I bought myself a macro lens for the holidays, the pictures look good, but the flash makes everything look like "Stuart Honey at Atomic testing site".

It's not worth the effort to take photos inside is it, mourning or afternoon outside are my best bet for good pictures right?

Thanks

Jeff

Natural (outdoor) light is best for taking photos and that's a fact. However, I often photograph my models indoors. With adequate lighting you can get really nice results. Personally I try to avoid using flash on models (especially with a micro lens) as the colors tend to come out washed out.

Many of the photos I took at last years AMPS and IPMS Nats were done using a flash. However the camera (digital) I was using had a intensity level for the flash (good feature!) so that helped.

Outdoor lighting (in conjunction with a good outdoor backdrop like woods and sky) are really best though.

Jim

With indooor "macro" photography you need to use a "flood" flash mode. Not all cameras support this though. Instead, if your camera supports "off camera" flashing you could be good to go. This basically means the flash unit (supposing it's not built in) can use an off hot-shoe connection.

Another way is to reflect the flash if possible. I read a post where someone used 2 100watt lightbulbs and said they got good results.
You may want to investigate different kinds of light bulbs, some reproduce natural light better than others.
The easiest way is outside though.

the pictures i take of my models are usually with a bounced flash so the light is 'spread around' and does not create these hard shadows; lightbulbs tend to yellow the picture too much.

the good part of taking pictures indoors is that you are not that dependable on the weather, it does rain a lot.
Jokre

The problem with shooting outdoors is the single light source - the sun. This causes harsh shadows which may cause details to be lost in the shadows. You could use white or reflective card to bounce some of the light back into the model but it can be a big deal if you do not have the right stands to hold the bounce cards, etc. (the wind comes along and blows the whole setup down)

Personally, I would never use direct flash on a model. Professional "table top" photographers use bounced flash in umbrellas. The flash mounts in a stand facing into the umbrella which is usually coated with a reflective silver mylar surface. The parabolic shape of the umbrella serves to diffuse the light preventing harsh shadows. They also use additional diffusion material such as spun glass or silk to soften the light making harsh shadows non-existant. Table top photography is primarily used for high quality, close-up product pictures.

You can achieve professional results with incandescent (or quartz-halogen) lamps. Usually three 75-100 watt lights will do the trick and they can be the scoop type of clip on shop lights. You would place one slightly off to the side in front, one on the opposite side (to kill some of the shadows from the front light) and one in the rear, called a backlight. The backlight will accentuate the edges of the model and make it stand off from the background and provide better focus clarity. You can add a fourth light to illuminate the background, giving it a glowing effect which can vignette a model very nicely. Figure modelers use this type of setup all the time and here are some exemplary images of 54mm figures using only three incandescent lights to demonstrate what I am talking about:

http://www.webarmagedon.org/articulos/bill_horan/html/bhoran_index01.htm

The secret to macro photography for miniatures is to have sufficient light exactly where you want it. Since the best films to use are of slow ASA speed (finer grain) more light is better to get a crystal clear image at a low f-stop (f-16 or f-22). Digital cameras usually also have a way to set "film speed" although no film is in fact used. I would set the camera to ASA100 in either case. The slower speeds also enrich the colors (saturation). While it is always possible to bring the picture into a program like Photoshop to tweak it, it is best to start with the highest quality to begin with and lighting is one of the most significant aspects to achieve this. None of the pictures of Bill Horan's work was reworked. I have seen Bill Horan take pictures and he does produce excellent results consistantly using this simple setup.

What BobTavis just said. Also, most color films are set for sunlight rahter than incandescent or flourescent light. Incandescent will give everything a yellow-orange tint and flourescents will turn things greenish. I have never used the lights being discussed elsewhere here but that might do the trick. The other option is to buy your film at a true camera store and tell the salesperson you'll be shooting under incandescent or flouresacent light. There are (or at least there were many years ago when I worked in a camera store) films which are shifted to correct for those color temperatures. If you're going to be shooting in these lighting conditions as well as with a flash or outdoors on the same roll, you can get corrective filters to mount on the lens to correct for the color shift.