Daytime Flash Photography

[Peter Betts]

Rule No 1 = NO FLASH at a Nocturnal animal Never ..they need their sight for hunting

[Peter Betts]

I really needed a ND Grad filter here to hold back the sunrise here and bring up details of the buff and the foreground ..Its a poor shot here but with my filters coming next year it will make it real looking . The human Eye has a huge dynamic range and this old camera of mine only had about 5 stops
(D800) ..My new camera however is far better with about 13 stops Dynamic Range I am told but nowhere near the human eye ..These quality filters give cameras a little help to make the scene like the eye saw it at the time of pressing the shutter

[Richprins]

Ok!

Peter.

[Lisbeth]

I am sure that you have understood it all, RP

[Peter Betts]

I am busy trying to learn about Studio Portrait Flash photography in advance of retirement as with the Petrol Price it looks more and more I will HAVE to go less and less to Kruger and more and more locally like Wild Coast , Garden Route , Mt Zebra etc ..

To take a persons decent portrait you need a good Back Drop , Light stands , Modelling lights , Strobes , Umbrellas, Remote Slave shutter and flash releases like these

Mother Nature I use Natures Flashlight and the sun and beautiful Golden light to drop around my subject in Nature's studio ..Background was pure Kalahari. Besides its Dangerous to your health to get out and set up a studio in front of an approaching lion so you have to use Nature's light and studio (Needs a click to get the light right) ..

[Lisbeth]

Great light.....the one on the lion

[PRWIN]

great thread. This is something I have started to play in ,It really comes into play on overcast or late/early photo's when the sun is down or not yet up. My problem is I,m looking at a range of 60m to 100m for the flash

Subject dist: 27m
1/320 sec, f/7.1
Mode: Manual
Metering: Partial
ISO: 5000



There are apps to use to calculate the distance , f-stop and shutter speed or you can use this calculation as a start to get a fair idea on the setting and then to re adjust as you go along. The wonders of digital where you can see the photo straight away.

As you increase the ISO you use the number next to it eg ISO 800 will be 2.8
100 - 1
200 -1.4
400 - 2
800 - 2.8
1600 - 4
3200 - 5.6
6400 - 8

Guide number you will get from the flash model and make.

so the calculation will work as such ISO 6400, GN(Mine is 60), F5.6 = 8x60/5.6= 85.7 m

ISO X GN on flash/Fstop using = distance

You can also get a flash extender the will focus the beam giving you a longer reach and that is what I,m starting to look at

Lets see how close the calculation work for the above photo 6x60/7.1/1.4 for extender = 36m

[graham]

For your calculation:
- if you have read the aperture from the metadata then 7.1 will already include the 1.4 for the extender
- you need to divide by 2 because of high speed sync

6x60/7.1/2 = 25m which is spot on.

[Flutterby]

Interesting topic.

Welcome Graham!

[Lisbeth]

Graham