First macro attempt with non macro lens...

[Reality_Check]

The 100mm macro will allow you to be further from your subject to achieve the same magnification than if you were to use the 50mm macro.

I never knew that! Thanks for the tip :-)

[Varunvg85]

The 100mm macro will allow you to be further from your subject to achieve the same magnification than if you were to use the 50mm macro.

Thank you..

[PF752]

Another couple of tips for macro work: It's usually best to use a very small aperture because focusing very close on something very small means a very narrow depth of field. I routinely use f/32. That will, of course, mean you will need a lot of light on the subject (or you will need to use a high ISO or a long exposure if you're not augmenting the light with strobes). Using strobes will usually stop any movement of the subject (and/or camera - if it's a hand held shot) due to the short duration of the flash of light. If you don't have a macro flash (I have a Sigma EM-140 DG PA-TTL Macro Ring Flash - the strobe of which sits on the front of my FA100mm macro lens) you can use two flashes - one either side of the subject. That's what I used to do before I got the macro flash gun. If you have a K1 the easiest way (for hand held shots) would be to put one flash gun on the hot shoe of the camera (as the master) and hold the other flash gun (set to "Slave") on the other side of the camera. If you're using a camera with an in-built flash, use that as the master and slave the other flash gun to that. If you use flash guns and a very small aperture, the ISO you choose will determine how dark the background is. If you want the subject to really stand out, using flash gun (or two), an ISO of 100 or 200 and a very small aperture will make the background dark. If you use two flash guns, varying the second flash's distance from the subject (compared to the master flash's distance) will vary the lighting on the opposite side and can lead to nice lighting effects. (or you could use flash controllers - I have a set of Cactus wireless flash controllers that can vary the output of the attached flashes - to achieve the same effect). Happy macro shooting!

[Reality_Check]

Another couple of tips for macro work: It's usually best to use a very small aperture because focusing very close on something very small means a very narrow depth of field. I routinely use f/32. That will, of course, mean you will need a lot of light on the subject (or you will need to use a high ISO or a long exposure if you're not augmenting the light with strobes). Using strobes will usually stop any movement of the subject (and/or camera - if it's a hand held shot) due to the short duration of the flash of light. If you don't have a macro flash (I have a Sigma EM-140 DG PA-TTL Macro Ring Flash - the strobe of which sits on the front of my FA100mm macro lens) you can use two flashes - one either side of the subject. That's what I used to do before I got the macro flash gun. If you have a K1 the easiest way (for hand held shots) would be to put one flash gun on the hot shoe of the camera (as the master) and hold the other flash gun (set to "Slave") on the other side of the camera. If you're using a camera with an in-built flash, use that as the master and slave the other flash gun to that. If you use flash guns and a very small aperture, the ISO you choose will determine how dark the background is. If you want the subject to really stand out, using flash gun (or two), an ISO of 100 or 200 and a very small aperture will make the background dark. If you use two flash guns, varying the second flash's distance from the subject (compared to the master flash's distance) will vary the lighting on the opposite side and can lead to nice lighting effects. (or you could use flash controllers - I have a set of Cactus wireless flash controllers that can vary the output of the attached flashes - to achieve the same effect). Happy macro shooting!

Great advice. Thank you for taking the time to write out the explanation! I've been wondering about wireless flash triggers - I'll have to give Cactus a look. I recently found a post for the Pentax AF 400T flash (which looks to be a handheld wand, or gun as you refer to it) - is that something that could be used on a K-1 & triggered with the Cactus wireless flash controller? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? I did just acquire a used Pentax 540 and still have a couple of older flashes that I could try to use for this setup, but that 400 pricepoint looks hard to beat (less than $40 - untested, though).

Cheers!

[Varunvg85]

Another couple of tips for macro work: It's usually best to use a very small aperture because focusing very close on something very small means a very narrow depth of field. I routinely use f/32. That will, of course, mean you will need a lot of light on the subject (or you will need to use a high ISO or a long exposure if you're not augmenting the light with strobes). Using strobes will usually stop any movement of the subject (and/or camera - if it's a hand held shot) due to the short duration of the flash of light. If you don't have a macro flash (I have a Sigma EM-140 DG PA-TTL Macro Ring Flash - the strobe of which sits on the front of my FA100mm macro lens) you can use two flashes - one either side of the subject. That's what I used to do before I got the macro flash gun. If you have a K1 the easiest way (for hand held shots) would be to put one flash gun on the hot shoe of the camera (as the master) and hold the other flash gun (set to "Slave") on the other side of the camera. If you're using a camera with an in-built flash, use that as the master and slave the other flash gun to that. If you use flash guns and a very small aperture, the ISO you choose will determine how dark the background is. If you want the subject to really stand out, using flash gun (or two), an ISO of 100 or 200 and a very small aperture will make the background dark. If you use two flash guns, varying the second flash's distance from the subject (compared to the master flash's distance) will vary the lighting on the opposite side and can lead to nice lighting effects. (or you could use flash controllers - I have a set of Cactus wireless flash controllers that can vary the output of the attached flashes - to achieve the same effect). Happy macro shooting!

Thanks a lot for the details. I am relatively new in macro photography. Your words are of great help for a starter like me.

[PF752]

Great advice. Thank you for taking the time to write out the explanation! I've been wondering about wireless flash triggers - I'll have to give Cactus a look. I recently found a post for the Pentax AF 400T flash (which looks to be a handheld wand, or gun as you refer to it) - is that something that could be used on a K-1 & triggered with the Cactus wireless flash controller? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? I did just acquire a used Pentax 540 and still have a couple of older flashes that I could try to use for this setup, but that 400 pricepoint looks hard to beat (less than $40 - untested, though).

Cheers!

I have an old Pentax 540 fgz and an old Pentax 360 fgz. Both have wireless capability so you can use one as the master (on the K1's hot shoe) and one as the slave wirelessly. I also have three Cactus V6 wireless controllers (one is used as the master/transmitter, sitting on the camera's hot shoe, and can control up to 4 flashes (counting one on top of the master/transmitter - the other Cactus V6s are set as receivers and you put the flash guns (you can use many TTL flash guns from many different manufacturers - see: Cactus Wireless Flash Transceiver V6 | CACTUS for a list) on top of the receivers). I also have one Cactus RF60x flash gun that can be controlled from the V6 controller master transmitter.

I don't think the AF 400T can be controlled by the Cactus V6 (it's not listed). There might be other similar controllers that might though. Basically the transmitter/receiver allows you to manually control the output of each of the slaved flashes independently.

Before I got my TTL flashes, I used to use an old Sunpack flash gun that looks quite similar to the Pentax 400T. I used that with another simple slave flash that was much smaller and was simply triggered by the light of the big flash when doing macro photography. We just used to measure the distance from the flash to the subject and work out the exposure that way. It also meant needing three hands (or the camera or flashes on tripods). TTL certainly makes it much easier to get good exposures though (or a TTL ring flash).

I think the Cactus system is more creative in how you can use it (to some degree) but takes a little trial and error to get the exposure right. I imagine there are other similar controllers but the Cactus one is the only one that I have heard of that can use so many different flash guns from so many different manufacturers.

You might be able to put your 540fgz on the K1's hot shoe (running that normally with TTL metering) and use the cable connection on the K1 to fire the 400T (sorry, I don't know if you have that sort of connection for the 400T) but you would need to be able to control the power of the 400T manually I suspect.

Have fun experimenting.