We’ve had our first major snowfall of the year. I haven’t been feeling well and was just sitting around, but the boredom got to me and I decided it was time to photograph the garden.
By the time I got out the snow had blown off much of the plants, but there was still enough to make my walk around worthwhile.
Normally I would put my camera on a tripod, and connect a flash to a stand, but my energy level was pretty low. Nevertheless, after sitting around for the past two days I wanted to wander my yard.
The answer was to use a ring flash. I have written about the ring flash/macro light before. The ring flash attaches to the front of a lens and produces very direct illumination.
I have two, an older one that was made in the 1970s. It had TTL and auto functions for the autofocus cameras at that time, but with my modern DSLR I must select distance, aperture and shutterspeed manually. That’s not hard, I just do a few tests for the best natural light exposure, and then only have to stay at distances that don’t under or over expose my subject. That said I got a chance to get a newer one that, although not a Nikon brand, is TTL dedicated to my camera.
That means I can use high speed sync (HSS). HSS is a feature on most modern cameras that allows the camera’s flash to work with high flash sync speeds.
What Is high-speed sync?
HSS means you can use your flash with a faster shuttterspeed than your camera’s native sync speed of 1/250th of a second. In normal use anything faster than that is beyond the camera’s ability to sync with flash and will produce a black bar across the bottom of the picture because the flash only illuminates part of the sensor as the shutter closes to fast.
High-speed sync allows the flash to fire many bursts of light throughout exposure time creating an even distribution of light across the sensor.
I won’t explain how to set up each different camera. That information is easily found with a Google search. Just ask how to set up HSS on your particular camera.
My walk through the garden using the TTL ring flash was easy. I began with 400ISO and a shutter speed of 1/650 and chose an aperture depending on each subject. Remember the wider the aperture the less the depth of field.
I was out for about an hour as the light slowly decreased and in spite of coughing and a bit of a headache I got lots of fun pictures.
I like using the ring light. It’s much easier to use than carrying around a flash on a stand.
Christmas is coming and a ring light would be a good addition to Santa’s list. When looking for a ring/macro light be sure to choose one that is dedicated to your camera. Nikon TTL for Nikon, Canon TTL for Canon, and so on depending on one’s camera brand.
Plants are great subjects. My garden has weeds and not much structure, but everything is a photo opportunity and if, like me, you want to enjoy photography a few steps out the front door just get a macro lens and a ring flash and have a good time anytime of year or in any kind of weather.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.