OCF at waterbath (pic heavy)

[goooner]

So I got some radio transmitters recently and have been playing around with them for a couple of weeks. As our water bath is in a shady area I set up the flash on a tripod a few feet away. I spent about a day getting the birds used to the tripod alone, and then just randomly flashing with the transceiver when they were around. At the moment they don't worry much when I flash. The Blue Tit flaps its wings shortly but does not fly away.

The squirrel did not seem to worry much, until the last shot where he lost his footing, I've not seen him since. I'm sure he'll be back as soon as I lay out some nuts. You will see I'm new to ocf and am not sure how to get the best from the ambient light. I close the aperture when they are closer to the flash while opening it slightly when they are further away.

C&C always welcome, especially concerning the lighting.

1. The setup...

2. Blue Tit on branch, around 2meters away from flash...

3. Blue tit on water bath, around 1.5m away from flash...

4. Sparrow

5.Nuthatch taking a bath (was extremely overexposed, tried to rescue it in post)

6. Squirrel, a bit further away..

7. Before it got a fright

 

[Hunter58]

Very cool. I think the shots came out nice. As far as lighting I think the Sparrow is the best shot as it doesn't look like it's lit by flash. You do have a some strange looking lizards over there.

 

[Derrel]

RE: the lighting, how is the flash's output being regulated? TTL? I am guessing TTL flash regulation, since the one bird was so overexposed.

 

[goooner]

Very cool. I think the shots came out nice. As far as lighting I think the Sparrow is the best shot as it doesn't look like it's lit by flash. You do have a some strange looking lizards over there.

Thanks Hunter, I thought the shadow from the Sparrows tail was pretty harsh, I'm struggling to get the 'fill flash' look, instead of the harsh lighting I'm getting now. I guess it's just too dark under the foliage, and I might need some kind of reflector.

 

[goooner]

RE: the lighting, how is the flash's output being regulated? TTL? I am guessing TTL flash regulation, since the one bird was so overexposed.

Hi Derrel, I think it was set to eTTL, but I changed the aperture according to where the subject was. On the over exposed bird I forgot to close the aperture as I did in 3 (I think F10 or 11). On the branch the aperture was 6.3. As my camera has no C modes, I find this the fastest way to change the lighting between branch (2-3 meters away), and water bath (1-1.5 meters away). I should probably tone down my flash, as the lighting is very harsh.

 

[WesternGuy]

One thing you might want to try, if you haven't, is to put a diffuser on your flash. This might mean you have to use it in Manual mode, but I find that, when I am shooting flowers indoors, the diffuser helps me to cut down on a lot of shadows and prevents parts of the image from being blown out. I do get similar results when shooting flowers outdoors as well. Thought that this might help soften the flash for your birds.

WesternGuy