Importance of Flash angle in Macro photography

Let me first dedicate this particular article to Mr. Jayaraman and Dr Mayyilvahnan for their wonderful, very helpful and informative Macro photography workshop conducted at Yelagiri recently as part of the Photographic Society of Madras's annual events calendar.

After meeting these two great macro masters I have realized the effective use of flash in macro photography and the vital role it plays to get quality images in the photographic process.

It was a great opportunity to shoot this particular butterfly over the weekend in a farm house on the outskirt of Chennai with two of my shutter buggies (buddies).

IMAGE 1 was taken with the inbuilt camera flash on and with normal TTL output, and it creates a flat image, it is good in sharpness and details etc, But it is very much missing the key element of shadows to bring the third dimension of the subject, on top of that the lens barrel created the unwanted shadow on the subject.

IMAGE 2 I have set the inbuilt camera flash in the master TTL mode and the SB 800 as the slave with the diffuser dome on, set in the slave mode in channel 1, TTL output, the slave positioned on the top right of the camera at 45 degrees, the result is better than before, the shadow disappears and better details on the subject.

IMAGE 3 The same set up but the SB 800 slave flash positioned little upwards at 70 degree angled towards the subject, which creates the sharp shadows and brings out the image in a better way. We can see a three dimension effect in the wings and brings the pattern well and clear.

Click on the sample images for a bigger view to feel the difference...