Using fill flash (1 Viewer)

[I_A_N]

Hi guys,
at this time of year where I live there isn’t much light around to photograph birds.
I am thinking of trying a little fill flash to bring the light up a touch.
Has anybody tried this technique? I have seen on YT a few wildlife photographers using fill flash and was just wondering what you guys think.
cheers, Ian

 

[Manolito]

Ian, some people like it and other dislike it.
With what lens do you plan to use it? If you are using a big telephoto, you'll need a flash bracket, cords, etc, and it might be out of your budget.
I live in Patagonia, which has very bad light the entire year and I just "happy" with that because it produces soft light and I don't have to suffer with the shadows. I do use fill flash when I travel to Northern Argentina where the shadows are really hard and the little wind is no concern.

 

[I_A_N]

Ian, some people like it and other dislike it.
With what lens do you plan to use it? If you are using a big telephoto, you'll need a flash bracket, cords, etc, and it might be out of your budget.
I live in Patagonia, which has very bad light the entire year and I just "happy" with that because it produces soft light and I don't have to suffer with the shadows. I do use fill flash when I travel to Northern Argentina where the shadows are really hard and the little wind is no concern.

Hi Manolito,
I will be using a 200-500 f5,6 from nikon on my D500, I have bought a better beamer for my flash, I have bracket and cords.
I will give it a try over christmas and if it turns out I’ll post my results.

 

[njlarsen]

Discussions involve at least two different things. One is whether flash disturbs the birds more than photography without. I think at least in some parts of the world the answer is no, the birds are used to thunder and just think this is one more instance of lightning. Watch the birds behavior where you are if there is any problem there.

Second thing is the weird color effects you can get on flash photos. This is especially common on hummingbirds where the colors frequently deviate on photos with flash relative to without. You decide if that is a problem where you are.

Niels

 

[Manolito]

Hi Manolito,
I will be using a 200-500 f5,6 from nikon on my D500, I have bought a better beamer for my flash, I have bracket and cords.
I will give it a try over christmas and if it turns out I’ll post my results.

Just a tip, don't fire your speedlite with the better beamer if you are facing the sun, you'll burn it.

 

[I_A_N]

Just a tip, don't fire your speedlite with the better beamer if you are facing the sun, you'll burn it.

Cheers mate.

 

[techno_bird]

Hi guys,
at this time of year where I live there isn’t much light around to photograph birds.
I am thinking of trying a little fill flash to bring the light up a touch.
Has anybody tried this technique? I have seen on YT a few wildlife photographers using fill flash and was just wondering what you guys think.
cheers, Ian

Hello,

A bit old thread but I'll try to give my 2 cents contribution..

I have seen improvements in my pictures by using an external flash (Godox TT685) but you need to keep care of:

• distance, if you don't have a collimer the max distance to have any light improvements is around 10 meters (depending on your flash)
• keep care of the flash direction and the environment (ex. trees, etc..) to avoid unwanted reflections
• multiple flash used at the same time to improve the light output
• flash are usually locked at sync speed of 1/160s unless you go HSS (High Speed Sync), but there you will lose a lot of light output
• avoid integrated camera flash

and most important.. don't use the flash only in the dark, it's more useful to light dark part of a bird during sunlight. Will greatly improve your pictures.