The Digital Photo Guy

Why a Manual Flash is Good for You

Last week, we reviewed the LumoPro 120 and showed how it stacked up against Canon dedicated flashes. Today, we’ll cover some flash basics and show why a manual flash is a good tool for learning flash techniques other than just saving money.

When you use ETTL (Canon) or iTTL (Nikon) or any other automatic flash system, the flash and camera communicate to make all the decisions for you. This is fine for most snapshots where people accept the harsh, flat, deer-in-the-headlights look of straight-on flash. But, when you want to step up your flash photography, manual control of a  remote flash is a much better.

Here’s an example of a remote flash at work. I placed the flash on the seat of the car and fired it with a remote. Without the remote, it would have just been another antique car photo.

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Monday Morning Tip – 01/11/10

Did anyone notice today is another palindrome? It’s not as rare as 01/02/2010 but 01/11/10 is, technically, a palindrome. What’s that got to do with digital photography? Not a whole lot except that observation is a large part of good photography. Below is a photo I made over Christmas.

We hadn’t made any plans for Christmas so, when we took off in our RV at the last minute, we didn’t have reservations. Readers who own RVs know that usually means boondocking, parking overnight wherever it’s permitted and moving on the next day in search of new adventures. So, Christmas eve found us parked at the San Manuel Indian Casino in Highland, CA. We had boondocked there in the past on our way north and liked the quiet, isolated parking lot with a million-dollar view.
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Freezing Fred’s Beak

This week’s MMT (posted on Saturday, 1/2) had blurred images of Fred’s beak (shoebill stork) as he chatters (calls). I was curious to know how much of the blur was due to slow shutter speed versus hand-holding so I went back on Sunday. Now, granted, this wasn’t a rigorous scientific test but I was able to confirm that Fred’s beak can be frozen with a faster shutter speed. On the blurred images, I was using 1/1000 second and this time, I used 1/2000 second. I’d like to have taken some at slower speeds but Fred chattered 3 times in 3 hours. The first and third times, he chattered for about 5 seconds so I got a few shots. The second time, he chattered only for 2 seconds which wasn’t long enough for me to get shots. Overall, in 3 hours, I fired off 150+ frames and got 3 usable photos. Another issue is that Fred rapidly blinks his nictitating eyelid while chattering. I managed to capture many images of him with weird “Night of the Living Dead” eyes as in the first photo (below).

     
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Monday Morning Tip – 1/4/10

Here’s a photo of Fred, a shoebill stork. Students who have attended a Hands-On Photoshoot with me know Fred is one of my favorite critters. He looks as if he has a real attitude but is described to be fairly mild mannered. In the left photo, Fred is calling his girlfriend. On the right, Fred is smiling and showing his sensitive side.

At first glance, both photos appear to be perfectly fine in terms of focus. The feathers on Fred’s wing are clear, crisp and finely detailed. Moreover, Fred’s eye is sharply in focus and contains a catch-light. However, at 100%, it’s easy to see the beak in the first photo is slightly blurred due to Fred vibrating his beak when calling.

Both were taken at 1/1000 second and you can see the rest of the photo is perfectly sharp so the only explanation is that Fred moved his beak. The point to all this is that shutter speed is relative. Because I didn’t know Fred’s beak vibrated or quivered at such high speed when calling, I assumed 1/1000 was more than adequate.

During my next Hands-On Photoshoot Workshop on Jan 23, if Fred is cooperating, I’ll try again with my shutter set for 1/1500 or more  to see if I can freeze his beak. With such a high shutter speed, I’ll need a wide open aperture and/or a higher ISO. Since this photo was taken at f/6.7, 1/1000 and ISO 200, I can gain 1.5 stops more light by going to f/4 at ISO 200 and increase my shutter speed to 1/2500. Fortunately, depth of field isn’t too important here since Fred is practically up against the reeds in the background so there’s really not much room for a nice smooth bokeh. Of course, this also assumes we’ll have a nice bright San Diego day.

Here’s a final photo of Fred “mad dogging” a photographer. This is his usual station. Notice the sun is to his right (camera left) and there’s enough space behind him for a nice creamy, soft bokeh. This was taken with a Canon 20D and a 100-400/4.5-5.6L (1/640, f/5.6, ISO 200, 390mm).

There are three take-aways from this MMT. First, always keep an eye on your shutter speed. If you’re in Shutter Priority, don’t assume whatever you set it to is adequate for the situation. If you’re in Aperture Priority, don’t let the Shutter Speed drop below a predetermined point in your mind.  The second take-away is: Know your subject. Had I known how fast Fred’s beak vibrates when he’s calling, I would have compensated. As it was, I learned something new but this could have been a bummer if I had traveled to Africa to learn this. Finally, third, if you’re using the LCD to examine focus, be sure to magnify the image to closely examine areas of interest. In this case, I examined the feathers but failed to examine the beak.

Good light, good memories and good luck for 2010.

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Monday Morning Tip – 12/21/09

I bought a Canon G11 for my wife’s (mumblty-mumble) anniversary of her 29th birthday. I’d always heard the Canon G-series were great cameras but didn’t like the direction they took when they removed RAW from the G7. The G9 and G10 (there was no G8) just seemed to be entries in the megapixel race and I wasn’t convinced a 1/1.7″ sensor could support low noise at 12.1 and 14.7 megapixels.

With the G11, Canon seems to have addressed all the negatives of previous models and put back all the positives they had previously removed. This is the first time in the history of digital cameras that a company has actually reduced the number of megapixels (from 14.7 back to 10) on a new entry. Trust me, you’ll never miss those extra pixels and you really love the clean, noiseless images.

First, let me show you some things I really like about the G11. Canon has struck the perfect balance between usability and compactness with the G11. Click to read the full MMT