Night-time in the garden

[GardenersHelper]

More from the backlog, These were captured hand-held after dark in early August 2015 in our garden with a Raynox 150 on a 45-175 lens on my G3 micro four thirds camera, probably with my pie tin diffuser on a Metz 58 AF-2 flash, using f/22 and base ISO 160 at the G5's rather slow flash sync speed of 1/160 sec.

The raw files were processed in DXO Optics Pro 11 to produce DNG files which were processed in Silkypix Developer 7 Pro to produce TIFF files which were processed in Lightroom 6 to produce 1300 pixel high JPEGs which can be seen in this album at Flickr.

#1

1024 01 2015_08_07-8 P1030844_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

1024 23 2015_08_07-8 P1030912_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

1024 38 2015_08_07-8 P1040001_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

1024 40 2015_08_07-8 P1040008_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

1024 43 2015_08_07-8 P1040022_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#6

1024 50 2015_08_07-8 P1040041_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#7

1024 56 2015_08_07-8 P1040073_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#8

1024 65 2015_08_07-8 P1040129_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


More in the following post

 

[GardenersHelper]

#9

1024 69 2015_08_07-8 P1040141_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#10

1024 71 2015_08_07-8 P1040144_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#11

1024 74 2015_08_07-8 P1040152_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#12

1024 77 2015_08_07-8 P1040162_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#13

1024 78 2015_08_07-8 P1040168_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#14

1024 79 2015_08_07-8 P1040172_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#15

1024 81 2015_08_07-8 P1040174_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#16

1024 95 2015_08_07-8 P1040266_DxO RAW01a100 SP7a LR6 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

 

[User.81858]

Another fine set Nick. Keep them coming

 

[sureshot]

Good set ,lighting is spot on .

 

[GardenersHelper]

Another fine set Nick. Keep them coming

Good set ,lighting is spot on .

Thank you Charles and Nick.

 

[Dale.]

Superb, the detail is incredible. Hats off to you.

 

[ChrisA]

Superb Nick, I doubt we'd know they were night unless you said.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Superb, the detail is incredible. Hats off to you.

Thanks Dale.

Superb Nick, I doubt we'd know they were night unless you said.

Thanks Chris. It isn't the case for these, because they were captured with my G5 with its slow flash sync speed, but for most of my insects etc I use my FZ330 and before that my FZ200, and with those cameras I use 1/1600 sec or so when using flash. Coupled with using base ISO and small apertures that means that even in bright sunshine almost all the illumination is coming from the flash. So with those cameras my daytime images look pretty much the same as my night time images. The only exception is if I slow the shutter speed down in order to lift a dark background with ambient light, but I rarely do that. I should do it more really, but I never seem to remember to do it.

 

[alfbranch]

Superb Nick, I doubt we'd know they were night unless you said.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Thanks again Alf.

 

[davholla]

Thanks Dale.



Thanks Chris. It isn't the case for these, because they were captured with my G5 with its slow flash sync speed, but for most of my insects etc I use my FZ330 and before that my FZ200, and with those cameras I use 1/1600 sec or so when using flash. Coupled with using base ISO and small apertures that means that even in bright sunshine almost all the illumination is coming from the flash. So with those cameras my daytime images look pretty much the same as my night time images. The only exception is if I slow the shutter speed down in order to lift a dark background with ambient light, but I rarely do that. I should do it more really, but I never seem to remember to do it.

Why so fast shutter speeds? The lighting is really good, how does your diffuser cope with ladybirds (the hardest test of all IMHO)?

 

[GardenersHelper]

Why so fast shutter speeds?

I find I tend to get nicely sharp images at these high shutter speeds and there isn't any downside that I'm aware of.

I think what is going on is that the fast shutter speeds mean that the ambient light contribution to the illumination is insignificant and this removes the risk of ghosting/image blur from camera or subject movement. I know the flash duration is short and tends to "freeze" movement, but ambient light will act throughout a longer exposure and can sometimes cause some image blurring/ghosting even when using flash. This may be particularly important for capturing fine detail. When using flash the only time I turn the shutter speed down is when trying to increase the ambient light contribution so as to bring up dark backgrounds, although I haven't done that for a while now. I should probably do it more often.

