Fill flash and long lenses

canuck257

Senior Member
I just bought a MagMod Wildlife kit to use with my 200-500 lens on the D500. The flash will be a YN685. What settings do you recommend for shooting small birds coming into a feeding spot. I will be positioned in a blind about 15 to 20 feet from the target landing zone. Am I limited to a maximum shutter speed of 1/200 and Manual or TTL or should I be using HSS with higher shutter speeds?
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Since you're gonna be locked down with a tripod mostly and waiting for birds to hit the "landing zone"... That gives you plenty of time to take a few manual shots, dial-in the exposure, and wait.... At that point, I'd think, sitting back with a sammich and beer, and a remote trigger... I'd just wait and do everything manual... If you want, and the targets are jumpin' around.... you could do the same setup and explore HSS... If the "landing zone" area is subject to relatively changing lighting conditions...then try the TTL...
 

nickt

Senior Member
I like blasting the birds at my maximum sync speed and not 'fill' flash. I set my d7200 at 1/320 and f8. Iso anywhere from 100 to 400. I prefer gloomy days because I can get blurry images from bright ambient light exposure at 1/320. On sunny days, I have to up the shutter speed but then you are into the pulsing hss modes and lose flash power.
This shot was with my Sigma 150-600 and yn685 about 20 feet away. Handheld, but sometimes I kick back with the tripod and remote. That background is not the sky, actually my car's windshield. There was some sun in this shot, but I didn't get any noticeable shake problems from it.

D73_0105.jpg
 

canuck257

Senior Member
I like blasting the birds at my maximum sync speed and not 'fill' flash. I set my d7200 at 1/320 and f8. Iso anywhere from 100 to 400. I prefer gloomy days because I can get blurry images from bright ambient light exposure at 1/320. On sunny days, I have to up the shutter speed but then you are into the pulsing hss modes and lose flash power.
This shot was with my Sigma 150-600 and yn685 about 20 feet away. Handheld, but sometimes I kick back with the tripod and remote. That background is not the sky, actually my car's windshield. There was some sun in this shot, but I didn't get any noticeable shake problems from it.

View attachment 283733

Was the YN685 in Manual or TTL?
 

Chris@sabor

Senior Member
I use use the 685 with my D500 without the magmod. I have ordered it!
I use the flash in manual with the camera set for 1/250s, which lets me run higher shutter speeds.
I start at about 1/16 power on the flash and my normal shutter speed, say 1/2000 for hummingbirds.
I start with the ISO needed without the flash. Auto ISO doesn't work well for me here.
I'll then adjust the flash power and ISO to achieve the desired effect.
The beautiful thing about these low power settings, up to about 1/8 power is, it recycles so fast it can keep up with the D500's 10 frames per second!
I have been using it like this without the Magmod from about 12-30 feet of distance. Magmod should increase this distance or allow a lower power setting on the flash.
It takes a few practice shots to get it exactly where you want but, it adds the fill flash and catch light to the eyes without looking like it was flashed.
 
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canuck257

Senior Member
One thing I found with the MagMod on the 685. The detents on the tilting head are not strong enough to hold the extra weight of the MagMod so the head droops to the lowest setting. I found this to be too low for 500mm so I made a wedge out of a block pencil eraser and taped it to the top edge of the front of the flash unit.

YN685.jpg
 

canuck257

Senior Member
I use use the 685 with my D500 without the magmod. I have ordered it!
I use the flash in manual with the camera set for 1/320*, which lets me run higher shutter speeds.
I start at about 1/16 power on the flash and my normal shutter speed, say 1/2000 for hummingbirds.
I start with the ISO needed without the flash. Auto ISO doesn't work well for me here.
I'll then adjust the flash power and ISO to achieve the desired effect.
The beautiful thing about these low power settings, up to about 1/8 power is, it recycles so fast it can keep up with the D500's 10 frames per second!
I have been using it like this without the Magmod from about 12-30 feet of distance. Magmod should increase this distance or allow a lower power setting on the flash.
It takes a few practice shots to get it exactly where you want but, it adds the fill flash and catch light to the eyes without looking like it was flashed.

How do you guys get 1/320* shutter speed on the D500? Mine only goes up to 1/250s (Auto FP). Am I missing something???
 

nickt

Senior Member
How do you guys get 1/320* shutter speed on the D500? Mine only goes up to 1/250s (Auto FP). Am I missing something???
Good question. On my d7200, 1/250 is max regular sync and 1/320 auto FP is also and option. I thought I was getting up to a full power single blast on 1/320, but now I am not 100% sure. It does act like I can get full flash power on 1/320 if its needed. Its for sure more flash power than I would get at say 1/1250 shutter speed. So I'm going to have to experiment. I have to try the method Chris described too.

