Flash Outdoors for wild life

Bob&Glennie · March 9, 2006

Hi guys (and girls) I've spent a lot of years concentrating on landscape and nature photography in film and more recently in digital but I never really got serious about wildlife because I didn't have the glass and the critters are just too skittish. But Harry and some other very excellent photogs have inspired me. AND now I find myself living in a new urban location where the critters are much more accustomed to people. The longest glass I have works out to the equivillent of 560mm@f8. I want to keep my ISO down to a dull roar, say 400? My resulting shutter speed is too slow for comfort at that focal length so I'm wondering if there's anything to be gained by trying flash with it?

My flash is an old Vivitar 285 with a frenzel lens. It's good for 40 feet at f8/400 ISO if used for the main exposure.

Any tips?

Thanks
Bob

Shay Stephens · March 9, 2006

What kind of tips are you looking for?

Bob&Glennie wrote:

Any tips?

Art Scott · March 9, 2006

Maybe moving up to a SUNPAK 555 or 622, actually some of your camera Mfg'ers flashes have pretty large GN's (mine has a guide number of 185).....but the best shots are going to be with natural light....that burst of flash in the woods just doesn't look quite right.......Hmmmm maybe I should try it on the deer next time out........

What ever you use and that V-285 was the Bomb in its day...actually prefered by photojournalist for the longest time because they were absolute workhorses........if you have an external (quantum type) battery [or any rechargable batteries] then I would use it for my out door shots....that 285 will work great....set exposure comp at a +2 or +3 and see how that works....it will require some testing before taking into the field but that is the greatnes of digital our only cost for testing is usually time and maybe batteries for the flash.

Extend your flash head to the tele position to push that flash a touch farther.

let us know if and how well it works.

HeldDown · March 9, 2006

I'm sorry, I just have to mention this: it's a fresnel lens

Sorry, I'm a lighting guy, and I'm anal, so I had to!

Bob&Glennie · March 9, 2006

HeldDown wrote:

I'm sorry, I just have to mention this: it's a fresnel lens

Sorry, I'm a lighting guy, and I'm anal, so I had to!

Alrighty then

Bob&Glennie · March 9, 2006

Art Scott wrote:

Maybe moving up to a SUNPAK 555 or 622, actually some of your camera Mfg'ers flashes have pretty large GN's (mine has a guide number of 185).....but the best shots are going to be with natural light....that burst of flash in the woods just doesn't look quite right.......Hmmmm maybe I should try it on the deer next time out........

What ever you use and that V-285 was the Bomb in its day...actually prefered by photojournalist for the longest time because they were absolute workhorses........if you have an external (quantum type) battery [or any rechargable batteries] then I would use it for my out door shots....that 285 will work great....set exposure comp at a +2 or +3 and see how that works....it will require some testing before taking into the field but that is the greatnes of digital our only cost for testing is usually time and maybe batteries for the flash.

Extend your flash head to the tele position to push that flash a touch farther.

let us know if and how well it works.

Thankyou Art, that's useable info. One question however. Why would I need to bump up my exposure comp? I'm assuming you're talking about the ambient light exposure? If I do that I'm actually lowering my shutter speed ever farther (in AP) and running the risk of serious overexposure, am I not?

Bob

Art Scott · March 9, 2006

Bob&Glennie wrote:

Thankyou Art, that's useable info. One question however. Why would I need to bump up my exposure comp? I'm assuming you're talking about the ambient light exposure? If I do that I'm actually lowering my shutter speed ever farther (in AP) and running the risk of serious overexposure, am I not?

Bob

yes there is always that chance of over exposre, especially using a manual flash.........
It really depends on the lighting balance....sometimes I've had to run my exp comp to a +1 0r 2 and the flash comp up also....other times it is all at zero.....that is why i suggest practice runs......once that flash fires what ever your shooting is gone.....probably for the day .... use a near by park and shoot the squirrels or ducks......

Bob&Glennie · March 9, 2006

Art Scott wrote:

yes there is always that chance of over exposre, especially using a manual flash.........
It really depends on the lighting balance....sometimes I've had to run my exp comp to a +1 0r 2 and the flash comp up also....other times it is all at zero.....that is why i suggest practice runs......once that flash fires what ever your shooting is gone.....probably for the day .... use a near by park and shoot the squirrels or ducks......

