Took the following at the weekend down amongst the forest litter.
The exposure was set to -2/3rd ev and the flash set to + 2/3 ev and rear sync to ensure I stopped the frogs throat as much as I could by keep some colour in the BG yet getting it dark enough to compliment the skin of the frog.
The frog was captured two nights before (in the same location), kept and fed well in a large tank, and set free on the morning of photography - it was not recaptured.
The frog as free and moved to the position on the limb itself and because it moved their by itself it stayed for about 2 minutes - try that with a harrassed frog. Also the frog was never handled.
180mm/tpod/ring-flash ( balanced 4:1 from the 10 - 4 position)
0.5'/F8/400ASA
FF and normal PS
T
Posted by Danny Green on September 8, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Hello Tom
I really like this and great control of the lighting gives it a kind of tropical/Jungle feel to it very different from your usual frog shots.
Posted by John Robinson on September 8, 2008 at 7:33 PM
Certainly a dramatic frog shot Tom, but it could do with some background detail I reckon - if only a little. It may be my gear but there is no detail in the back at all.
You say 400 ASA -is this a scan off film?
I would have thought with a ring flash at 400 asa you could have gone down a bit on the aperture to perhaps 16 and got a little more DOF.
It certainly does look "jungly" but I don't think our frogs are really forest critters !
Certainly different though.
Cheers
John R
It's digital and I have more at greater DOF but it didn't help much given the working distance and it just made the exposure about 4 seconds in order to for the fill-in to balance with the BG as the BG is natural light (hence why use of 400ASA) It also caused problems with the throat movement which is why the flash/exposure differences and head ratios were set how they where. The F16 also detracted from the eye a wee bit.
The joy of this camera is that 400ASA, 100ASA, 800ASA makes little difference to the quality of the captured image so you choose what you want without any detriment.
Try pasting the image into a black frame as the white surround may not be helping on your monitor. As for forests and frogs .. that is where most are found around here given that I live on the edge of Sherwood.
Posted by eric weight on September 9, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Nice shot Tom, but I must admit that I find the unusual Bg a bit unsettling. probably because I am so used to the 'frog covered in duckweed' shots that we usually see. Eric
Posted by jack chapman on September 9, 2008 at 3:50 PM
very nice pose and setting, and beautifully lit
Posted by David Taylor on September 10, 2008 at 1:06 PM
On my monitors it looks just great, IMHO. A touch more
DOF perhaps, but still a very nice shot as it is.
Discussion
7 repliesThe exposure was set to -2/3rd ev and the flash set to + 2/3 ev and rear sync to ensure I stopped the frogs throat as much as I could by keep some colour in the BG yet getting it dark enough to compliment the skin of the frog.
The frog was captured two nights before (in the same location), kept and fed well in a large tank, and set free on the morning of photography - it was not recaptured.
The frog as free and moved to the position on the limb itself and because it moved their by itself it stayed for about 2 minutes - try that with a harrassed frog. Also the frog was never handled.
180mm/tpod/ring-flash ( balanced 4:1 from the 10 - 4 position)
0.5'/F8/400ASA
FF and normal PS
T
I really like this and great control of the lighting gives it a kind of tropical/Jungle feel to it very different from your usual frog shots.
Danny
A well thought out and very well executed image.
You say 400 ASA -is this a scan off film?
I would have thought with a ring flash at 400 asa you could have gone down a bit on the aperture to perhaps 16 and got a little more DOF.
It certainly does look "jungly" but I don't think our frogs are really forest critters !
Certainly different though.
Cheers
John R
It's digital and I have more at greater DOF but it didn't help much given the working distance and it just made the exposure about 4 seconds in order to for the fill-in to balance with the BG as the BG is natural light (hence why use of 400ASA) It also caused problems with the throat movement which is why the flash/exposure differences and head ratios were set how they where. The F16 also detracted from the eye a wee bit.
The joy of this camera is that 400ASA, 100ASA, 800ASA makes little difference to the quality of the captured image so you choose what you want without any detriment.
Try pasting the image into a black frame as the white surround may not be helping on your monitor. As for forests and frogs .. that is where most are found around here given that I live on the edge of Sherwood.
DOF perhaps, but still a very nice shot as it is.