Brian asked what I used to take those pics of the Parker Repro watertable and its markings, so I thought I'd start a thread on it and some other pics I took recently.
I've been having fun with my recently acquired second remote flash when taking macro pics and thought I'd post this.
With the repro barrel pics, I used my D300 Nikon, a 60mm Micro Nikkor, the built-in flash, and two SB800 remotely trigger flashes arranged as needed to get the light right. For good detail, I put both remote flashes on the same side of the camera at about a 45* angle or steeper. This casts a shadow on stampings/engravings so they show better in pics. Also, if using a built-in flash, I always make sure the flash doesn't bounce straight back off the subject surfaces to cause glare. An angle of about 15-20* will be plenty to make the glare go away.
These pics of my forend iron from a 410 NID really were the first time I'd used two flashes in addition to my built-in flash. Same camera and lens as above. I was trying to capture some of the damage from a couple stripped holes and also the overall correct assembly. I think the lighting really caught the buggering up from a hammersmith pretty well. I'm in the process of repairing that, but that's another story.
I thought this last one caught some incredible surface detail. I played with the flash/camera angles until I got this.
So here's the basic camera/flash setup. You just play with the flash/camera angles like billiard shots, until you're happy with the results. And with digital photography, you can get the results instantly and change the setup to correct it.
