Wildlife & Flash
Aug 25, 2022 10:32:57 #
This morning's light was unusually dark. I thought that this would be a good time to try flash. I like shooting hummers after a rain because the birds are usually clean.
Set the flash to Multi and played with the times and frequency to keep up with the camera's frame rate (30fps) and get an exposure that was close to correct. I shot multiple locations (distances), so the light changed a little, following the bird without changing the settings. Tweaked the results in post.
Never tried this before, an experiment, worked to my satisfaction. I particularly like the flower shot.
And thanks to the bird for not making me wait long.
Set the flash to Multi and played with the times and frequency to keep up with the camera's frame rate (30fps) and get an exposure that was close to correct. I shot multiple locations (distances), so the light changed a little, following the bird without changing the settings. Tweaked the results in post.
Never tried this before, an experiment, worked to my satisfaction. I particularly like the flower shot.
And thanks to the bird for not making me wait long.
Aug 25, 2022 10:51:38 #
Aug 25, 2022 10:52:40 #
Aug 25, 2022 11:02:18 #
Aug 25, 2022 11:02:26 #
Paul Best.
Loc: California desert
Joer, you seem to have the same fascination with hummingbirds that I do. You take wonderful pictures of them in flight. I need to work harder it seems. Thanks for the great photos.
Aug 25, 2022 11:37:05 #
shangyrhee
Loc: Nashville TN to Sacramento CA
WOW Impressive images !!! Thank you for sharing. Shang
Aug 25, 2022 12:09:33 #
Aug 25, 2022 12:41:25 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
Your shots worked out well! Good job and glad to see you're experimenting. That's one of the best ways for us to grow as photographers.
Some suggestions for things you might want to try...
Flash can work for wildlife, though it has to be used carefully because sometimes you can get "eyeshine" that ruins shots. That's the equivalent of "redeye" with humans, but can be various other colors with animals because of the different makeup of their eyes. Probably your flash was firing at fairly short duration because you had the camera set to 30 fps. That helped avoid any eyeshine in these shots. But you may need to slow the frame rate or even go to single shots, in situations where you need stronger flash.
Flash can create a "catchlight" in the animal's eye, which helps make them look more animated. Catchlights are reflections, not eyeshine. When an animal's eye doesn't have a catchlight, it can make them appear lifeless (eyeballs dry out and don't reflect when the critter is deceased).
I've found most critters ignore a flash, perhaps because they are accustomed to lightning or reflections. But the whining noise of a flash recycling can cause problems if the animals are very close.
Your first image froze the hummer's wings extremely well... probably because of a very short duration flash. In the second two images the birds' wings are highly blurred by movement. That's not surprising because all the shots were done at 1/200 shutter speed (it's more surprising that the first shot doesn't have movement blur).
You might want to look into "high speed sync" with your flash. I am guessing you just let the flash automatically set the camera's 1/200 sync speed, if you didn't choose it yourself. Most modern flash can be used at higher shutter speeds with the high speed sync feature (that's what Canon calls it... Sony might call it something else).
A problem with high speed sync is that it reduces the flash's reach. The higher the shutter speed, the more restricted the distance, the less effective the flash will be.
One way to offset the loss to high speed sync, at least to some extent, is to use a "flash extender". There are any number of these available now.... some specific to certain flash models, others more "universal" designs. They all do the same thing, putting a Fresnel lens out in front of the flash to concentrate it's output and increase it's reach. You can get 2 or 3 stops worth of additional reach with them (a quadrupling of light on your subject, or more). I've used a couple "Better Beamers" for many years and like them because they disassemble to be nearly flat for easy storage in a backpack. I've modified mine a little by making extra panels to fully enclose the flash, which I think gets a little more light onto distant subjects.
B&H Photo has a lot of flash extenders: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?q=flash%20extender&sts=ma
Oh, and flash extenders are intended for use with 300mm and longer telephoto lenses. (200mm and longer on APS-C/DX cameras... 150mm or longer on Micro 4/3). Shorter lenses will show strong vignetting in the corners and toward the edges of images.
Just to be clear, I don't mind that the rapid beat of hummingbird wings often ends up causing some blur effects. To me that captures the rapid movement of the little birds, which is difficult in a still photo. In some ways, it seems more "natural" looking than totally freezing the subject, like your 1st image, although there is certainly nothing wrong with that, either. The wing movement blur may be a little more than I'd like in your 2nd and 3rd images... at some point it can cause the wings to virtually disappear.
Another thing that can occur with flash during subject movement is "ghosting". This happens when the flash is not the dominant light source, when ambient light is also a large part of the image. Below is a female Anna's hummer shot where I got some ghosting (most noticeable along the bird's back)...
Ghosting doesn't necessarily ruin an image, can even be useful. I used it deliberately to get a sense of movement in the following image (sorry it's not a bird)...
