Flash Photography (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I'm not sure if this post is in the right forum, but I was wondering if a lot of you folks are using flashes when in less than ideal conditions. Any advise? I'm trying to better my bird photography skills.
Thanks
Chris

Hi Chris!

I'm going to move your thread to the photography section where I think you'll get more answers

I've subscribed you to this thread so you will get notices when someone posts in it.

Thanks for your help.
Chris

I know some do use it but i have not used it since my film days when i was stuck on asa100

http://digitalbirdphotography.com/7.9.html

Thanks Nikonmike.

Never tried it myself, but photos I've seen taken by others with flash always look artificial (like studio pics or pics taken in a zoo), because of the dark background. Doesn't matter so much for nocturnal species like owls where one might expect a dark background.

Thanks. Appreciate the insite.
Chris

I think it's possible to use a flash to lighten the subject a bit without it looking artificial, and in particular when in dark places like forests people certainly make use of it. I have no personal experience with this, however. It would certainly mean not using the full power of flash, and doing it just to brighten the subject a bit, rather than supplying most of the light. This is known as `fill flash', and you may find more detailed info by searching for that phrase.

If it's really too dark to take sensible photographs and you do employ a flash then you get results like the attached one, which is what Nutcracker is speaking about. This was taken at 1720 local time, and it certainly wasn't as dark as the picture suggests. Because the subject is a hummingbird the scene looks even more artificial.

Andrea

Thank you Andrea.

Chris,
I have experience working both with and without flash for bird photography.

As others have pointed out, sometimes photos that were taken with flash have an obvious quality that could be called distracting or artificial. But in my experience, that is not always true at all. Generally the trick is to adjust the power of the flash to balance the light so that the flash is only supporting the natural light, not overwhelming it. I find that a good starting point is to set the flash at -1 2/3 EV compensation. What flash adds to a photo is partly a subjective judgement and different people will have different sensitivities to it, with some people being total purists who cannot stand any trace or hint of artificial light in an image. Nobody likes a photo that seems immediately unnatural. I'm personally sensitive to over-saturation of colors. But I also appreciate the idea that to some extent, all photos are merely artistic interpretations of reality, so I'm not afraid to slightly enhance an image for more impact. With that in mind, in some situations I think the advantages of using flash far outweigh the disadvantages.

Using flash is not for everybody. I think probably a majority of bird photographers don't use flash because most do not use a tripod and using a flash is more cumbersome without a tripod. If you're using a tripod, it's easier to use a flash bracket to get the flash off the camera, which helps with red eye, etc. Once you have the flash available, there is nothing forcing you to use it. You can still turn it off, and I often do. And sometimes I just want to go lightweight and I will leave the flash behind, and sometimes the tripod too.

Nikonmike provided a link above to a very old web site on bird photography. Some parts of this site may need to be updated, but a lot of it is still completely valid. Specifically, I agree with the 3 benefits of using flash presented on this page. After not using flash for the first few years of my bird photography, once I tried using flash I was immediately surprised that it sometimes dramatically improved both the color and yes, the detail in my images. So for me, for some images, adding flash to my system has "raised the bar" for what I consider to be a really good bird photo.

Good luck to you!

Dave

Thanks Dave. I appreciate the input. I believe I will go ahead and buy an external flash, as I plan on going to Costa Rica into the rain forest where I'm sure the light conditions will not be ideal and where a little bit of fill light will help out.
Chris