Flash technique

[John Myers]

Are there any online tutorials that can explain the use of flash and bird photography. I saw mention of the Better Beamer, etc but have not found anything on application ( when to use it, settings such as TTL or manual 1/2 power, etc). Thanks in advance for your help.


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[Gerald Kelberg]

Hey John,

Have a look online for the tutorial book from Glenn Bartley - it only costs $20.00 and is as good a guide as you will find. Explains things well and is a straightforward, practical guide.

Here is the link: http://www.glennbartley.com/FlashEbook.html

Gerald

[Daniel Cadieux]

A Better Beamer really amplifies the light and how far it is projected, so you got to be careful not to make the use of flash obvious. Realizing that distance to subject is a factor and will make ideal settings vary, a general starting point would be to set the flash to the shortest "zoom" setting and dialing in some negative FEC (flash exposure compensation). Experiment from there. Your best tool would be a small plush toy set outdoors and practice on it.

[John Myers]

Thanks for the suggestions. I saw Glenn's video and also did some experimenting on my own. I was using TTL and high speed sync, but may be not correctly, as I was shooting into a shady area and it did not seem to light up the subject very much at all. This was probably at 75 to 100 feet away with the better beamer and zoom set to 105mm on the flash.

[Diane Miller]

Flash "power" will be limited by low ISO, and high speed sync will lower "power" significantly as it simply fires a very rapid (thus short duration) burst to ensure that some of the light occurs during the short shutter opening. Be aware that power is actually flash duration, which is all that can change. The "brightness" is fixed. Learn to use M mode for best results. It will take some calibration for each situation.

There are limits to the reach of the simple on-camera flash units, which you can easily check for your setup.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks for the suggestions. I saw Glenn's video and also did some experimenting on my own. I was using TTL and high speed sync, but may be not correctly, as I was shooting into a shady area and it did not seem to light up the subject very much at all. This was probably at 75 to 100 feet away with the better beamer and zoom set to 105mm on the flash.

What's the flash/lens/camera you are using?

100 ft is quite far even with BB. Your best bet is to increase the flash power manually by +2 or +3 stops and lower your SS as much as your subject permits. In high speed sync flash cannot deliver all of its power at the short duration when the shutter is open so the usual guide numbers don't apply.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hey John,
The video doesn't tell you much - you really should get the ebook and read that several times over. It is very practical.

Gerald

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, 100ft is far. My initial settings recommendations were for birds that were already big enough in the frame that no or little cropping is required and used as fill.