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Shooting ants PDF Print E-mail
Written by Cyrus Khamak   
Sunday, 01 July 2007
This will kick off our first article in "My Set Up" section of MegaShot.net. Please contribute if you have a set up which may help others take better images.

Once I saw an ant in a small puddle of water struggling hard to swim out. I remained under the impression that ants are not good swimmers and would probably work hard to stay away from finding themselves in water.

So, I started thinking of a way to put them in that kind of a predicament and eventually, I worked with what I had at my disposal and the following set up came to my mind.
I filled a shallow bowl with water and placed e regular electrical outlet, slightly submerged in the water. I used the hole, where the wire usually goes, to stick a flowering part of a weed into it and when I was done, It looked like the the following image:



You could use a set up like this and place an ant or two on a blooming weed or whatever you would prefer to use. You may want to place some colorful objects in the background to get some colors in the bokeh, I used some thin wrapping paper and The set up then looked like the image below:



You may place your camera on a mono pod or whatever you are comfortable with. Also, use your remote flash trigger, a flash sync chord or a flash bracket for off-camera lighting. You may want to place a diffuser on the flash, or in front of the flash, if it's triggered remotely or via a flash chord. Also, if you are not using two flashes, place a reflector on the other side of the bowl, opposite to the flash. Now, you are ready to go after those ants!

Tips:
  1. You may want to place the set up on the edge of a table as this will make it easier for you to use your mono pod. it also makes a longer cession easier on your back.
  2. Notice how the colorful papers behind the bowl are sticking up. You may place some additional paper or other object under the paper to elevate them to at least to the same hight as the bowl. this will reduce your light falloff and you will have a brighter and more colorful background.
  3. The ants will run up and down the plant in an effort to find a way out. They will never stop unless they are truly exhausted and this may take quite some times! If you find it difficult to chase them, just try to focus and be ready for them in their usual path. They will also, now and then, stop to clean their antennae thinking that their navigation system is at fault, this is a good time to shoot as well.
    In the following set of images you will see a shot or two which were taken at moments such as these. You will also see one shot taken when the ant took a rest and start to meditate a way out !!
  4. They will, now and then, fall in the water and it will take them rather some times to swim to the edge of the bowl, just place them back on the plant.
  5. the distance between the ant and the background paper should be sufficient for a F16 shot at 1:1. If you find out that it is not and you are not getting the diffused background that you you'd like, just pull the plant to edge of the bowl closer to the camera. You may also use this set up for a lager object such as a flower but make sure to place your colored objects further away from the subject. The further away your subject from the camera, or smaller your aperture (higher F number), the further away your background objects should be.
  6. If you need reflectors, this vendor at Ebay sells some rather good ones for really cheap. These are 5 in one, four reflectors and one diffuser for as little as $13.00 He also sells good and inexpensive flash brackets No affiliations whatsoever, just passing the info.
Good luck, happy shooting and shoot in raw if you can.
PS: At higher magnification, your field of view is too narrow. So, if you'd like to have more than one color in the background, try to shoot in a way where your background falls at the intersection of two colored objects or just place smaller objects or strips of papers in the background.


The following 6 images were taken using this method. The last four were taken in non controlled environment. The very last one was taken at a birthday party, outside in the yard and the ant was running on the edge of a white flowering pot.
























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written by Dalantech, July 02, 2007
Well done Cyrus!

One trick that I use is to mix one part sugar to two parts water. Once the sugar dissolves I place a few drops in an area where the ants are, and at a position that's comfortable for me to shoot. Stopping to eat slows them down so they are easier to shoot.
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written by cyrus, July 02, 2007
Thanks for the tip. You may upload a photo as well.
I'm familiar with that method but it seems like I don't have much of a control over the aesthetics of the shot that way.
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written by Lisa, July 02, 2007
Cool! Loved the photo demo and the results in images. Very helpful. Did you shoot this with your fugi camera? Which lens? I really like where you place your focus, always on the eyes. I can't wait to try it. thanks for your feedback this weekend. Lisa
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written by cyrus, July 03, 2007
Thanks Lisa, let's share a few of those photos when you can.
Cyrus
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written by guenterleitenbauer, July 09, 2007
I'll definitely try this, as soon I have time. Thanks Cyrus, great explanation of a great idea!
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written by Dalantech, July 09, 2007
I explain it in this post: http://nocroppingzone.blogspot...macro.html

Recently I've been putting sugar water on tree branches where I know the ants frequent and it works pretty well. I'll try to get some samples up later -lots of images from the weekend that I haven't processed yet :(
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written by mplonsky, July 15, 2007
I really enjoyed this article and the images. I will have to give it a try. My ants are taken be in the field. I go to where they are and shoot them. I shot some yesterday that were on a sage bush so I didn't have to get low to the ground. Hand holding the mpe 65mm, I got a few good shots pretty quickly. I especially like your setup because it gives full control of the background bokeh/colors.
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written by Robert Seber, July 25, 2007
Great description. I'd like to see the lighting setup as well though!
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written by firimeeha, August 09, 2007
wow those photos are great. you are so great in those Macro shots. lighting and colours are awesome i am a great fan of you and a student. thanks for the kind comments and for the informations. Thank you once again.
Ahmed Jinah (Firimeeha in Flickr)

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