for this video we've come to the Sawtooth botanical garden in Ketchum
Idaho. We are here to meet Thomas Shahan, a macro photography enthusiast who
specializes in taking pictures of insects and spiders. Thomas will be
giving us tips on how to pose and light insects and bugs close up using the
Fujifilm GFX 50s medium format camera and the 120mm f/4 macro lens
Thomas is very enthusiastic about bugs and insects. 'hey we got some Rollie
pollies' I on the other hand have much to learn. 'So that thing can eat a mouse?' 'Yeah'
We're working today with the Fujifilm GFX 50s, a lightweight and relatively compact 50
megapixel medium format camera. The 50s offers excellent image quality and a lot
of resolution. We're mostly going to be shooting with the GF 120 millimeter f/4
macro - a handy optically stabilized prime lens with an excellent close focus
capability. Apart from the camera and lens we're using a fairly simple setup.
Some colorful sheets of cardboard for backgrounds, one main flash and two
smaller slave flashes on flexible stands for close-up lighting. Thomas also
brought along some homemade flash diffusers to soften the light. Our first
subject is sneakers, a millipede. 'Beautiful isn't it amazing animal? It's actually kind of a
nice calming sensation just to have these waves of legs rolling through your
fingers. Millipedes are surprisingly fast - to keep up we had to constantly
reposition the log that sneakers was crawling on and move the slave flashes around it
Thomas is bracketing focus manually by moving the camera and lens back and
forth. Next up is a Madagascar hissing cockroach - one of the largest species of
cockroach in the world. 'I actually like it on the hands for a sense of scale
because the thing that's impressive about this is it's so big'
Because it's so shiny Thomas has to experiment with the power output and
position of the flashes. 'Okay so let's drop this one to 1/32 -
keep the position to where you are with your hands'. Even shinier is the Bess Beetle.
If you hold them up to your ear Bess Beetles stridulate and they can
kinda make a little screaming sound'. This is where flash diffusers really come in
handy. 'Since it's so glossy, bringing them in as close as possible will give us
more broad catch lights'. The Bess Beetle is only around an inch long but the 50
megapixel resolution of the GFX means that we can capture the tiniest details
on its back. After the bugs we went into the greenhouse to shoot some more
evolved organisms - or at least some slightly bigger ones. While we were there,
as well as stills we also shot some HD video. This is Melon -
she looks like a baby dragon but she's actually an eyelash crested gecko.
Thomas took her outside for a quick portrait against the evening sky, using fill-flash
to balance the natural light. 'That's great thank you all'. All of these animals
have made great subjects, but the star of our shoot today is Hildegard, a
tarantula. Hildegard has led a very sheltered life...
'She has never been with a male as far as I know'. With diffuse sunlight coming into
the greenhouse we removed the flashes in favor of natural light and a higher ISO
sensitivity. Thomas got close to capture all the detail in what I now
know to call a cephalothorax. Female tarantulas are sometimes known to
eat their partners - lucky escape for Thomas. 'Well thank you that was wonderful'.
'Thank her - it was her decision to be good!' After spending a day watching
Thomas work I felt like I'd learned a lot. And here he is with some tips for
successful macro photography. 'First, don't worry if your lens can't focus super
close. If you're working with a high megapixel camera you can always crop in
afterwards. Turn off AF and focus manually and
bracket focus by moving your camera slightly back and forth. If you're
shooting handheld, a stabilized lens and a high ISO sensitivity will help get a
sharp photo. Experiment with color and contrast - simple colored backgrounds can
be really effective. Finally, just take a lot of pictures. Macro photography is often
tough - increase your odds by taking more photos. 'That's twelve thousand ISO'
'Welcome to the future'. For DPReview I'm
Barney Britton. Thanks for watching