Here is another of my friendly owl - with a bit more info on how I used flash as the main Light - Jackie asked :) Blame Her - LOL
This is just what works for me - not saying it is the correct way to do it or anything like that - for me this just all falls into place easily and thats what I want when working in the dark.
Focus
Jackie asked about how to focus - preparation is the key of course, I knew this guy would stay put until at least after dark - So I was setup BEFORE it got dark, changed my lens to manual focus - took some test shots and left my focus set - if he had of moved too much I would of had to focus again of course and once it was dark I really was hoping not to have to do that - Had a low powered torch that would possibly have given some assistance. Also used a smaller aperture than I usually would have to give a bit of room for error.
Flash
Manual flash, want complete control over what is happening. Set my flash at 1/16th power, F8 - 1/60TH - and took a test shot, why F8 and 1/60th well you have to start somewhere and I have found in some circumstances that this is a good starting point - really depends on how close you are to the subject, what colour it is, if there is any ambient light etc. (Use the distance scale and the guide number of your flash to get a starting point for the flash.) Checked out the test shot on the LCD - Was looking for how the flash looked - didn't want that real over flashed look - decided that it wasn't enough and adjusted my flash to 1/8th power - now I was in the ballpark of the flash looking not too bad.
From here on in I leave the flash set and now finetune via the use of the aperture, want it a bit brighter - open up a bit - bit darker stop down a bit. Just depends on the light or lack thereof. (And only small adjustments at this point - not going from F8 down to F2.8 or anything like that)
Whilst these shots were taken with the flash mounted on the camera a lot of the times this will give you really bad red eye/ steel eye - best to get it off camera onto a flash bracket of some sort - as I was shooting upwards here I didn't get any nasty red eye.
So there you have it - Preparation is the real key -Once it is dark everything becomes that little more difficult, the less I have to change then the better, I was able to continue to take shots until the cheeky little guy decided to check me out and flew down onto the roof of the shed I was shooting from and landed about 2 feet in front of me - gave me a couple of quizzical looks and was off into the night.
D3
Nikon 200-400VR with 1.7 Converter
F7.1
1/60th
800 ISO
SB 900 mounted on camera
Manual Flash @ 1/8th power
Cropped and sharpened
Would have liked a little more room at the top.
Comments welcome :)
Last edited by Lance Peters; 08-25-2009 at 08:25 AM.
Very useful tutorial Lance. I'm really new to use of the external flash, so this adds to my understanding. Very good capture of the owl as well, you caught him at the right moment. I agree with needing a bit more room to improve this more.
Lance......This image is funny...This owl looks like he is yawning...not something I associate owls with. I absolutely love this shot. The whites are just perfect! Your preperation and attention to detail certainly paid off. Congrats
Hi Lance, I love what you did with this owl, and this is my favorite of your series so far. It is such a nice shot. You are showing mastery of your equipment and techniques. Thank you for sharing your technical approach to these shots. I too am bookmarking your explanation. Very nice!!
Thanks for the documentation as well. I like to use the distance scale on the flash, then use some compensating rules to fine tune manual flash, then aperture to tweak. For example, there is a two stop difference if you halve or double the distance from flash to subject. I will not continue b/c it seem much more complicated and your method of adjusting power %'s and aperture works well. Just wanted to extend your narrative and mention the measurement method will work w/o guide numbers.
Great picture, use of manual flash and preparation!
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 08-25-2009 at 09:30 PM.
Hi Jeff - you are of course correct - I liek the KISS principle - and in the end - just do what feels right to you - if tehers anything there that you can get something from - great, take what you can use and discard the rest :)
Bob - He was yawning - at least thats what I call it - he had not long woken up from a peaceful days sleep.
:)
Flash as Main light
