Honey Bee: Experimenting with flash

Warren Spreng · Jun 3, 2015

Imaged this morning, overcast sky, set up twin remote flashes with diffusers set at 1/16, Canon T3i, EF-S60mm, f/10, 1/200, ISO 100 Still getting the hang of syncing the flashes with correct settings, would like to reduce flash a bit more to freeze wings a bit better, used f/10 to get a bit more DOF which I feel I succeeded at as the far leg still looks sharp. Also discovered it is really tough to pick just the right flower to focus on that the bee happens to find attractive too! This was on a tripod, fixed focus and several bursts of shots. This is a crop down to 25%. Lightened in LR, reduced BG noise in PS CC.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 Macintosh

Diane Miller · Jun 4, 2015

Excellent sharpness on the bee! I could wish for a creamier BG but not always easy to arrange,

Mike Hitchen · Jun 5, 2015

The sharpness is really impressive, Warren for being so close up.
I am not sure that reducing the flash will help much rgards the wings - you may find the ambient light is too much of the overall light. You may do better to increase the ISO for the shutter speed.

Diane Miller · Jun 5, 2015

At 1/16 power the flashes should be giving about 1/6000 sec duration (that's the spec for the 580 and I think they're all in the same ball park). You could go to 1/32 and ISO 200. You don't have much leeway on SS, as you want to keep it at the regular sync speed. High speed sync will cost power.

I'd try to shade the ambient light more, so you're not getting so much of it mixed in. The bright reflections from ambient light on transparent wings can be difficult to reduce.

Would love to see more of the experiment!

Jonathan Ashton · Jun 5, 2015

Good shot I suppose it depend what you are looking for - you want the bee sharp at all costs or do you want an apparently daylight scene with the bee sharp. As Diane indicates you will have to go for fill in or using the flash more as the primary light source. I would personally prefer a more natural look, a dull background very often points to flash usage.

Warren Spreng · Jun 5, 2015

Thanks again for the great comments and suggestions. What I will try next is a bit more of a diffused flash and use one to illuminate the background as well, so many variables to play with, that's why this is such a fun hobby!