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Hello crex,

Well it's been a while since I started my experiments with shooting insects indoors (it was exlusively beetles initially) and now I can share some of my experience with you (and everyone interested of course).

1. Some sort of box. The easiest way to do it sometimes is using the same container you put a specimen in when collecting it. I'd suggest milk-white Konica/Fujifilm plastic film containers and/or their caps (for very small flies). Put it on a sheet of white paper or something of uniform colour. Some flies rest for sime time on wall of an open container or immediately clean themselves upon leaving it thus allowing you some precious seconds to capture their looks. The container's size will let you shoot some flies directly inside sitting on its bottom, just push your lens closer and ajust your flash position (works OK at RRs around 2x). Be prepared to hop about your place to catch a runaway, leave them as few places/little space to hide as possible and/or just a single light source to attract fugitives (let it be a kitchen window for example).

2. Other backgrounds. The main task seems to be temporarily restricting object's motility without killing it so almost everything you can think out would do if it yields good results. I sometimes use some other plastic containers of different sizes, both transparent, semi-transparent, milk-white or white. Some examples: 5-litre drinking water bottles, rectangular in section, their cut-off bottoms with its front wall quite low to allow manipulations with your camera at a very short shooting distance; separately purchased containers (or their lids) for smetana (a product I believe you Western people are rather unfamiliar with yet quite popular here in Russia, like cream); white plasic toothpowder boxes/their lids, etc. Note: their surface should be even and smooth, without ridges or rifles or the like (actually most of such containers have some grooves, pressing marks, etc., but some portions of its surface might be usable). And keep them perfectly clean, or you'll see nasty dust particles on your pictures! Then you will have to do some trial and error routine to find lighting conditions that suit you best - just feel free to investigate, play with illumination sources, reflecting surfaces, flash position angle, etc. Just one thing more - depending on its thickness/transparency and ambient lighitng conditions, plastic can diffuse light very effectively softening hard shadows like almost nothing else, which hopefully may result in some fantastic shots.

3. Other (more naturally-looking) backgrounds. I mostly use leaves (green or dried, depending on season), pieces of bark, (very fine) sand, pieces of wood, and sometimes slates (excellent uniform grey BG for some objects). There's some basic hints. Using leaves, avoid very shiny thick ones (bad reflections) and/or covered with hairs, as well as with too many nervures (too many details, you'd lost your fly on it). Avoid using bark of too dark colour. Birch bark is very attractive background and may give great results, just remember it's very reflective and working with it is sometimes rather unpredictable. Sand is good sometimes, too, but remember its grains tend to stick to insects (and, even with fine sand, may be of the size comparable with that of your objects), keep it dry.

4. Finally, object movements. I use my fridge to temporarily slow them down while keeping them alive and kicking. I mean the freezer of course, most Diptera are quite tolerant to higher temperatures and would fly away almost instantly upon release. Freezing time varies greatly and depends on insect's kind/size, usually a couple of minutes would do, but it's a fragile balance, so be prepared to a lot of mournful sights of unnatural poses and legs clenched pitiably in their (inadvertent) death-throes. Some of them might look quite dead but just give them some time to warm up a bit while keeping an eye (well-equipped with your shooting device of course) on them. And remember, the farther your fly is from your substrate (the stronger it straightens out its legs) the softer shadows you'll get.

Think that'll do for a start.

Best regards.