My first post for a loooooong time, just been so busy these past 3 years. We've just had our first baby too, Daniel born 19th May 2006. Now there will be even less time for photography!
The thing I enjoy about digital is that you can see exactly where you went wrong with the fill flash exposure straight away and can compensate accordingly, that's what happened here, it was a bright sunny day and I was patrolling the native hedge in my garden with my camera looking for subjects to photograph. The sun was high in the sky, it was windy and the light was harsh, not ideal conditions but it was a quiet period with the baby and I just had to get out for some fresh air.
The leaves on the oaks were fresh spring leaves and were bright green the shadows below the leaves were very dark so to overcome this problem I attached my flash, which was held over the front of the lens by the flash bracket.
I spent some time experimenting with the flash settings on a bare leaf, when I was satisfied that the settings were giving me the correct exposure with a not overpowering amount of fill flash with adequate depth of field and no light fall off behind the subject only then did I go off to find something to photograph along the hedgerow. Trouble is it being a bright sunny day most of the insects were just too active to allow a close enough approAch..lesson learned next time i'm going out at dawn and my wife can feed the baby!!!
On the whole I'm reasonably happy with the picture, the composition is ok I guess but the leaf to the left could distract some, the colours are spot on, so I guess in this case I got the flash just right
f11 with fill flash set to -2, AWB, ISO 100
Canon EOS 1d Mark 2, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro lens, Canon Speedlight 550 EX, Kirk FB-9 Macro Flash Bracket, Arca B1q, Gitzo G1548 (set at 6ft - with me on tips of my toes), green hat, green t-shirt, green trousers.....well you get the picture!!!!!
Posted by Rene de Heer on June 16, 2006 at 9:34 AM
Nice one Larry, maybe a bit too bright for my taste but it could also well be the screen of my laptop!
Rene de Heer
Discussion
4 repliesThe thing I enjoy about digital is that you can see exactly where you went wrong with the fill flash exposure straight away and can compensate accordingly, that's what happened here, it was a bright sunny day and I was patrolling the native hedge in my garden with my camera looking for subjects to photograph. The sun was high in the sky, it was windy and the light was harsh, not ideal conditions but it was a quiet period with the baby and I just had to get out for some fresh air.
The leaves on the oaks were fresh spring leaves and were bright green the shadows below the leaves were very dark so to overcome this problem I attached my flash, which was held over the front of the lens by the flash bracket.
I spent some time experimenting with the flash settings on a bare leaf, when I was satisfied that the settings were giving me the correct exposure with a not overpowering amount of fill flash with adequate depth of field and no light fall off behind the subject only then did I go off to find something to photograph along the hedgerow. Trouble is it being a bright sunny day most of the insects were just too active to allow a close enough approAch..lesson learned next time i'm going out at dawn and my wife can feed the baby!!!
On the whole I'm reasonably happy with the picture, the composition is ok I guess but the leaf to the left could distract some, the colours are spot on, so I guess in this case I got the flash just right
f11 with fill flash set to -2, AWB, ISO 100
Canon EOS 1d Mark 2, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro lens, Canon Speedlight 550 EX, Kirk FB-9 Macro Flash Bracket, Arca B1q, Gitzo G1548 (set at 6ft - with me on tips of my toes), green hat, green t-shirt, green trousers.....well you get the picture!!!!!
Rene de Heer
And you got a great picture of a Green Shield bug (Palomena prasina) !
A fine Shielbug shot with effective use of flash.Enjoyed reading your description/technique too.