For the above I pretty much did the opposite of high speed sync. I deliberately used a slower shutter speed (1/30) and set the flash to 2nd curtain sync. (If normal 1st curtain sync is used the ghosting occurs in front of the sharp shot, making the subject appear to be going backwards.) The slower shutter speed and panning helped blur down the background, as well as the faster leg movement of the horse. The short duration of the flash froze the subjects. ("Full" flash is usually like a 1/720 shutter speed... But various settings can cause it to act even faster and some specialized, ultra high power flash can do 1/10,000, 1/30,000 and even shorter durations.)
A great thing about flash with hummingbirds in particular is that it can really bring out their amazing colors! I see that in all three of your images, as well as my example above.
Some suggestions for things you might want to try...
Flash can work for wildlife, though it has to be used carefully because sometimes you can get "eyeshine" that ruins shots. That's the equivalent of "redeye" with humans, but can be various other colors with animals because of the different makeup of their eyes. Probably your flash was firing at fairly short duration because you had the camera set to 30 fps. That helped avoid any eyeshine in these shots. But you may need to slow the frame rate or even go to single shots, in situations where you need stronger flash.
Flash can create a "catchlight" in the animal's eye, which helps make them look more animated. Catchlights are reflections, not eyeshine. When an animal's eye doesn't have a catchlight, it can make them appear lifeless (eyeballs dry out and don't reflect when the critter is deceased).
I've found most critters ignore a flash, perhaps because they are accustomed to lightning or reflections. But the whining noise of a flash recycling can cause problems if the animals are very close.
Your first image froze the hummer's wings extremely well... probably because of a very short duration flash. In the second two images the birds' wings are highly blurred by movement. That's not surprising because all the shots were done at 1/200 shutter speed (it's more surprising that the first shot doesn't have movement blur).
You might want to look into "high speed sync" with your flash. I am guessing you just let the flash automatically set the camera's 1/200 sync speed, if you didn't choose it yourself. Most modern flash can be used at higher shutter speeds with the high speed sync feature (that's what Canon calls it... Sony might call it something else).
A problem with high speed sync is that it reduces the flash's reach. The higher the shutter speed, the more restricted the distance, the less effective the flash will be.
One way to offset the loss to high speed sync, at least to some extent, is to use a "flash extender". There are any number of these available now.... some specific to certain flash models, others more "universal" designs. They all do the same thing, putting a Fresnel lens out in front of the flash to concentrate it's output and increase it's reach. You can get 2 or 3 stops worth of additional reach with them (a quadrupling of light on your subject, or more). I've used a couple "Better Beamers" for many years and like them because they disassemble to be nearly flat for easy storage in a backpack. I've modified mine a little by making extra panels to fully enclose the flash, which I think gets a little more light onto distant subjects.
B&H Photo has a lot of flash extenders: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?q=flash%20extender&sts=ma
Oh, and flash extenders are intended for use with 300mm and longer telephoto lenses. (200mm and longer on APS-C/DX cameras... 150mm or longer on Micro 4/3). Shorter lenses will show strong vignetting in the corners and toward the edges of images.
Just to be clear, I don't mind that the rapid beat of hummingbird wings often ends up causing some blur effects. To me that captures the rapid movement of the little birds, which is difficult in a still photo. In some ways, it seems more "natural" looking than totally freezing the subject, like your 1st image, although there is certainly nothing wrong with that, either. The wing movement blur may be a little more than I'd like in your 2nd and 3rd images... at some point it can cause the wings to virtually disappear.
Another thing that can occur with flash during subject movement is "ghosting". This happens when the flash is not the dominant light source, when ambient light is also a large part of the image. Below is a female Anna's hummer shot where I got some ghosting (most noticeable along the bird's back)...
Ghosting doesn't necessarily ruin an image, can even be useful. I used it deliberately to get a sense of movement in the following image (sorry it's not a bird)...
For the above I pretty much did the opposite of high speed sync. I deliberately used a slower shutter speed (1/30) and set the flash to 2nd curtain sync. (If normal 1st curtain sync is used the ghosting occurs in front of the sharp shot, making the subject appear to be going backwards.) The slower shutter speed and panning helped blur down the background, as well as the faster leg movement of the horse. The short duration of the flash froze the subjects. ("Full" flash is usually like a 1/720 shutter speed... But various settings can cause it to act even faster and some specialized, ultra high power flash can do 1/10,000, 1/30,000 and even shorter durations.)
A great thing about flash with hummingbirds in particular is that it can really bring out their amazing colors! I see that in all three of your images, as well as my example above.
Aug 26, 2022 05:30:17 #
Aug 26, 2022 08:40:15 #
Aug 26, 2022 08:40:34 #
Aug 26, 2022 11:15:09 #
Aug 26, 2022 15:28:30 #
joer wrote:
This morning's light was unusually dark. I thought... (show quote)
This trick worked well! Great set thanx for sharing!
Aug 26, 2022 17:22:52 #
Aug 26, 2022 18:22:57 #
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