Trogon Photo Tours

                                      NOVEMBER 2010 NEWSLETTER

                               FILL FLASH FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
 
This newsletter covers using fill flash for bird photography including settings and the different
situations where it can be useful.

I spend a fair amount of time posting shots and critiquing shots on nature photography websites,
specifically www.naturephotographers.net where I am one of the avian gallery moderators. 
Occasionally I see a statement, like "I only photograph when the light is good" or "I only go out and photograph when the light is going to be sweet".  While I can understand wanting to photograph in beautiful natural lighting, limiting yourself to those times is going to reduce your opportunities for nature photography greatly.  If you are travelling you probably won't ever make it back to the same spot to photograph certain species.  So my general take on lighting is to do the best you possibly can with the lighting for each opportunity you have.  This is going to require using fill flash on certain occasions.

 
PURPLE ROLLER - photographed October 2008, Waterberg National Park, Namibia.  Canon 1DMarkIII 500mmF4 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1600 F8, iso 640, evaluative metering -0.3, Handheld.  This Purple Roller was on a nice perch with prey in it's beak, the problem was that it was taken about 11am in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I was using flash but my flash had not recycled on this shot.  Note the very flat light and the prominent shadows caused by the sun.  Without a flash I wouldn't have gotten a pleasing image as this shows. 

PURPLE ROLLER - photographed October 2008, Waterberg Plateau Park, Namibia.  Canon 1DMarkIII, 500mmF4 lens, 1.4x teleconverter. 1/1600 F8, iso 640, evaluative metering -0.3, 580ex Flash at -1.0, Better Beamer flash extender.  In this image my flash went off as planned.  You will notice how much softer the light is, the reduction in shadows and how the flash was able to bring out the beautiful colors of this species.  It should be noted that the only adjustments I made to these 2 images from the RAW file was adjusting the color balance and adding some sharpening.  I only had 1 month in Namibia and I certainly wasn't going to pass on this photo opportunity. 

FILL FLASH USES FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
 
First I should define fill flash.  Using flash as fill is using a mixture of ambient (natural) light and flash lighting in your photography.  The different uses for bird photography are listed below.

BRIGHT, SUNNY DAYS - On bright sunny days after the sweet light of sunrise and before the sweet light of sunset fill flash helps reduce the shadows and contrast that are prevalent during bright, sunny conditions (as above with the rollers)

DARK, CLOUDY DAYS - On dark, cloudy days some fill flash can add some life to what would be an otherwise dull image and provide a artificial catchlight in the eye.

LOW LIGHT CONDITIONS - With low light conditions where you are using high isos, the use of fill flash can help you both get a faster shutter speed and/or decrease your iso.  This is because you are mixing flash with natural light and you don't need as much natural light. 

BACKLIT BIRDS - Fill flash can help you get detail in backlit birds that would be difficult to achieve otherwise. In this situation it can also help you reduce the exposure on the background which can also improve your photograph. 

CONTRASTY BIRDS - Fill flash can help you get the proper exposure on black and white or black and yellow birds which are difficult to expose properly.  By dialing in some negative exposure compensation on your camera and then using fill flash you can get good detail in both light and dark parts of the bird. 

BLACK BIRDS - Fill flash can help you get detail in the feathers of black birds which would be difficult to
achieve otherwise. 

After reading this you would think I use flash all the time with my bird photography.  This isn't true, I prefer to shoot in natural light and the majority of the time I do, but I won't hesitate to use flash if the situation calls for it. 

FLASH SETTINGS -

Flash Mode - For fill flash I recommend using the mode which automatically works with your camera to determine the correct flash exposure.  For Canon this is ETTL mode and for Nikon its ITTL.  From this starting point you will generally dial in some negative flash compensation as discussed below.

Synch speed - I recommend setting your flash to be able to synch with your camera at higher than normal synch speeds.  This is called high speed synch flash.  With Canon you can set the high speed synch button right on the back of most of their external flashes.  With Nikon you will need to go into the custom functions of your camera to set the high speed synch function.  The reason I recommend having this set all the time when using fill during daytime is that if you don't have it set and the correct exposure is for a shutter speed faster than the highest regular synch speed of your camera and flash (1/250 for many cameras) you will have an overexposed image when the flash goes off because the exposure will go off at the maximum regular synch speed - usually around 1/250.  For example, if the correct exposure was supposed to be 1/500 you will have a very overexposed image.  High speed synch flash decreases the distance your flash will travel but if the shutter speed drops below your regular maximum synch speed the flash will revert to regular flash mode and there won't be a decrease in flash distance if your shutter speed is below the maximum synch speed.  In effect, high speed synch will work for you when it's needed and will automatically "turn off" when you aren't using it.  The result is that there's no penalty for having it set all the time.

Ambient light exposure (camera) - When I'm using fill flash I'm usually working in aperture priority with evaluative(matrix) metering.  I will generally set my exposure at about -1/3 to -2/3 of one stop less than I would if I had been taking the image without flash. 

Flash exposure compensation - This is an important part, generally I will use fill flash with a negative compensation on the flash of between -1.0 and -3.0.  By dialing in some negative compensation on the flash you will avoid having the image look overflashed and lacking depth.  I will discuss the factors affecting the flash exposure compensation I use in the next newsletter.  

GOLDEN-NAPED TANAGER - Photographed at Sachatamia Lodge, Ecuador, Canon 1D MarkIII 500mmF4 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 at F7.1, iso 800, evaluative metering at 0.  580ex Flash at -1.3, Better Beamer flash extender,  handheld.  This is an example of a bird that was fairly backlit.  Without the flash I would have had to add some positive exposure compensation which would have resulted in the background being quite a bit brighter.  With the use of the flash I was able to get both a nice background and good detail in the bird's plumage. 

SPECTACLED WHITESTART - photographed January 2010 at Yanacocha, Ecuador.  Canon 1D MarkIII 500mmF4 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, 1/300 at F7.1. evaluative metering at -0.3, iso 800. 580ex at -1.0, handheld.  This is a good example of a bird with contrasty plumage.  It has blacks, grays, a little reddish orange and a wide range of yellows.  The negative exposure compensation of -0.3 helps to hold the detail in the yellows, while the flash helps to light up the darker blacks and grays.  I didn't have my Better Beamer available for this shot so to compensate I made sure I was in regular flash mode - keeping my synch speed at the maximum normal flash synch for my camera of 1/300.  Additionally I used a little more flash than I would have if I had my Better Beamer with me.  I probably would have gone to about -1.7 on the flash if I had my Beamer with me.   This is cropped to about 60% of the original image so I wasn't extremely close to this bird. 

BLACK-FRONTED NUNBIRD photographed January 2010 at Sani Lodge, Ecuador.  Canon 1D MarkIII camera, 500mmF4 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, 1/60 at F8, iso 800, evaluative metering, aperture priority at -0.3, 580ex fill flash at -1.7, Gitzo tripod.  This image is a good example of flash helping in both low light conditions and working with a bird with black plumage.  Without the flash I would have been at about 1/30 of a second at this iso which would have made it more difficult to get a sharp image without increasing my iso.  If I shoot at iso 1600 with this camera noise will be much more of a problem.  In addition the flash brings out good detail in the blacks of the bird. 

Fill flash is a topic which I could write a lot about, so next month's newsletter will include more information about fill flash including which factors to consider when determining the amount of negative flash exposure compensation to use.