Lunch-time Assistant

[mtngal]

Thanks for the compliments - I took these as spur of the moment, with no thought to how the camera was set. I just noticed that I was using f10 (not unusual for flowers), and the first one was at ISO 800. Both of these were taken from the jpg version, not the raw file, cropped as required, a little levels adjustment (they were both slightly underexposed, not unusual for such a grey May day) and no noise reduction at all!

[snostorm]

mtngal wrote:

ROTFL!


Jim - he can have the rights to the diffuser - including the writing on the mylar that says "put file c://project/RFI152.tif here". I'm not completely happy with the mylar - it passes too much light. Maybe I should try some with more writing on it? Or just get myself a proper diffuser.

Hi Harriet,

On the diffuser, try extending the mylar farther away from the flash's lens, like 2-3" away. This might soften the light a bit more, and make it less directional.

Another thought is, with the mylar extended, to tilt the head straight up, letting the light that hits the subject come out of the side of the diffuser (at a right angle to the direction of the flash is pointed). There will be a lot less light, but it should be pretty soft. P-TTL should take care of the exposure, but you might have to add some Ev or flash comp.

I don't know if this will give you the light that you want, but it's worth a shot. . .

Scott

[snooked]

Nice catch. Who is his hairdresser that does the orange highlights?

Ed

[simowills]

Hi Harriet,

You can't complain about the jpeg results can you, the k20 & the 50-135 look a killer combo. Did you say that's your "walk about" now

Simon

[mtngal]

Simon - Yes, the DA50-135 is definitely my walk-about lens. It's a bit big, but that's OK because I love the results.

Scott - I was trying a couple of things and discovered that with flash, it's "horses for courses". I took a series of 3 pictures, one without flash, one with on-board flash 1/3, wireless flash 2/3 and then a third one with the same set-up but using the flash straight up and a white card behind it for bounce. The third one with the bounced light was the softest, most omni-directional of the three, but unfortunately, my subject was a white poppy. It's one of the few white flowers that photographs well in bright sunlight because it's so textured. The soft, less directional lighting made it look like a white, featureless blob!

Thanks for the suggestion of extending the mylar out further. I'd have to cut some new pieces to do that,but today I tried shooting through the coffee filter I carry for setting white balance, leaving the mylar where they are and having the coffee filter extending out away from the flash. It seemed to do much better when I was shooting a blue flower and a green leaf.

[Rodney9]

So cute and so sharp, and so well captured.

[nex1]

Next time try moving your external flash out of the frame when photographing the squirrels hehe (J/K) :-)

[mtngal]

Well, I think that the squirrels shouldn't try to hog all the attention, when I'm trying to take pictures of hands!

P.S. I do NOT recommend doing this at all!

[mtngal]

This little lady is just trying to get a job with us. She's probably tired of staying home and taking care of the kids.