On Camera Flash for Birds

[baturn]

Problem: Birds don't get red eye, but I do get offcolor reflection in eyes ie; View attachment 3483

Circumstances: D80
Sigma 150 -500 @ 400-500
SB800 with Better Beamer
Outdoors, dim, cloudy light @ approx 30 ft.

Quesrtions: How do I fix?
How do I avoid?

 

[Buckster]

1. Pretty easy photoshop fix.

2. Look into using a polarized gel sheet over the flash - that might work for you.

Other than that, no idea how you can avoid it, unless you train the bird to only look in certain directions where you won't get a reflection.

 

[baturn]

Well, wrong photo. The reflection isn't as obvious in that one. how in Photoshop? Have Elements 10 but no skills yet.

Sorry for having to click on thumbnails.

 

[Buckster]

Well, wrong photo. The reflection isn't as obvious in that one. how in Photoshop? Have Elements 10 but no skills View attachment 3484yet.

Sorry for having to click on thumbnails.

Well, there's always a dozen different ways to accomplish something in PS, so... Just looking at it, I might just paint the pupil black, sparing the highlight glint (or maybe not sparing it), and see how that works out. That would be the most straightforward way to deal with it.

If it didn't look right, I guess my plan B would be to selectively adjust the affected pupil with contrast, brightness and color desaturation.

As for the iris, that's looks like a straight paint job too, with some yellow from the surrounding area sampled and used on the problem areas.

 

[baturn]

Thanks much. Will have a go. Will also try to find polarized gel for flash.

 

[Buckster]

Thanks much. Will have a go. Will also try to find polarized gel for flash.

I got mine on Amazon, made by Rosco, but I got the large one to be able to use it with larger lights: Amazon.com: Rosco Cinegel 17" x 20" Linear Light Polarizing Filter: Camera & Photo

You can smaller, 2"x2" sheets for much cheaper: Amazon.com: POLARIZING FILM GRAY 2" X 2": Industrial & Scientific

I'm sure you can find others as well, if you look around. Ebay will have some vendors for sure.

 

[SCraig]

Just a diffuser works well to. Nashville Zoo is only a couple of miles from home so I spend a lot of time there. They have a lot of birds I frequently use a flash on and just a diffuser has worked well for me.

 

[baturn]

Thanks again to both of you. Just a thought, but do you think using a bracket would take the flash far enough away to help?

 

[cgipson1]

It is an easy PS fix.. I did these just for fun.....

 

[baturn]

Thanks Charlie. Looks great . I did abit of afix myself but lost thse highlight. I really need to learn to use PSE.

 

[SCraig]

Thanks again to both of you. Just a thought, but do you think using a bracket would take the flash far enough away to help?

Honest. If you put a diffuser on your flash you don't need to mount it on a bracket.

 

[baturn]

Sorry, wasn't ignoring your post ,but do wonder how much range i would lose with a diffuser

 

[SCraig]

Sorry, wasn't ignoring your post ,but do wonder how much range i would lose with a diffuser

Good point and I don't have a real good answer. It would certainly reduce it significantly and I suspect it would depend on the material of the diffuser. Those were shot with my Nikon SB-700 and the flash knows when the OEM diffuser has been installed and compensates for it. All of those shots were taken at a zoo so the range wasn't very far.

Sorry, but you are right and I should have thought of that.

Back to your original question, I used to shoot dances and weddings back in my 35mm days and used a Vivitar flash on a side bracket. I never had any problems with red eye in people using that setup so I suspect birds would be similar. Distance might play into it again though since I was shooting pretty close. As the light from the flash spreads it might compensate for having the flash to the side, I don't really know.