My bridge cameras use leaf shutters.* This allow flash synchronisation with fast shutter speeds (using ordinary flash, not HSS/FP flash, which I find difficult to work with). Flash works fine with these cameras up to 1/2000 sec or so in my experience. They do synchronise ok at higher speeds - the illumination remains even across the image, but the illumination reduces as shutter speed gets faster. This is presumably because the shutter opening becomes shorter than than the flash burst.

* This is a supposition. Nobody has ever found anything definitive from Panasonic stating that this is the case. But it seems to be the only hypothesis that makes sense.

The lighting is really good, how does your diffuser cope with ladybirds (the hardest test of all IMHO)?

Not very well. With flash, I don't know of anything apart from perhaps a light tent that does. but I doubt that is practical out in the wild. It rather puts me off photographing ladybirds. I think natural light is the answer, when practical, although that can sometimes have nasty (to my eye) highlights too.

Incidentally, the lighting in my images is a combination of capture illumination and post processing adjustments.

 

[davholla]

I find I tend to get nicely sharp images at these high shutter speeds and there isn't any downside that I'm aware of.

I think what is going on is that the fast shutter speeds mean that the ambient light contribution to the illumination is insignificant and this removes the risk of ghosting/image blur from camera or subject movement. I know the flash duration is short and tends to "freeze" movement, but ambient light will act throughout a longer exposure and can sometimes cause some image blurring/ghosting even when using flash. This may be particularly important for capturing fine detail. When using flash the only time I turn the shutter speed down is when trying to increase the ambient light contribution so as to bring up dark backgrounds, although I haven't done that for a while now. I should probably do it more often.

My bridge cameras use leaf shutters.* This allow flash synchronisation with fast shutter speeds (using ordinary flash, not HSS/FP flash, which I find difficult to work with). Flash works fine with these cameras up to 1/2000 sec or so in my experience. They do synchronise ok at higher speeds - the illumination remains even across the image, but the illumination reduces as shutter speed gets faster. This is presumably because the shutter opening becomes shorter than than the flash burst.

* This is a supposition. Nobody has ever found anything definitive from Panasonic stating that this is the case. But it seems to be the only hypothesis that makes sense.



Not very well. With flash, I don't know of anything apart from perhaps a light tent that does. but I doubt that is practical out in the wild. It rather puts me off photographing ladybirds. I think natural light is the answer, when practical, although that can sometimes have nasty (to my eye) highlights too.

Incidentally, the lighting in my images is a combination of capture illumination and post processing adjustments.

Interesting reply, I think you are right that only a light tent will do. I was thinking of using a remote triggered flash on an umbrella but have not got round to it. However it will not be that practical as I only have 2 hands. I doubt that I can hold the umbrella with one hand and do everything else with the other hand.
I find 1/100 is enough to freeze movement and I don't have it faster because I wonder if I would use up my batteries quicker that way (I am not sure, if I would).

 

[GardenersHelper]

Interesting reply, I think you are right that only a light tent will do. I was thinking of using a remote triggered flash on an umbrella but have not got round to it. However it will not be that practical as I only have 2 hands. I doubt that I can hold the umbrella with one hand and do everything else with the other hand.

I tried something similar several years ago, shooting the flash backwards on to a large reflector.


Large reflector IMG_0200 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


IMG_0212 PS1 PSS1 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

It was very unwieldy. I could have lived with that (just, possibly) if it had given me particularly good results, but it didn't. I think the problem is that the light source needs to be as large as possible when seen from the perspective of the subject. The reflector provided a large light source, but it was a long way away from the subject, so the size of it from the subject's perspective was not especially large. I suspect the size of the light source with my current setup is considerably larger.


0975 03 FZ330 with Raynox 250 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I find 1/100 is enough to freeze movement and I don't have it faster because I wonder if I would use up my batteries quicker that way (I am not sure, if I would).

Are you thinking that a faster shutter speed requires stronger illumination and will therefore use up the flash's batteries quicker? (I don't think it does, in fact I'm sure it doesn't, but that's all I can think of.)