There is a conception that ring flashes produce very flat, uninteresting lighting but the Sigma has the advantage that you can use just one side to produce better shadows and general lighting in certain situations. For my work in photographing insects I have found it invaluable as it is a very portable solution and saves me having to carry seperate flashes with me. Much of the time for insect work there is some available natural light so the flash is used to give some extra lighting to parts of an image that need it.

This photo was taken at ISO 400, aperture F29 and a shutterspeed of 1/100 sec. Although there was plenty of sunshine on the top of the leaf I wanted to also highlight the two aphids having their battle on the under side so here I used a burst of fill flash from both Sigma flashes on the ring unit. Hopefully this makes the image work better as we see the contrast of the ladybird and the aphids blissfully unaware of each other. Without fill flash here it would be hard to see the aphids as clearly as there was very little sunlight under the leaf.

Eye contact can be important in macro photography so I often try to get down low and face the subject front on. This frog taken in the amazon in Peru was equally curious of me so I was able to get very close (within 10cm) of its eyes. The shot was taken at ISO 800, aperture F18 and shutterspeed 1/200th sec. I nearly always use manual focus when taking macro photographs and in examples like this I aim for the centre of the eyes. This frog had some natural light on it but nowhere near enough to get a decent depth of field so again I used a burst of flash from the ring unit. For more examples of my macro photographs click here.

Trying to catch an insect doing something unusual is a matter of luck and/or patience ! I had spent a while trying to get a decent front on macro photograph of this insect in Borneo. Its eyes are quite mad anyway but the photograph gained more interest when it caught the tiny insect in its jaws. The photo was taken at ISO 500, F16 and 1/160th sec again using manual focus aiming for the eyes.

Here's a side on photo of another frog also taken in the Amazon, Peru. This was taken on my Nikon D700 also using the sigma 150mm macro lens. There was enough ambient light to get the shot without using any flash here. The photo was taken at ISO 1000, aperture f16 and shutter speed of 1/200th sec. It was impossible to use a tripod here so I needed a shutter speed in excess of 1/150th sec to produce a sharp image. Even viewed full screen at 100% the image is completely noise free thanks to the D700 ability to handle higher ISO shots