On the d500, you should be able to set whatever shutter speed you want if your E1 menu is set for 1/250 Auto FP and a compatible flash is attached. Not sure at what speed your power becomes limited due to the Auto FP behavior. Probably above 1/250.
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
I am using the Better Beamer not the Magmod, but I believe they are similar products.
Where I live, we have hills all around us and have plenty of big trees, so the birds are very rarely in sunlight, they are ussually in heavy shade.
Without the help from flash I struggle to get any useable shots as I need to go to iso3200 and above. I use the D7100, Tamron 150-600 G1, handheld.
After much trial and error, I have found what works for me is to go fully manual, set the shutter speed on 1/200 or 1/250, aperture where your lens is the sharpest ( mine is from f8 - f11 ) then use iso to expose for the background ( sometimes the background will have to be a bit dark because you obviously dont want the iso going too high ) then use the flash power settings to get the right amount of fill light on the bird, this can take a bit of trial and error. I ussually start at 1/8th and see what it looks like ( my usual range is anywhere from 1/16 to 1/2 ) When you start getting up to 1/2 or full power it starts to look unnatural.

These are a couple I took the other day of a Kookaburra in my backyard. They were either 1/8 or 1/16 flash power. The extra light from the flash really helps to bring out the detail on the bird that I just cant get without some fill light help.

DSC_5777.jpg


DSC_5781.jpg


EDIT- I just noticed in the exif, the exp comp says -.33, because I was in manual this wount come into effect. I just forgot to reset to 0 from when I was on I was on A priority or auto iso the last time.
 
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spb_stan

Senior Member
If you are shooting birds landing on a feeding spot you have lots of options. Full manual on exposure, keeping iso low enough for your quality requirements adjust the exposure to the background is 1-2 stops underexposed without flash then use Fill flash, (Matrix metering, iTTL with the flash off camera a bit closer to the landing spot using wireless flash controllers such as the Yongnuo 622 transceivers and a camera shoe mounted 622 tx or 622 transceivers (the Tx master controller is easier to adjust power on the fly). This assures proper exposure while relying on the very short flash duration to freeze wing movement. You can go pretty low in shutter speed on a tripod so you can use lower ISO. If you use too much basic camera sensitivity(too slow plus higher ISO you can get ghosting but easy to fix by dropping ISO so the background is not as highly exposed. Fill flash using Matrix metering works great for this type of shot. If you use Spot metering, Fill Flash is turned off and it becomes straight TTL. The flash metering and camera metering in Matrix are independent with the whole scene metered by the camera body and the flash metering will be the subject, so you have independent control of overall scene/background vs subject exposure. One of the most important reasons to choose Nikon over the lesser brands S and C.
You can also do this with shoe mounted flash but getting the flash closer to the subject you can use lower power and get a better incident angle of light on the subject, plus the shadows cast could be positioned out of the frame. Another good reason to invest in a good cheap iTTL capable wireless flash controller. A transmitter and receiver/transceiver is only $99 combined but one of the best returns on investment in photography.
 

canuck257

Senior Member
If you are shooting birds landing on a feeding spot you have lots of options. Full manual on exposure, keeping iso low enough for your quality requirements adjust the exposure to the background is 1-2 stops underexposed without flash then use Fill flash, (Matrix metering, iTTL with the flash off camera a bit closer to the landing spot using wireless flash controllers such as the Yongnuo 622 transceivers and a camera shoe mounted 622 tx or 622 transceivers (the Tx master controller is easier to adjust power on the fly). This assures proper exposure while relying on the very short flash duration to freeze wing movement. You can go pretty low in shutter speed on a tripod so you can use lower ISO. If you use too much basic camera sensitivity(too slow plus higher ISO you can get ghosting but easy to fix by dropping ISO so the background is not as highly exposed. Fill flash using Matrix metering works great for this type of shot. If you use Spot metering, Fill Flash is turned off and it becomes straight TTL. The flash metering and camera metering in Matrix are independent with the whole scene metered by the camera body and the flash metering will be the subject, so you have independent control of overall scene/background vs subject exposure. One of the most important reasons to choose Nikon over the lesser brands S and C.
You can also do this with shoe mounted flash but getting the flash closer to the subject you can use lower power and get a better incident angle of light on the subject, plus the shadows cast could be positioned out of the frame. Another good reason to invest in a good cheap iTTL capable wireless flash controller. A transmitter and receiver/transceiver is only $99 combined but one of the best returns on investment in photography.

Much food for thought, thank you. I already have a YN 622TX with several YN 622RX and was planning just what you suggest. Placing the flash on a stand close to the landing zone and using a tripod, slow shutter speeds and a remote to get low ISO. What I'm looking for here is some suggestions for using fill flash with a MagMod on a long (500mm) lens in a more mobile situation.
 
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