RWBB

[buzzsaw]

[Dbl]

A lovely shot Mike!!!!!!

[MN Shutterbug]

Nice shot and great bokeh. BTW, do you always use flash on birds, or only when you think you need the extra light? There appears to be a double catchlight in the eye.

[buzzsaw]

Great eye X! I use flash when I feel I need it. The light was about five minutes from going down and I wanted the details in the black... if you look at alot of BB images you won't see the feather details.

[Royce Aardahl]

How close are you to this bird when using the flash?

[Steve Foss]

Sweet pose as always, mister!

[buzzsaw]

Thanks, Steve.

Eyeguy, I was using the 300mm w/1.4x TC... your asking for an educated guess and I'd say 30 ft approx.

[Royce Aardahl]

ok, I didn't know a flash could reach out that far. very cool pic

[Steve Foss]

eyeguy, buzzy can give you more accurate specs because he flashes wildlife more than I do (buzz, I mean that in the BEST possible way ).

But most camera flashes (not the onboard popup flash) you buy separately will have plenty of muscle to serve as fill flash from 30 to 40 feet, and with a flash magnifier like the Better Beamer (which attaches to the flash and narrows and focuses the flash beam), you can get it out there much farther.

I use Canon's 430EX, which is one down from the 580EX top of the line, and I have no problems using it for fill as needed with no BB out past 40 feet.

Hey buzz, if you have the time, would you be willing to do a thread on fill flash for birds? When I use it I'm either using the flash's exposure compensation or manual settings to get it dialed in, but you do so much more of it that I figure you have the techniques down really well.

Done poorly, flash on wildlife/birds looks harsh and flat. Done well, as you do, it looks so much like Mother Nature that the only telltale often is the extra catchlight in the eye.

Wanna?

[buzzsaw]

Steve is correct about the effective distance... I actually didn't use the Beamer on this image, but I normally would. I usually take some pics with flash and some without to see which looks better. If your chasing Warblers in the thickets, you'll need to have the fill flash dialed in. If you go to my bird gallery, you will see an image I took of a Woodcock in pitch darkness two nights ago.. I used a few different techniques and flash w/the better beamer was a good part of it.

Steve, when I have some more time, I'll do a thread on flash for birding. I'll probably quote Artie a fair amount however and then put in my experiences.

Thanks for looking guys, go check out that Woodcock pic.

http://www.pbase.com/mike_lentz/image/96396823.jpg

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Mike.

[finnbay]

I'd be interested as well.

[finnbay]

Nice shot on the peent! Haven't been that close to one in ages!

[Dbl]

Mike is fortunate to get to use the much superior flash system! Nikon is hands down the clear winner using speed lights. My own experience is to use manual only with the Canon system, much better results outdoors, or if ETTL use HSS mode. The only problem with that is you lose distance from the reduced power by the multiple flashes of HSS.

[buzzsaw]

Yeppers, High speed synch is golden. I will say that I shot in Manual at 1/250 sec synched to my flash on the Pine Grosbeak images I got up at the Sa/Zim bog and they turned out very nice IMHO.

Here are a few from that day using fill flash... I'll re-post these in time in the flash thread as well.

[mmeyer]

Can't wait for the info on flashing birds Buzz. I've been trying and haven't had any luck.

Great Woodcock. I would never have known that it was in the dark.

[DMN]

Very nice shots, I also will be waiting for the flash lessons becauce I have found I know nothing.

DMN