Not really for critique but more of a technical excercise..

I'm bloomin' fed up with no light and high iso noise, so I went over to Bob Rigbys' on Friday and swiped another 2 SB800s.

Not tried multiple flash units on wee birdies before and after trying to set them up TTL and failing miserably I switched to a manual setup and managed to get some semblence of control.

To put you in the picture, this is my 'Nuthatch stump' - sadly the nutties took one look at SB800's and buggered off

But the Coal tits were proving a godsend for me to practice on

Ambient light reading of this framing was ISO 3200 1/125@f6.5

This exposure was ISO 100 1/800@f9.5 with -0.3EV comp as well Whey-hey

I now the trunk is looking tatty and not the best perch in the world and I've still not got my studio lighting head on properly AND I know the subject has a sunflower seed in his beak - but as I said, image is not really for critique.

Key light is about 5 feet left, fill is about 18 inches to the right with a diffuser dome fitted, and there's a full power top light about 4 feet above the subject.

Could really do with another 3 SB800's, one to pick up the back of the perch and 2 to flood the BG - but it's a start

D2Xs+Sig 300-800 at 700mm

Thanks for looking and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone

Just incase it's of interest, this is a true 100% crop from the full tiff - no NR and no sharpening - D2Xs isn't too bad at 100 iso

HI Andy,

Can I suggest a couple of lumps of 3x2 and a dob of black paint to mock the speedlights and leave them in place. they'll soon become part of the 'furniture' and be accepted.

Got to admit that I use manual too, although the SB800's used as CLS master and slaves does work quite well, although only used them with a D200 which has the master built-in with the pop-up.

Can you soften the top-light at all. As it is the shadow is a bit hard.
HIH

Ian

Andy,

Nicely done.... manual is really the only way to go with these modern sophisticated flash systems

At the moment I think it looks too much like flash.... each head needs diffusing... then look at natural light... I don't think you need a top light so that could be put to better use on the bg.. it ain't easy and hasn't been helped by the 'wetness' of the perch...

Ian has done a lot of work using flash this year and gives sound advice...

What am I saying..... there is only one natural light source, that is diffused heavily....

Phil

Do agree Phil, too much flash, not very natural Andy. Looks like he/she was caught in the act of theft

Is another unit booked with Santa?

Steve
PS Did try calling you the other day, but guess you were out

Hi Andy,

I'm not to sure about your flash plans To me this image looks like a shot of a stuffed bird on a perch ( no offense intended), I think purely because of that flashed/studio look.
If you can work out a way to diffuse the lights and soften them a bit more then it may be worth persuing, But try and look forward to the warmer days and when the lovely winter sunshine is out

Regards

Rob

Thanks for the feedback guys

Thanks Ian - good idea about the dummy speedlights, I shall make some today

I'm going to try and lure them onto another trunk that's a bit lower and a lot narrower. These nuthatches are smack-bang in the middle of a 20 acre wood - exposure-wise I might aswell try to take photos in a bloomin cave at 2 in the morning

I've got a couple of SBR200's aswell, don't know if I can bring them into the mix or not - if I had a 300/400 prime Nikon fit I'd use them as a ringflash, but all my shorter teles are Canon, and the Sigmonster doesn't seem to take too well to a 12mm extension tube so I'm stuck with a 20 foot subject distance - though I could try with the Sig 180 macro perhaps.

I've got a small shoot-thru brolly out of one of my mains lighting kits, maybe mounting two SB800 behind it might work well, so I'll give that a try too.

Rob - the lovely winter sunshine doesn't penetrate to this point in the wood so I've got to bring my own sun with me