..hoverfly in flight. Trying to take Matt's advice about diffused flash. Cobbled something out of a plastic bag and duck tape. Don't know if this works or not.
Sigma SD14 dslr
Sigma 50 EX macro lens
Sigma ring flash with homemade diffuser
Hand held
F16
1/200s
ISO50
Manual focus
RAW adjustment in
SPP3
Cropped in PS Elements 5
It looks like it could be a good image, however it looks to be very underexposed here, perhaps the diffusion has given the ring flash too much work to do, although I own a couple of units I try to avoid ring flash prefering a diffused flash on a bracket like Matt...
I agree with Phil, this is much too dark. However, open up the aperture a bit and you may be on to a good thing here. Lightening the shadows by about 20% will help, but really you need an image that was better exposed in the first place.
Good grief, you like to make things a challenge...50mm lens and ring flash on a moving (albeit hovering) subject.
I think you have done well to get any sort of image and in actual fact I do quite like it. Yes it is underexposed but you have got enough detail to recognise the subject and offer a different, almost surreal view. Whether that was your intention I don't know.
Ring flashes generally give more diffused and even light when working on close subjects, adding more "diffusion" is only likely to decease the effective range of the flash leading to greater light fall off, hence the dark underexposed image. If I were to try this shot I would go with a flash gun on a bracket and probably try to get a bit more working distance with a telephoto lens (100mm up)
I agree with the above comments. You've done very well to get what looks like a sharp shot but it does seem to be underexposed. I also think you would find that your results improved with a standard flashgun.
Blimey - whatever next. Speaking as somebody who struggles to get slugs sharp, I'd say that was a pretty good effort. A great project and if you can overcome the nits, very rewarding. Looking forward to more. eric
This looks like a really really hard thing to nail, so good luck in eventually pulling it off! This image doesn't work for me, as its just too dark and i'm squinting to work out whats happening and moving the image across to a brighter non-calibrated monitor just to make it clearer.
Saying that it certainly is an achievement to get the thing in focus and captured - keep at it!
Discussion
8 repliesSigma SD14 dslr
Sigma 50 EX macro lens
Sigma ring flash with homemade diffuser
Hand held
F16
1/200s
ISO50
Manual focus
RAW adjustment in
SPP3
Cropped in PS Elements 5
It looks like it could be a good image, however it looks to be very underexposed here, perhaps the diffusion has given the ring flash too much work to do, although I own a couple of units I try to avoid ring flash prefering a diffused flash on a bracket like Matt...
David
I think you have done well to get any sort of image and in actual fact I do quite like it. Yes it is underexposed but you have got enough detail to recognise the subject and offer a different, almost surreal view. Whether that was your intention I don't know.
Ring flashes generally give more diffused and even light when working on close subjects, adding more "diffusion" is only likely to decease the effective range of the flash leading to greater light fall off, hence the dark underexposed image. If I were to try this shot I would go with a flash gun on a bracket and probably try to get a bit more working distance with a telephoto lens (100mm up)
Matt
This looks like a really really hard thing to nail, so good luck in eventually pulling it off! This image doesn't work for me, as its just too dark and i'm squinting to work out whats happening and moving the image across to a brighter non-calibrated monitor just to make it clearer.
Saying that it certainly is an achievement to get the thing in focus and captured - keep at it!