Flashed birds

[Neon Rosell II]

I'm still not comfortable with using a flash, so went to UPD to practice on settings with the regulars there. I find it an invaluable tool as a lot of bird species are really active and feeding just before sunrise.

In this way I won't miss out on this very early opportunities where birds are active already and light would not allow us to take quality photos.

It is useful as well if there is uneven lighting, ie. under the canopy where direct sunlight hits your subject in some parts.

I used a 580EXII and a "Flash Extender" (Better beamer) as my flash set up, manual flash and camera settings. There are no definitive setting for the flash strength as it varies according to subject distance.

The only flash setting I left constant is the zoom, I left it at 80mm. Flash strength varied from 1/2 - 1/8 depending on subject distance. Unfortunately the flash setting is not stamped on the photo's EXIF file and taking notes, like the old days, would have given me a good quick reference if I needed to use the flash in future sorties.

Therefore, since our subject distance varies all the time, there is no definitive settings for using a flash unit, you just have to play around and see which setting is best for your setup. And I'll say again, Take Notes!

Still the use of a flash is highly debatable as to their effect on birds and other wildlife, I won't dwell on that here. ;D

5DM2 + 600 mm f4








C&C is highly appreciated.

[Tonji Ramos]

Neon,

I agree with you that the use of flash extends the photography time. I am keeping my flash with me all the time now.

I think the challenge is how to make the photographs seem, for the lack of a better term, "artistic."

From the very short time I have used flash I think the contrast between the BG and the bird is a key element. I guess if its really dark then what can you do the BG will be much darker. But if its backlit then flash can really help.

In your first photo the bird is much brighter than the BG. But in the next three photos the light of the flash blends very well with the BG. I like the effect with the BRT.

[Neon Rosell II]

Finally had the time and cooperative subject to test some flash settings.

Got several OBS to frequent my feeder and had the liberty of testing several flash settings. The setting that worked for me best is ETTL mode -1 for fill-in flash.

5DM2 + 300mm f4 IS + 580EX II, f5.0, 1/200, ISO 400, ETTL -1, window support.

[Clemn A. Macasiano Jr.]

Hi Neon and Tonji,

I'm using 580ExII with Better Beamer as well ... I use wireless ETTL with PW-Flex Mini trigger and PW-Flex TT5 as receiver mounted Wimberly flash mount. Been practicing it lately ... What I notice if you use higher speed the background turns darker. 1/60 sec is my reference figure for natural looking background. Putting the flash compensation to the (-) lowest depending on the subject distance. I use 640 to 800 ISO for the flash to recycle fast for consecutive / multiple shots.

Currently, on experimental stage
Thanks for sharing ....

[Neon Rosell II]

Thanks for your input Clem, got to try the flash again and I think I'll be using it more often from now when shooting under canopy. It eliminate the harsh shadows on uneven lighting when some direct light is hitting parts of the bird.

Here I tried it on a BS. The only thing that I still need to work on is the grey eyes. I need to somehow offset the mounting of the flash.

What I did was shoot in Av mode and Manual mode on the flash, setting it at -1/4 strength and testing the output on a leaf, I then adjust the strength according subject distance increasing it when it gets farther than the test distance and lowering it when the subject is nearer.
5DM2 + 600mm f4 IS + 2x Kenko TC + 580 EXII + Flash Extender, f 7.1, 1/60 sec, ISO 1000, Tripod-Gimbal support.

[Steve Albano]

valuable input gentlemen. thanks for sharing.. .

[Clemn A. Macasiano Jr.]

You nailed it Neon ... 1/60 sec . 1/sec produce a natural background. Yes the grey eye is the problem. But I think it will be resolve over a bottle power drinks .

[Clemn A. Macasiano Jr.]

Nov 14, 2011 2:24:38 GMT Clemn A. Macasiano Jr. said:

You nailed it Neon ... 1/60 sec . 1/ 60 sec produce a natural background. Yes the grey eye is the problem. But I think it will be resolve over a bottle of power drinks .

[Neon Rosell II]

Here are some more shots where I just converted the bluish gray eyes in to B&W

[Neon Rosell II]

The lighting was harsh already towards the later part of the day when we went to shoot the Eagle Owl and it was producing a mottled effect I thought why not flash the bird to even out the shadows. The only draw back is always the red eye and I took it out during PP, I still don't like to PP the red eye if I could get away with it by offsetting the flash angle. Still trying to improve on this technique. :-)

5DM2 + 600mm f4 IS + 2x Kenko TC + 580 EXII + Flash Extender, f4.0, 1/125 sec, ISO 640, Tripod-Gimbal support.