specimen photography

Hello,

I posted this in the Canon EOS Digital Cameras forum but it was suggested that I post it here. We are trying to photograph bird specimens (finches) and I am hoping that someone might be able to give us some advice as to the best setup we can use for this kind of photography.

We are using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II using a 50mm lens. Our copy stand isn’t tall enough to use a 100mm lens. Here are the setting we are currently using:
ISO: 160
F-stop: 2.8
shutter speed: 1/5 (dimmest overhead lighting) or 1/25 (brightest overhead lighting)
We're using a grey digital photo card.

The photo below was taken with the lights pointed away at a 45 degree angle pointing into the diffuser umbrellas. The light box was set at half.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

I would use a light tent for my images of specimens.

Here is an example of one that comes equipped with lights for under $30.
http://cgi.ebay.com …ain_0&hash=item​45fa5ee34b

I use a light tent like this

http://cgi.ebay.com …Tents&hash=item​19c401f8b7

and light my subject with a pair of inexpensive JTL Studio Strobes. The strobes allow me to shoot in the area of f/5.6 to f/8 which provides a greater depth of field as well as generally better image quality since I am shooting at the sweet spot of most lenses...

The light tent provides very pleasing lighting which allows the smallest details of a subject to be seen.

Yes, I think a good sized light tent and a monolight strobe would help you out a lot.

Also, maybe its just me, but that image looks a whole lot too grainy for a 5D2 at ISO 160... How are you metering? What mode did you shoot this shot in? Manual, Aperture or Shutter Priority? Are you shooting in RAW and then post processing or are you shooting in JPEG?