[Phil J]

Made me giggle

It's good to have a giggle Brian, so have that one on me!! I must admit though, I try not to drop clangers like that too often.

Regards.

Phil.

[brianapenney]

Made me giggle

It's good to have a giggle Brian, so have that one on me!! I must admit though, I try not to drop clangers like that too often.

Regards.

Phil.

Was giggling at Walter and Doris. Seems my post did not make that clear

[Phil J]

Sorry Brian, my mistake.

Regards.

Phil.

[Webslow]

Earlier tonight I saw these two perched on 'Telephone Cables' outside and overhanging my front garden. So being unable to resist the temptation; Ladies & Gentlemen may I present Walter & Dorris Pigeon. They seem to have been around and together for an eternity, well, at least the last five years or so!!

Techie Stuff.

Nikon D300, F/7.1, 1/25sec, ISO200, 200mm, M/Mode Centre Weighted, Manual Exp, On Camera Nikon BS800 on TTL/FP/BL direct flash. at about 50yds distance.

I have some night shots I took in HI last year. I tried focusing on some lights in the distance and that helped a little but not enough. I tried setting up in the evening with enough light for auto focus, switch it to manual, wait until it gets dark and shoot. A friend said I could shine a flashlight on the subject to get the focus, but that would take a huge flashlight if I want to shoot a street with buildings or a shoreline in the distance. You obviously didn't have the camera set up waiting for the birds so how did you do it? The photos are on another computer somewhere or I would post a couple.

[Phil J]

Hi Webslow,

How did I do it? Well for one thing it was 'dusk' not dark '24th June being close to the longest day and the time being 21:52'. Secondly, the street lights were on. A third aspect was that I used (in 'light' of points one and two) manual focus override, and I think the final point is that the BS800 was set to TTL and so worked with the camera electronics to produce the correct exposure for the shutter speed and aperture I had chosen. I then did a little 'post production' work in Serif PhotoPlus X5. However in the main, I try to do things the old fashioned way, which means getting it right in camera first, before I start any work in post.

I hope this explanation helps and doesn't confuse things more.

Best regards.

Phil.

[Phil J]

Webslow,

Here is a different example of the same subjects, where I took the self same approach to Walter & Dorris, but, from a slightly (very slightly) different angle. However, the same disciplined approach to the subjects seems 'for me at least' to pay dividends. Camera and flash settings are identical and once more post production work done with Serif PhotoPlus X5.

Regards.

Phil.

   

[MrB]

Hello Phil.

You have done well, with your nicely composed pigeon photos, to capture two keeper images in those difficult circumstances.

The white areas are, however, over-exposed in both displayed photos. At the exposure values used for the two captures, the flash range at full zoom would be about 10 metres, but the camera has focused at 15 metres, so the images should be under-exposed. It would seem that the post-processing has raised the highlights a bit too far.

Cheers.
Philip

[Phil J]

Hello Phil.

You have done well, with your nicely composed pigeon photos, to capture two keeper images in those difficult circumstances.

The white areas are, however, over-exposed in both displayed photos. At the exposure values used for the two captures, the flash range at full zoom would be about 10 metres, but the camera has focused at 15 metres, so the images should be under-exposed. It would seem that the post-processing has raised the highlights a bit too far.

Cheers.
Philip

Hi Philip,

Thanks for pointing this out, although I'd dispute the range , look up the guide No of an SB800, and it is, 38 m/125 ft. (at ISO 100, 35mm zoom-head position, 20°C/68°F) to 53 m/174 ft. (at ISO 100 and 105mm zoom-head position, 20°C/68°F) these obviously being for flashes at full power. You'll no doubt appreciate that the guide number increases at higher ISO's.

However, quite apart from that, do you consider the following two to be improvements?

   

   

Regards.

Phil.

[MrB]

Hello again, Phil.

I think you missed the bit in the Instruction Manual that states -

Guide No. = Distance x Aperture / ISO Factor

Re-arranging the formula -

Distance = Guide No. x ISO Factor / Aperture

The Guide number is 53; the aperture for both shots is 7.1; the ISO Factor from 100 to 200 is 1.4, so

Distance = 53 x 1.4 / 7.1 = 10.45 metres

Your re-worked photos are better - just look at all the extra structure and detail in the feathers, where before it was blown out white - but you might even risk raising the tones in the first re-work to just before the white is reached, to give them a bit more 'pop'. In the second, the birds look good but I would clone-brush out that dark shadowy area just above the bird's tail.

Cheers.
Philip

[Phil J]

Hi Philip,

As I wasn't using the SB800 in manual mode, I'm hardly likely to mess about like that. I drive an automatic (XF) car most of the time, so I'm hardly likely to start overriding it and selecting my own gears, as to do so defeats the object of running an auto. If I want to select my own gears I'll take the Volvo T5. The same goes for flash guns.

Regards.

Phil.

[MrB]

Hello, Phil.

Sorry if I have not been clear!

The calculation in Post #34 above, relating to your shots, was just an example of how the Guide Number works. I don't expect you to "mess about like that" or to use manual mode - obviously you use your flash gun in whichever way you wish! However, the shooting distance would still have been the same for the bird shots with the flash set to an Auto flash mode.

[ Just checked the data for the SB-800 and its Guide Number is actually 56 in metres (not 53) at full 105 mm zoom, so the distance for a correct exposure with the settings you used for the birds would actually have been 11 metres. ]

E.g. The following data set is extracted from the Table on Page 31 of the SB-800 Instruction Manual:
Flash shooting distance range in the TTL auto flash mode:
ISO 200; Aperture f/8; Zoom-head position 105mm; Range = 0.9 to 10 metres.

[ The Aperture f/8 is the nearest in the table to that used in your shots, f/7.1 - the latter lets in a bit more light, so the maximum in the shooting distance range would be about 11 metres. ]

Back to the bird shots - the purpose of this was to explain why I expected the captured images of the birds to be under-exposed, as they were focused at 15 metres, but the correct exposure from the flash could have reached only 11 metres at the settings used.

Just trying to be helpful - honest - really

Cheers.
Philip

[Son60]

The first night of the 2014 Calgary Stampede

[AllanMaurice]

ƒ/25.0 52.0 mm 30 100 No flash Shutter speed priority AE
Full exif details at https://www.flickr.com/photos/penneybr/13937187876/

[AllanMaurice]

Your results are outstanding!! I'm wondering if you can assist me? What type of post production software would you suggest I purchase?
AllanMaurice

[Wall-E]

Your results are outstanding!! I'm wondering if you can assist me? What type of post production software would you suggest I purchase?
AllanMaurice

Allan;
You haven't indicated who you were replying to.

I, myself, use LightRoom for 90+% of my work, with PhotoShopCC for the heavy lifting.
I subscribe to both for $10 US plus tax/mo.
Before I subscribed, I owned LR4 outright.

[Clicker2014]

Taken at La Copita Ranch, TX. We were "painting with light". It is a lot of fun as each time you "paint" it comes out a bit different. This is the favourite picture from that night.