[Julian H]

Off to Panama soon and wondered what people set their settings to when using flash.

Rig would be a Canon 40D with a 400mm 5.6 lens with a 550EX flash and better beamer.

Julian

[fenboy1969]

I use a better beamer and provided the subject isn't too distant I simply set it to ttl metering and -2 stops compensation to give a nice balanced light in heavy cover. I'm no expert thoughso would be interested to hear any other recommendations.

Carl

[mr_birdman]

I sometimes shoot in local rainforests and treat it the same as when I do my night photography. The biggest problem with balancing ambient light and flash is the lack of ambient light for starters. With light levels low, moving (quite likely) subjects, and slow shutter speeds when using aperture priority mode, it makes for difficult conditions. I only use manual mode with flash used as the main and only source of light; that's how I prefer to shoot. Of course with a fairly static bird, if it is really still, the balance may be achieved, but I have yet to find a static bird.
In any case, I generally shoot hand held, even with my 500/4L lens, using a flash bracket attached to the lens foot. Here are some samples of some recent images I took deep below the town of Katoomba of some Superb Lyrebirds. The light was that low that even my 1D body had a hard time focusing with an f/2.8 macro lens; some were taken with the Canon EF 300/4L IS, but that was unreliable for focusing - next time I'll use a torch to help. All were shot as per my manual mode method though. Sure, some people want to balance ambient and flash and that's fine. I doubt you'd get consistently useable images.

http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/v...L1024.jpg.html

[CJW]

Originally Posted by Julian H

Off to Panama soon and wondered what people set their settings to when using flash.

Rig would be a Canon 40D with a 400mm 5.6 lens with a 550EX flash and better beamer.

Julian

Hey Julian, this is probably waaaaay too late but the attached shows the difference between a flash on it's own and one with a better beamer attached:

Canon EOS 7D
Canon 500mm f4 IS L
Canon 580 EXII flash.

Handheld
Manual exposure @ 1/250 sec, f8, ISO400
Range ca. 45 feet