Dear Michael
All hereunder with the Caveat of "in my opinion", with the exclusion of the final paragraph!
In theory, using a light box should provide you with the facility of total control and by previously tried and tested pre sets, should guarantee a consistency in digital images to a quality, what you are striving for.
Whilst I used to undertake Macro photography in relation to militaria, I have never successfully used a light box and despite trying goodness knows how many times. With this in mind, please take my suggestions with a pinch of salt, although of course there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Trial and error will eventually win the day.
Try shooting at 400 ISO or 500 ISO and for the moment at least, in JPG. Recommend that you try shooting in RAW one day as I think you will staggered towards the results obtained by even rudimentary post shoot photo editing. JPG to be set as non compressed and to the largest format that your camera can provide you. If you have a film mode setting, then you will have to experiment with this, although I suggest that you avoid the likes of Vibrant or Dynamic or similar.
As you appear to being using a tripod, suggest your camera be set to Aperture Priority or whatever your equivalent is, although I would still try and achieve 1/60 shutter speed or above and if need be, use the self timer on the camera if you do not have a proprietary remote shutter release.
If you have the facility to undertake a manual focus of the Macro lens, then I would recommend that you use it rather than relying on automatic. Nothing wrong with an automatic setting with Macro and certainly when used in conjunction with a sometimes built in AF Lamp.
Not madly keen on using a high f-number with Macro photography and I personally would try f/5.6 or f/8, with these settings as a crude rule of thumb, being considered the best for the most sharp images with a modern lens. For the older four element lens, it would probably be and from memory, around f/11. Why do you need a deep depth of field when taking an image of an EK2 I ask myself? By the way and for something like an EK2, slightly raise it off the flat surface by say a small plug that cannot be seen when the award is directly viewed.
That is the easy bit.
I have suggested that you try and use an Aperture Priority technique set at f/5.6 or f/8. For metering, I would suggest that you try the spot method. As such and in a potentially perfect situation, I would suggest that you should be using manual focus with an aperture of f/5.6 or f/8 at a shutter speed of 1/60 or above. Nothing wrong with Chimping and despite what some of the so called experts say and of course at pre shot, you have Live View. If you need to adjust, which will probably be to an under exposed image, either increase the ISO slightly or adjust the Exposure Value compensation setting.
This is all painful trial and error, however the purpose is to establish a definitive permutation of settings which work every time.
All the above ramblings are based on my own experience, however what I cannot relay is WB settings for LED. I personally would not rely on an automatic setting or mess around with a grey card colour balance. Again, you have Live View and just experiment with the temperature settings. I suppose as a starting point you would be looking at say around 5,500k as Daylight, although by simply experimenting with the WB settings, you should be able to find the correct colour temperature. You should be aware though that some LED units have the unfortunate characteristic of causing a colour temperature reading shift in a camera over a long shoot.
Hope that these thoughts which are based on my own knuckle dragging experience (other than LED) may be of some help, or at least be pointers where your own experimentation provides the results that you are looking for.
The final paragraph (thank goodness for that I hear some of you say) and food in China. Here in Weihai, I am lucky. The city is a seaside holiday resort and also, a working fishing and commercial port. There are many great seafood outlets and Weihai due to being close to South Korea, is a popular tourist destination. As such, a high number of Korean restaurants which serve a style of food which I particularly like. In house, Mrs North will on request cook and serve up egg and chips, bangers and mash, cottage pie or whatever and has even been known to rattle out a bread and butter pudding. What I point blank refuse to eat is what the Chinese to include my wife, regard as standard and every day stuff. I hate dumplings, pork which is 90% fat, vegetables which are either boiled or steamed to death and unidentified objects swimming around in gallons of oil and fat. All this excludes the treats of a chickens foot, a pigs snout or ear and not forgetting insect grubs, dogs and donkeys. Quite high quality fruit and vegetables though, although for the latter there is little imagination in the cooking techniques. I survive and via TaoBoa can order European coffee, Coco Pops, tins of corned beef/baked beans and not forgetting Bombay Sapphire gin. Without being derogatory as ever mindful that I am a guest in China, I survive without having to go native.
Regards and best wishes,
David
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by tank destroyer
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