This spider has made his home in the corner by our front door in front of the pained glass, so i thought i would take the opportunity to grab a few shots, he probably was 1.5 centimeters in size,

Canon 20D, 50mm 1.8 + 20mm Kenco tube and flash.

Nice job with the lighting, Bev.

You had to have been awfully close. A 50mm + tube = difficult to light

Did you use bounce flash? An off-the-camera cord? A reflector? A diffuser? So many questions.

Im not really up on flash work, with these i only used the built in flash on the 20D with no other accessories, as i dont have any! i have an external flash for the 1DMKllN but it seems so much easier with macro to use the in camera flash, but im sure i would get better results using external flash unit, i really must study flash in more depth, (Just Lazy) but not using it for bird photography, i now understand with macro how versatle and effective it can be.
You taught me all i know about metering for flash in a thread about using flash a while back.

I should really also "cough up" and get a macro lense!, but i always use my 50mm and tubes, or the 100-400L with tubes, and have always felt comfortable with them.

OK, I love using the the pop-up flash too :)

That would account for the darker lower half region caused by the flash spread at that distance and/or the end of the lens casting the shadow.

Try holding (with your left hand) a white piece of paper above and behind the flash at an angle - junk mail works well for this. It bounces the light down in front of the lens where there would normally be a shadow. In a pinch, you can use your hand but it leaves a color cast which you will need to correct later.

Nice detail Bevb! Looks like you've got those tubes down pretty good.:thumbsup:

Thanks Loupey im going to give this a try and i suppose this would work for a zoom being used with tubes as well? as i found this trouble using the 100-400L @ 300m with tube, but only indoors, not when used outside with flash is this because theres more shadow under indoor lighting?

Thanks BB, yes i love working with the tubes, took a while to get the hang of it, but worth all the practise.

... as i found this trouble using the 100-400L @ 300m with tube, but only indoors, not when used outside with flash is this because theres more shadow under indoor lighting?


Most likely because the ambient light intensity is higher outdoors. Indoors the flash tends to become the main light source and so you can see unevenness that much better.

The white card/paper trick is easy - just a little awkward as it would be ideal to have 3 hands to do this. If you buy a small 18% gray card (for metering exposure), the back is white and you can easily use it for this purpose.