Posted by Phil Shaw on October 28, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Green WoodpeckerPicus viridis)– male + juvenile.
Canon 1Ds Mk3, 600/f4 + 12mm extension tube, WH2 + Gitzo 3530LSV, two off camera flash units.
Manual exposure mode f11, 1/250, iso 160.
RAW image processed in Capture One; sharpened in Photoshop CS5, cropped to 4x5 format (full width) from full frame.
This was shot back in July. The lighting may make it too clinical/studio-looking for some.
Great interaction here Phil and a testimony to your set-up & patience.
Still not convinced about these non ISO settings, especially for Canon, but I understand Nikon can cope far better.
TFS
Steve
Posted by Phil Shaw on October 28, 2010 at 3:41 PM
I don't see any problems with the non-full stop iso settings with either Canon or Nikon images except where you start to encroach into those parts of the range where noise becomes a problem. Obviously this varies from camera model to camera model. I find that the colour is general better from my Canon bodies than from my Nikon bodies, at least as processed through Capture One or Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom, and that I have therefore to go to LAB mode to restore some of the colour when processing Nikon images.
Posted by Neil Burton on October 28, 2010 at 4:36 PM
I would settle for either one, let alone both. Not sure about the birght flash look though.
Great interaction and colours-what made you use ISO 160 as opposed to say 200?
Dave
Posted by Phil Shaw on October 29, 2010 at 1:56 AM
.... what made you use ISO 160 as opposed to say 200?
Using the flash to balance the sunlight exposure on the subject is set by the apperture - in this case f11. The background exposure is set by the shutter speed but is affected also the synch speed of the camera and the need to try and prevent subject motion. As the sun got higher, I had to prevent the sky background from becoming too bright. Without the flash synch issue I could have gone to a higher shutter speed, but I was firing the flash with a set of pocket wizards. The posted synch speed of the recent Canon 1D cameras is supposed to be 1/320, but with the pocket wizards you don't get a clean frame at this speed so you are limited to 1/250. So to compensate I reduce the ISO to 160 or 125 depending on how bright the sky gets. Obviously when you get a white sky, there is nothing you can do and when the sky is grey, you cann't balance the background and the foreground. If I had shot this without the fill flash, the worn mantle feathers on the male bird would not have been quite so reflective and the face and mantle of the juvenile would have been a stop darker. Basically tho' what you see is full frontal, over the shoulder lighting by the sun exposed at +1/3ev.
The capture and the interaction of the two birds is great. For me, the lighting is awful. To work with a natural history subject flash should enhance the available light without being overpowering. Perfect fill in flash is when someone has to ask if fill flash was used ie. it has to be subtle. The flash on this image is not subtle in any way and completely spoils what would have been a great image.
Discussion
16 repliesCanon 1Ds Mk3, 600/f4 + 12mm extension tube, WH2 + Gitzo 3530LSV, two off camera flash units.
Manual exposure mode f11, 1/250, iso 160.
RAW image processed in Capture One; sharpened in Photoshop CS5, cropped to 4x5 format (full width) from full frame.
This was shot back in July. The lighting may make it too clinical/studio-looking for some.
Phil.
Well captured.
Geoff.
Still not convinced about these non ISO settings, especially for Canon, but I understand Nikon can cope far better.
TFS
Steve
Dave
Using the flash to balance the sunlight exposure on the subject is set by the apperture - in this case f11. The background exposure is set by the shutter speed but is affected also the synch speed of the camera and the need to try and prevent subject motion. As the sun got higher, I had to prevent the sky background from becoming too bright. Without the flash synch issue I could have gone to a higher shutter speed, but I was firing the flash with a set of pocket wizards. The posted synch speed of the recent Canon 1D cameras is supposed to be 1/320, but with the pocket wizards you don't get a clean frame at this speed so you are limited to 1/250. So to compensate I reduce the ISO to 160 or 125 depending on how bright the sky gets. Obviously when you get a white sky, there is nothing you can do and when the sky is grey, you cann't balance the background and the foreground. If I had shot this without the fill flash, the worn mantle feathers on the male bird would not have been quite so reflective and the face and mantle of the juvenile would have been a stop darker. Basically tho' what you see is full frontal, over the shoulder lighting by the sun exposed at +1/3ev.
Great interaction between these two birds...
One of the best Phil,excellent.
Keith.
I also vary the ISO to any value to balance the BKGR exposure when using high speed flash.
Hopefully Dale S. will see this and chip in with his method.
Cheers
Austin
Dave