Paul,
I don't think that your problem is that you are using flash, but that
the flash is on the camera. Is there any chance that you could pick up
an inexpensive flash extension cord and talk Grace into being a "smart
lightstand"?
Have her stand with the flash as far from the camera as practical
without the cord pulling it out of your hands, tell her which bird you
are trying to photograph, and have her aim the flash at that bird.
That'll give you the flash, with more light, and less motion blur, but
you won't get the ugly effects of a flash being dead on center.
In theory, you could even optically slave the flash she is holding off
one on your camera, either dropping it down -2 stops, or just aiming it
to the side at the flash she is holding. Dumb flashes to use as
triggers are pretty cheap. You just have to remember how to put the
af540 ins sl2 mode (the ever intuitive hold the light button down for 2
seconds).
On 12/11/2011 8:39 AM, Paul Stenquist wrote:
While I agree with Bob that natural light is almost always better than flash,
it isn't always practical. Here's a comparison of the same bird shot with and
without flash. Now, if I had better long glass, I might be able to pull off
more available light wildlife shots, but the A400 is extremely prone to color
fringing when backlit even by a bright, indirect sky. Here's the no-flash shot.
Color is nothing special, there is more modeling of the shape, but there's also
an abundance of fringing. I could PhotoShop the fringing out of there but given
the overall dullness of the shot, it wouldn't be worth the trouble, IMO.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=14783692&size=lg
Here's the same bird shot with flash fill. It's not full power. The flash comp
was set at -1 stop. But -1.5 would have been better.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=14780352&size=lg
I'm hoping that Pentax shows up with a DA* 400/4 some time soon. And it's less
than $1500.
Paul
--
Larry Colen [email protected] (from dos4est)
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
