Spent an hour experimenting with a flash and 'Better Beamer' today.
Not sure I have the settings quite right yet, so any pointers would be welcome!
D200 200-400VR +1.4x TC (SB600 -2 comp.) ISO 400 f7.1 1/180th sec.
Posted by Rob Ashton on February 18, 2007 at 3:25 PM
This looks very nice Clive. Especially if it is your first attempt with the flash and BB combo. The flash looks a little overdone but still good.
Rob
Posted by Rene de Heer on February 18, 2007 at 4:22 PM
Love the pose Clive, it looks a bit overflashed.
Rene de Heer
Posted by Sean Bolton on February 18, 2007 at 5:39 PM
Hi Clive
A lovely composition and pose, I think your flash works well but your post processing needs some fine tuning. A quick tweak of the levels (black slider in a bit, mid slider right a bit, a very slight 'S' curve and a touch of saturation (+4 ish).
Also interesting you posted as a .bmp file, jpg is normally more efficient for photographs.
Thanks Sean for the excellent repost - rather puzzled why you thought it was posted as a bmp - definitely a 99kb jpg! Don't think NPN would allow the file size for a BMP!
Nice, but a touch overflashed for my taste. I now go fully manual when using flash as this gives me better control, ETTL/iTTL systems never seem to work effectively in the sort of situations we find ourselves for Fill Flash.
It is quite simple, read the distance of the lens, then reduce the power of the flash to half that distance to compensate for the beamer, then half again for -2 stops...
ie. subject at 12ft... reduce for the beamer distance would read 6ft, reduce for -2 comp distance would then read 3ft...
Thanks for the advice Phil, I will give this a go. It's a long time since I did manual flash for anything except macros! The lighting here was much harsher than I intended - I'd like a much more subtle look.
Posted by Sean Bolton on February 19, 2007 at 1:13 PM
Hi Clive
I just double checked my download and when I right click on your image and do a 'save picture as' windows tells me it is a .bmp image. But the properties of the image indicate it is a jpg file at "www.goldswift.co.uk/photos/great%20tit%20head%20NSN.jpg"
Hmmm, not sure what is going on there but hey, it works.....
Discussion
8 repliesNot sure I have the settings quite right yet, so any pointers would be welcome!
D200 200-400VR +1.4x TC (SB600 -2 comp.) ISO 400 f7.1 1/180th sec.
Rob
Rene de Heer
A lovely composition and pose, I think your flash works well but your post processing needs some fine tuning. A quick tweak of the levels (black slider in a bit, mid slider right a bit, a very slight 'S' curve and a touch of saturation (+4 ish).
Also interesting you posted as a .bmp file, jpg is normally more efficient for photographs.
cheers
Sean
Nice, but a touch overflashed for my taste. I now go fully manual when using flash as this gives me better control, ETTL/iTTL systems never seem to work effectively in the sort of situations we find ourselves for Fill Flash.
It is quite simple, read the distance of the lens, then reduce the power of the flash to half that distance to compensate for the beamer, then half again for -2 stops...
ie. subject at 12ft... reduce for the beamer distance would read 6ft, reduce for -2 comp distance would then read 3ft...
Hope that made sense...
I just double checked my download and when I right click on your image and do a 'save picture as' windows tells me it is a .bmp image. But the properties of the image indicate it is a jpg file at "www.goldswift.co.uk/photos/great%20tit%20head%20NSN.jpg"
Hmmm, not sure what is going on there but hey, it works.....
cheers
Sean