We recently announced the new Sony α7R II, a stunning camera that’s without doubt the most powerful offering in our α arsenal. But instead of doing something huge to celebrate, we decided to do the exact opposite and take it to a photography studio full of insects.
You see, one of the many stand-out features of the α7R II is its 42.4-megapixel full-frame sensor, which makes it perfect for capturing an extraordinary level of detail. With this in mind, we recruited photographer Mikael Buck to really put it to the test, and he decided to do so by getting up-close and personal with some of the most common bugs and insects that are all around us.
“These were all bugs that you can find in the home,” Mikael told us, “We had a woodlouse, a house spider, an earwig, a ladybird and a green lacewing. The bugs seem so normal, but we wanted to show people just how amazing they are when you really get up close. There’s a whole other world on a completely different scale that you don’t realise.”
For this shoot, Mikael equipped the α7R II with a Sony SEL90M28G macro lens along with some extension rings and a macro filter that was placed in front of the lens, allowing him to get even closer to each of the insects.
Mikael explained his approach: “It’s slightly beyond normal macro photography, but it’s not quite within the realms of micro photography - it’s somewhere between the two. I didn’t want to go too far and use loads of equipment because I think it’s nice to stick with equipment that most people could easily get hold of.”
In order to photograph things this small you usually have to sacrifice depth of field, but Mikael counteracted this by using a post-production process called ‘stacking’. “This is where you have a micro positioning plate that goes on the tripod - this alters the focus with far more precision and in much smaller increments than would be possible using the focus ring on the camera lens. Then you just move the camera ever so slightly and you take loads of photos - some people will take hundreds, but the ones here I’ve taken about 30 on average - and every time you move the camera just a little bit closer to the insect. Then afterwards you use software on a computer to stitch them all together, so that you can actually see more of the insect than you’d normally be able to.”
The benefits of stacking are instantly obvious. The entirety of each photo is perfectly clear and in focus, and being able to get so close up to the insects gives them an alien-like quality.
The α7R II was vital in maintaining the level of quality and detail that Mikael wanted to achieve. “When you’re doing stacking you can’t use the whole frame, so you have to do a lot of heavy cropping to get it right. What’s really nice [with the α7R II] is that you can do all of that heavy cropping and still be left with a really nice big file that you can print and show properly. Whereas on a camera with a smaller sensor, you do all of that heavy cropping and you’re always worried whether the resulting file will be big enough.
Another really practical thing with the α7R II is that it’s got the articulated screen on the back, which makes life a lot easier. You can see whether you’re in focus on the screen, and it means you don’t have to break your back trying to bend down to look through the viewfinder when you’ve got the camera in weird positions.”
You don’t need to be a professional photographer or a millionaire to capture similarly stunning macro photos of similar insects - all it takes is a decent camera, macro lens and lighting set-up. But before you start setting up your tripod and hunting around the living room for stray ladybirds, it’s worth paying attention to Mikael’s final words of wisdom.
“One of the main things that’s really important when you’re working is that you’ve got a work area where you can keep everything consistent and you’ve got plenty of space. It can be really fiddly, and often the hardest thing is just finding the bug in the frame when you’re taking the picture because they’re so small. You need a tripod that ideally has a geared head - that makes all the finer adjustments much easier. You want a really heavy, solid table, and you want everything you using to have as little flex and movement as possible, because if you knock something on the table or you knock the tripod even slightly, your pictures aren’t going to come together afterwards.
Lastly, Mikael tells us how important it is to use flash for consistent lighting, but it also needs to be softened for the best effect. He used black and white card to diffuse and bounce the flash light around the room, as well as coloured gels that were either used as a background or over the flash to get a burst of colour. “Insects often have lots of different textures, and if you use harsh lighting then it can be really hard afterwards to see all of those different bits.”
Be sure to see the rest of Mikael's work on Twitter (@mikaelbuck) and Instagram (@mikael_buck).
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