23 May 2010

Verditer Flycatcher with and without Flash

Flash is an essential accessory in bird photography, especially in a dark canopy tropical forest like Malaysia. A better beamer or flash extender is frequently used to enhance the reach of the flash with a telephoto lens. How much flash output (+ or -) to use is an art you have to learn. Different bird plumage reacts differently. The default setting of my flash is at -1 and I manually adjust it according to the distance of the bird and background lighting.
The most common evidence of the flash of a bird is a red-eye or silver-eye effect. The further the bird from the camera the more noticeable the effect. We can minimize this with a flash bracket that shifts the flash from the centre of the lens.


Verditer Flycatcher with Flash


The Verditer Flycatcher above perched at an electric cable about 20 feet from me. With the flash at minus 1 setting, the neck and breast colour are almost burned out.
Canon 50D fires in fast continuous shooting at 6 fps, the flash can't keep up, so I have flash and unflash pictures. With that, we can compare which one is the true plumage of the bird.
In this case, the un-flash is the true colour of this male Verditer Flycatcher.


Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina)

Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina)
Location: Jelai Resort, Fraser's Hill, Pahang.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting piece. Sometimes I use a flash for a little extra fill light. But the problem I have is that it often reflects a neon blue from the retina much like the red eye we get from humans.

Chris said...

Gorgeous shots Tabib of a beautiful bird!

Amila Salgado said...

Good post Tabib. It looks much better in that accidental non-flash capture. I think you should visit FH more often than you currently do :)

Joanne Olivieri said...

First, I love the coloring on this bird. I am always at a loss when it comes to flash. I'm never really sure when to use it. Thanks for the info

Phil Slade said...

thanks for the good advice on using flash Tabib. I could have used your help in Menorca when trying to get pictures of Scops Owl. You got some brilliant pictured there flash or not.

Unknown said...

Sharp details make both image very beautiful, I somehow prefer the one without the flash...Thomas

Ari said...

Good info, Tabib and excellent shots!