Ok, that 'splains it:D and a trial run is definely do-able. I will let you know how it works when I get the chance to go to our local conservation area. The critters there are so accustomed to people that they act like we were'nt there. My big concern was shutter speed with 560mm's. Of course faster glass would be great but so would the raise I'd need to pay for it. I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I've got and sometimes feeling a little out-classed by those with higher incomes and better toys.

Bob.

Froggy · March 15, 2006

Hey Bob check this out, they work well

Bob&Glennie wrote:

Ok, that 'splains it:D and a trial run is definely do-able. I will let you know how it works when I get the chance to go to our local conservation area. The critters there are so accustomed to people that they act like we were'nt there. My big concern was shutter speed with 560mm's. Of course faster glass would be great but so would the raise I'd need to pay for it. I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I've got and sometimes feeling a little out-classed by those with higher incomes and better toys.

Bob.

Takes some experimenting to get use to but these work really well

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml

tmlphoto · March 15, 2006

I don't think you will be happy using flash as the main light for wildlife shots. The better beamer should work great to help your flash as a FILL light. What focal length can you get at f/5.6? Sounds like with your location you may be more successful by getting closer to your subjects, rather than depend on a monster long lens. I would think about blinds, stalking or ambush type stratagies to get closer. The thrill of the hunt...
Good luck "shooting" wildlife.

Bob&Glennie · March 15, 2006

tmlphoto wrote:

I don't think you will be happy using flash as the main light for wildlife shots. The better beamer should work great to help your flash as a FILL light. What focal length can you get at f/5.6? Sounds like with your location you may be more successful by getting closer to your subjects, rather than depend on a monster long lens. I would think about blinds, stalking or ambush type stratagies to get closer. The thrill of the hunt...
Good luck "shooting" wildlife.

Well, believe it or not, my first trial run was encouraging. To answer you're question re focal length; my 55-200 f5.6 works out to the 35mm equivelent of 110 -400 on my Oly E500, but when I use the Oly 1.4x teleconverter it drops me to f8 at 560mm. I didn't want to push my ISO too high and so I was concerned about shutter speeds. Here are a couple of shots from the trial run. In both cases I set my exposure comp down (minus) 2 stops and gained some shutter speed and then use the big Vivitar as the main light. It also helped where the squirel was side/back lit.

Attachment not found.

...more to come...

Bob&Glennie · March 15, 2006

Here's another ...

Attachment not found.

Thanks for all your input. I might just get some decent wildlife shots yet with less than optimal glass. Let's hope.

Bob

tmlphoto · March 16, 2006

Bob&Glennie wrote:

Here's another ...

Attachment not found.

Thanks for all your input. I might just get some decent wildlife shots yet with less than optimal glass. Let's hope.

Bob

These look good. The flash & ambient light don't look too terribly far apart. Your exif was stripped from the images. What where you setting?

Bob&Glennie · March 16, 2006

tmlphoto wrote:

These look good. The flash & ambient light don't look too terribly far apart. Your exif was stripped from the images. What where you setting?

I'm not at my own computer right now so I can't check the original files to comfirm exif but a good quess would be f8 @ around1/125th-1/250th sec. My camera will sync this flash up to 1/350th sec so you can be sure that the sutter speed was no higher than that ... I would have made sure of that. The camera is an Olympus E500 4/3 aspect ratio with a Sigma 55-200mm and an Olympus 1.4x teleconverter. This equals 560mm at full zoom in 35mm terms. The Vivitar flash does not communicate with the camera and so there is no TTL flash metering. The flash has 4 auto ranges and manual power adjustments down to 1/16 power. I had it on the auto range that is right for f8. With the Frensel Lens (did I get the spelling right this time?) extended it's good for 40 feet at f8/ ISO400.

I'm at work right now and today is the first time that I've viewed my posts or anyone else's post on other than my own computer. My monitor at home is calibrated and I get good prints that are a good match for what I see on my monitor but I'm suprized and distressed to see the degree of discrepencey among the various computers and monitors here at work :cry :cry :cry . None of these work computers are matched to each other and only one of them looked anywhere near what I see on my own machine at home.

It makes me wonder what the rest of you people on Dgrin and Smugmug are seeing when you view each other's work. Very un-settling.

Bob

Flash Outdoors for wild life

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