Trying something new-your thoughts

[john j. henderson]

Typically, we do sunsets with the bird or animal black. I am experimenting with adding a touch of flash. Your thoughts appreciated.

D300s, 70-300mm lens at 270, iso 800, f5.6, 1/6400, processed in PS CS4, cropped to nearly square

[Art Peslak]

John,
I often try this for something different especially with snow geese landing or taking off at sunrise or sunset at Bosque. I would try to power up the flash a little more so the whites on the bird are whiter. Thats just my taste in these kinds of shots. The one thing that bugs me a little is the severe color fringing around the leaves under the bird's breast.

[Doug Brown]

Always fun to experiment! Another vote for slightly more flash power.

[Sid Garige]

John,

How did you meter for this image and how did you decided on flash?

In the past I experimented with flash and sunset skies. Here is a sample image. I will share my technique. Let me know if it works for you / if you find a better way to do.

For these kind of images I always use both flash and camera in manual mode.
I meter for the background and set the camera in manual mode with metered settings. Then I calculate the subject distance with the lens. Lens meter on the top actually shows distance to the subject in meters.
Set the flash to hit at subjects distance and take a test shot. Based on subject you might have to play around with flash a little bit to obtain optimal exposure. Learned this on a workshop with Chas. May be he can give a better explanation/ technique than I did.

[john j. henderson]

Sid and others;

I wanted to keep some of the light of the sunset on the bird, not have a white bird. That is why I choose to not use full flash to totally illuminate the bird. Love you image also

[Mike Godwin]

Hi John,

I know what your trying to accomplish with this, having tried a few myself. Never having had great success, I always seem to fall back to the standard silhouette simply because it is easier :) In your image, the bird is too muted against the bright background for my taste, and the vegetation is in limbo as it adds nothing but space to the image. Knowing you want to keep some mood on the bird, I'd still try to brighten it up a bit for added punch.

Thanks Sid for that wonderful advice, you can always adjust the flash up or down for the amount of brightness on a still subject like John's Ibis. Birds in flight has added complexity due to the variable distance dynamics, but I'll make that my challenge for this week. :)

[john j. henderson]

Thanks Mike

What is great about photo forums is the interaction and opinions of others. This was an experiment. I like the photo that Sid posted but that is not the effect I was trying to achieve. I will keep working at it till I come up with something that fits my vision.