Fill Flash Metering on fish?
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Any tips for not overexposing fish and firing a fill flash to fill in the fisherman’s face? I figure I’ll just meter a bit low (maybe 1 stop low) for the flash and spotmeter on the fish.
I am not all that impressed with how my flash pictures turn out with a canon system, so take this with a grain of salt.
I am not all that impressed with how my flash pictures turn out with a canon system, so take this with a grain of salt. If its inbright sunlight, i typically underexpose up to a stop or so, but its kind of a trial and error thing. If its cloudy, i just let the camera do its thing. The thing i would worry about more is make sure the fish is turned ever so slightly so that you don’t end up with a bad reflection off of the fish slime.
Zach uses flash on almost all of his shots and they all look great, and you can’t tell there is flash being used, unlike my canon shots. Zach, can you share some of your strategies and techniques on this?
I looked at your blog and best I can tell you use a Canon 30D. I have a 10D so I assume that the setup should be similar. When I use fill (not often enough) I shoot in either AV or TV mode. I set the flash (Sigma EF-500 DG Super) in ETTL mode, then dial-in negative flash compensation (1 to 2 stops) on the camera. Built in flash should work the same way.
I would think a 1.5 or 1 stop decrease in flash output would work in contrasty conditions. Since you are using slide film bracket your exposures on important shots.
Don, you are correct, i have been shooting the 30D for about the past year, and the 300D before that. I got a 580EX flash around x-mas time, and have been playing with that quite a bit. As i understand it, in ETTL, the camera should be able to detect when there is enough light to obtain a good exposure with a decent shutter speed, and the flash only is needed for fill. It then should set the flash output at the appropriate level for fill automatically. Somtimes, it seems you still need to add some compensation.
What the nikon system seems to do better (or maybe its the nikon users?) is balance the flash exposure with the ambient exposure so as to not get the deer in the headlight looks, or the nasty shadow behind whatever is in the foreground. Part of it may be the higher sync speed (1/500 vs 1/250) of the nikons. Zachs last couple photos of the flies on the blog are a great illustration to this, without looking at the exif, you can’t tell there was a flash used at all. Zach, did you use compensation on these shots?
What the nikon system seems to do better (or maybe its the nikon users?) is balance the flash exposure with the ambient exposure so as to not get the deer in the headlight looks, or the nasty shadow behind whatever is in the foreground.
From what I have read, that is one of the things that Nikon does better than Canon. Rather than rely on the ETTL completely, if you have not tried that I suggested, you should. I took a photography class at a local art school and the technique described was taught and seemed to work well.
I looked at your blog and best I can tell you use a Canon 30D. I have a 10D so I assume that the setup should be similar. When I use fill (not often enough) I shoot in either AV or TV mode. I set the flash (Sigma EF-500 DG Super) in ETTL mode, then dial-in negative flash compensation (1 to 2 stops) on the camera. Built in flash should work the same way.
Just want to pipe here and echo Dons statement for Canon users.
Granted I havent shot many fish yet, thats one of the hurdles I have going solo. Be that as it may I do alot of bird photography and fill flash is used extensively by birders.
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