Someone mentioned the other day someone should do a step by step on step by steps. So here is a step by step on how I take the pics and my set-up. It is by no means comprehensive but I hope some of you may find it useful.
Bearing in mind that I am at the bottom of the photography evolutionary scale I still think I do a reasonable job of the photos and have even managed to improve from early efforts.
When I first started doing the step by steps my set-up was as shown below. A piece of blue card on a clipboard propped up on a plastic box approximately 6 inches behind my vice with my light source, anglepoise lamp with daylight simulation bulb directly above. The camera, Fuji s7000 on a tripod.



My present set-up is essentially the same, the only difference being I use a larger sheet of cardboard suspended from the ceiling. The main advantage I have now is I can easily move the card out of the way when necessary and I don’t have to continually pick it up when I bump it!!



As you can see it is a very basic set-up, but I think yields reasonable results.

One of the major problems I had to begin with was colour balance. I was taking all my pictures with the camera set on auto then I read an article on setting the white balance (WB) and after setting it the difference was instant.

Here are a few pictures highlighting the difference, I think you will appreciate the difference. In each case the first picture was taken using auto WB, and the second picture using manual WB.














As you can see the difference is unmistakable.
If your camera has manual white balance refer to the user manual on how to set it.

The camera I use has a macro facility on it, so I can take photos from close range showing more detail.



If your camera does not have macro you can still take detailed pictures of your flys.
This picture was take from two feet away then cropped in Photoshop



As you can see it still shows everything clearly.



Once you have taken your pictures and transferred them to the computer it’s time to do any work needed in your software, I use Photoshop mainly and paint shop pro occasionally.
You can alter almost anything, but you cannot make a bad picture good. Normally the only thing I do is crop and resize the picture.

The pictures above show the before and after of a cropped fly. After cropping I resize the picture. All my pictures are cropped to 500 pixels wide, I have ticked the box “constrain proportions” which means that when I alter the height the width is altered automatically keeping everything in proportion. The size I have selected gives a good balance between the size of the picture on the screen and the size on the server and the download time.



I then give them a name and upload them to either photobucket or imageshack. These are the two sites I use, but there are plenty of others out there.
I then prepare the step by step in Microsoft word before uploading to the step by step threads.



If any photographers wish to offer any tips, comments or criticisms, please do!
As I said at the start this is not comprehensive, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what’s involved and hopefully there is something here of use to you.

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ukflydressing A UK based fly tying site packed full of flyting tips and photographic step by steps. Now with added fly fishing section.

Excellent step by step scotfly! Well done.

One question, is blue the best colour to use as a background?

Brennan

I think so. I have tried other colours but blue has been the best for me.
Also if you look round the web most of the fly pictures are taken with a blue back ground.

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ukflydressing A UK based fly tying site packed full of flyting tips and photographic step by steps. Now with added fly fishing section.

Flippin Heck Scotfly.

You have taken it to another level.

Absolute quality. I must admit I love your set-up all you need is your know what and your sorted. I wish I had one similar, but due to having a beautiful 2yr old daughter, it does not warrant getting her fingers stuck on superglue, or even worse harpooning herself on many of the sharp objects found in my tying kit.

Thanks for that

The Kyp

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Wild, Dangerous, Unfettered and Free

Thank you Kyp.
Don't worry about your daughter, glue and sharp objects, I found with my kids.. superglue them to the table, stick a few needles and hooks in them and they soon learn, daddies fly tying room is out of bounds To this day they still break out in a cold sweat when they walk past my room

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ukflydressing A UK based fly tying site packed full of flyting tips and photographic step by steps. Now with added fly fishing section.

I am on it. Consider it done. Although working for a Statuary Agency I may have inquiries going on! Best to wait till she understands tools, vice and materials are expensive.

If she doesn't then my wife and I are on a SKI (Spending the Kids Inheritance) Holiday

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Wild, Dangerous, Unfettered and Free

Scotfly,

What is the "white balance" setting you use for the "daylight" bulb?

Do you include the web address of the photo in the different steps in the Word document? I cant tell by the tiny print in the Word document.

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Fly fishermen have more opinions than the US Supreme Court

Excellent 'How to' Scotfly.

If you want a little pointer on the phography then there are only 2 minor problems with your current set up.

The first is the lack of light from underneath the fly. This causes a shadow on some of your shots. You can fix this very easily by adding a bit of reflective material out of view under the fly. Sometimes a bit of white paper is all you need. Angle it so that the light from the lamp is pointed back to the base of the fly. I see you have a reflector in your vice anway, try repositioning that.

The other issue is you don't have all of the fly in focus on some shots. Try to increase your depth of field. Increase your f number untill you get all of the fly nice and sharp. This will make it stand out more from the background. If you can't increase the depth of field, then move away. The depth of field increases as you get further from your subject.

However, the main reason for these shots is to explain how to tie flies and they do that excellently. Well done.

The “white balance” is set manually. On my camera(fuji s7000) I set the dial to “p” then using the menu button select “WB” I then hold a white card in front of the camera using the same light source that I will be taking the picture in and press the shutter button to set it. If your camera has manual “WB” you will need to consult your user manual for instructions on how to set it.

I use the image(img) link for the picture. In the picture bellow the link is..

[IMG]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g8/scotfly/Image1.jpg[/IMG ] but without the space at the end between the “G” and the last square bracket.




I have tried another light underneath but it got in the way too much, never thought of a reflector though will definitely try that, thank you.

I will try altering the f number and see if I can improve the overall focus, thank you again.

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ukflydressing A UK based fly tying site packed full of flyting tips and photographic step by steps. Now with added fly fishing section.

I think my desk needs tidying....