflection on the top of the ladybird, but not the bright reflection on its side caused by the flash.
 
ecoleman said:
A polariser will only remove polarised reflections, not direct reflections.
It may take away the reflection on the top of the ladybird, but not the bright reflection on its side caused by the flash.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that is what I thought. The solution would have been to not need a flash - but easier said than done at 2.0x Magnification
 
sandboxmagician said:
Was there some kind of flash diffuser used with the flash in that pic?
I have a homemade one and it usually does the job.
Click to expand...
No, I have tried diffusers without success (by the way this is a ring flash).
The problems have been either a) it makes the MPE unusable at higher magnifications
b) it just does not work that great.

Saying that I might stick milk carton plastic around the flash.
 
sandboxmagician said:
Oh, I didn't notice it was a ring flash! How do they compare to regular external flashes (for macro)?
Click to expand...
A lot of people dislike them. However I can't think of a way I could use a different flash for 3x +
For example for this
EF7A1878springtail by davholla2002, on Flickr

or this
EF7A8165springtail by davholla2002, on Flickr

Without either a) greater DIY skills than I have (close to zero, my only DIY achievements to date are removing wallpaper and unblocking a drain by hand- neither are difficult but one is awful, I had to have a very long shower afterwards) or b) spending a lot of money.

Also 2 of my favourite photographers use them.
Marie a great springtail photographer
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78925926@N08/favorites/
And
Robert Oelman whose had one of his photos used in the cover of a book
https://www.flickr.com/photos/roboelman/

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...GzAA#v=onepage&q=phasmids of colombia&f=false

Which sadly is unlikely to ever happen to my photos
 
ChrisA said:
Some people use off camera flash for that magnification. I use the MT-24ex Twin flash with the MPE-65mm. Diffusion is the only way I think you are going to remove those reflections.

Have you tried diffusing the ring flash like George did in this post
Show us your macro rig
Click to expand...
The MT-24ex is a little expensive for me. I do like that idea. Although I would be too shy to do this
"I then sourced some U-Shaped Foam from B&Q, it's the material that's put around the edge of shower screens to protect them in transit ( I just went to the kitchen/bathroom dept and asked if they could spare some)."
I could not do that ever. I wonder what I could use instead of the foam.
 
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davholla said:
The MT-24ex is a little expensive for me. I do like that idea.
Click to expand...

I use a twin flash that costs about a third of the cost of an MT-24ex, a Venus Optics KX-800. It works on all of my cameras that have a flash hot shoe. It is manual (which I actually prefer to TTL metering as I found it it gives me more consistent results). I have used it with my dSLR, micro four thirds cameras and (mostly) my bridge cameras, mostly with close-up lenses but also on the dSLR with a macro lens. It works with subjects of various sizes, including small ones like your springtail example. My setup is illustrated here.

I think it is really good and gives me nice illumination (with the diffusion I've arranged for it). On the other hand, I am the only person here I know of that uses one, and the only other person here I know of who has tried it (who I got the idea from) didn't like it; @Paul Iddon. (Paul's review of the KX-800 and my review of it are here.)
 
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davholla said:
No, I have tried diffusers without success (by the way this is a ring flash).
The problems have been either a) it makes the MPE unusable at higher magnifications
b) it just does not work that great.

Saying that I might stick milk carton plastic around the flash.
Click to expand...

I would be surprised if you could completely avoid having at least some visible flash reflection on the highly reflective curved surface of a ladybird no matter what diffusion you used. (I'd be delighted to be proved wrong though.)
 
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