Grey Heron Shootout - 17th Oct 2004

[laokayu]

Newguy69: Think your flash is a bit too powerful. Good try
Yeah. Some fine-tuning is required. Too powderful ! Will tone down to -1EV next time.

2100: Bro, you can try to place a piece of velcro on the base of the tilting flash head, it should solve your problem. This way it won't be aiming down, which is no problem with a 105mm zoom flash but a problem with 300mm. Good luck with your extender.
That was the first time I fitted the contraption on my flash. Too kan-jiong, and did not paste the velcro first. Just fixed up the velcro last night, and tested. Good and firm!

ccplim: That is an interesting result that you have achieved with the extender. How far were you away from the bird/pole?
I think we were about 15m from the bird.

Garion: Nice attempts there. But agree with Newguy69, think your flash a bit too powerful, try to dial it down a bit.
Will do that.

Harlequin: Man your flash extender damn power sia ! Maybe need to do some adjustment.
End of the month, same place, same time.

Thanks to all for your comments.

 

[ccplim]

Newguy69: Think your flash is a bit too powerful. Good try
Yeah. Some fine-tuning is required. Too powderful ! Will tone down to -1EV next time.

2100: Bro, you can try to place a piece of velcro on the base of the tilting flash head, it should solve your problem. This way it won't be aiming down, which is no problem with a 105mm zoom flash but a problem with 300mm. Good luck with your extender.
That was the first time I fitted the contraption on my flash. Too kan-jiong, and did not paste the velcro first. Just fixed up the velcro last night, and tested. Good and firm!

ccplim: That is an interesting result that you have achieved with the extender. How far were you away from the bird/pole?
I think we were about 15m from the bird.

Garion: Nice attempts there. But agree with Newguy69, think your flash a bit too powerful, try to dial it down a bit.
Will do that.

Harlequin: Man your flash extender damn power sia ! Maybe need to do some adjustment.
End of the month, same place, same time.

Thanks to all for your comments.

That was really close.

 

[gooseberry]

Great shots guys...

Harlequin - very nice detail shots of the egret.

Zplus - Like the action sequence, nicely done. I notice on your second shot, the white of the bird sort of blurring/blending into the darker background (top of the wing and top of the head) - is that because you were shooting with a TC wide open ? Do you get that often ?

laokayu - nice UV effect on the first shot. That flash extender is awesome huh ?

I should post some of my pics - but most of them turned out crap. Came down to just watch the action and chat, so didn't bring my tripod along; 200 + 1.7 tc handheld - not quite long enough and a bit shakey!

 

[Zplus]

Zplus - Like the action sequence, nicely done. I notice on your second shot, the white of the bird sort of blurring/blending into the darker background (top of the wing and top of the head) - is that because you were shooting with a TC wide open ? Do you get that often ?

Yes, I noticed that too... 1st time I am seeing it and I am not too sure what causes it. I seems like some blooming. No TC attached. Maybe the light was just reflected off the white wings in a certain way. Not too sure about this.

 

[starrynight]

wow!
u guys r fantastic man... new bird like me really stunned man... if only I can take pics like this....
Harlequin > your pics are 'crystal clear' n the contrast is so cool plus the depth is fantastic.
Is it ok for u guys to share the settings?? please? thanks :bigeyes:

 

[2100]

Yes, I noticed that too... 1st time I am seeing it and I am not too sure what causes it. I seems like some blooming. No TC attached. Maybe the light was just reflected off the white wings in a certain way. Not too sure about this.

I think that's coz you did not stop down to at least f10 or so (i may be wrong). Sometimes i use f13, f14. That's bigma. Anyway, if the birds are only 15m away, the bigma has a problem in that areas that are just a bit outside the DOF will appear "ghosted/blur" in your way, though wide open it may bokeh ok (mian qiang mian qiang). So if AF is off a bit (esp for flight pics), the heron may have this phenomenon. I guess in your case, there are many contributing factors. DOF for 500mm 1.6X at f8 for 15m subject is in the 20cm region, which is insufficient.

When we are using it to shoot fashion, usually the subject (model) can fill the frame nicely, so no issues, unless you print like 18R. :bsmilie: Your heron pics are still cropped right?

Just my useless analysis, so don't quote me.

I think from your pics' noise, you are using like 1600?

 

[Harlequin]

Gooseberry & Starrynight : Thanks for the compliments.

The settings are as follows (if i did not remember wrongly) : F8, Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, 600mm+ 1.7TC . Most of the work done on post-processing with Nikon Capture and Photoshop CS.

If the weather was much better, the gang of 10 would be shooting like mad ;-)