''Cophotis dumbara'' is an agamid species endemic to Sri Lanka. Known only from Knuckles Mountain Range. It is classified as a critically endangered species due to habitat loss and logging.
Similar species: Snakes And Lizards
By John Sullivan
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Uploaded Sep 14, 2019. Captured Aug 8, 2019 19:36 in Matale - Illukkumbura - Pallegama - Giradurukotte Road, Sri Lanka.
comments (13)
May I ask what kind of light source/diffuser you used? Really love the light. Posted 5 years ago
It has nothing to do with the soft box, really, I'm above all looking for a way to aim my main flash downwards. I basically need a small hotshoe connection that is flexible and places it slightly higher. Posted 5 years ago
My friend Kurt from Malaysia is an extremely good macro photographer. He makes his own diffusers that let him take extremely close macro flash photos with a wide-angle (16mm!) macro lens. He has documented the history of his DIY diffusers on his blog starting here: http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-macro-rig-then-and-now.html Posted 5 years ago
I'm using a 105mm 1:1 macro only. In 80-90% of cases, I don't use the full magnification instead take slightly more distance to not spook of the subject. I can then compensate with crop, given that I have 47MP.
So I'm very excited about using a bigger yet still portable soft box. It would work out-of-the-box for some of my subjects: frogs, reptiles, fungi, some plants. Yet for insects specifically I would want the soft box pointing down slightly. I wonder what you specifically mean with cutting 3 sides?
A solution I had in mind is that I need a hot shoe extender. A simple, short sturdy yet flexible arm that places my main flash somewhat higher (doesn't need that much) after which I can bend the arm downward so that the soft box output is basically overarching the subject. I've not yet been able to find such a simple extension, only huge horizontal extensions.
And yes, there's of course ample opportunity for DIY. I admit that I'm kind of lazy in that area and prefer to just buy a robust solution, not sure why. Oh, one other requirement I have is that auto-focus should work, I'm probably the only macro photographer in the world that uses it, but it's indispensable to me :) Posted 5 years ago
The way this particular softbox attaches (and maybe most/all others?) means that the front plane of the softbox is perpendicular to the direction of the light coming out of the flash. If the flash head tilts, the softbox tilts along with it. So if you had a flash head that you could tilt down, the softbox would come along for the ride, and that would allow the light to more directly impact closer subjects. But maybe nobody makes a flash that tilts down? Mine tilts up, a feature useful for bouncing the light off walls or whatever, and a feature that I never use. But it doesn't tilt down.
I see how your flexible hotshoe extender idea would also solve this problem. Maybe it's hard to make something that is both flexible enough to allow purposeful bending like this and also strong enough to support the flash without undesirable bending?
The modified softbox that I use with my 35mm macro lens also addresses this issue, since it tilts the angle of light down, thus being able to more directly illuminate at a closer distance. (My main purpose in modifying it was to prevent it from blocking the field of view, but I was aware of the secondary benefit of changing the angle of the light.) I'll see if I can describe it well. The softbox starts out folded flat like a collapsed box. If you fold it out on a flat surface, it's a rectangle in the middle (the translucent front face), and four side pieces each of which attaches to one of the four sides of the rectangle: top, bottom, left, right. Each side sticks out in its respective direction the same distance; that way, when they are folded to attach to the flash, the front face is perpendicular to the flash head output. In order to get the softbox to tilt down, you have to make the distance that the bottom side sticks out be less than the distance that the top side sticks out. So I folded, cut, and duct-taped the bottom side to make it somewhat shorter. Now the problem is that the left and right sides don't align right when attaching the softbox to the flash head. So I folded, cut, and duct-taped those at the angle needed to make them line up correctly when attaching the softbox. The result is that the front face of the softbox now tilts down somewhat, and thus the light emitted from the softbox comes out at a downward angle.
If this seems worth learning more about, I can send photos in email -- let me know. Posted 5 years ago
Here's my current solution:
https://scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/44779482_10156721574747692_5262400987137572864_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_oc=AQlmv4HRejEzGep3v0PImZ1scyN1m9HRXqipNkvzqPRM1yPdaVUoS_7OhJXgQVT5kUs&_nc_ht=scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=7c528b0dbda5533fdefb7468d49ff1b3&oe=5E3B4091
Wrong angle, sorry. This is a foldable small softbox, it has an iron wire structure inside that I forcefully bend downwards. I'm not too happy with results, I think it doesn't diffuse enough, probably it's just too small.
Since the diffuser you use does not seem that expensive, I think I should just go ahead and see if I can get it work for me. If I can't tilt it enough, I still have the ring units that I can add diffusers to.
Would still be interested in that picture though. Posted 5 years ago