Bees (and a fly) in flight

[GardenersHelper]

These were captured hand-held over the past few days using a Canon 500D close-up lens on my FZ200, with pie-tin diffuser on hot-shoe flash. All used base ISO . All used M mode with minimum aperture of f/8 (equivalent to about f/28 on APS-C), and all but one used 1/2000 sec, the other 1/2500 sec. Some probably used manually set flash power, some with TTL flash metering. I don't recall which.

There are 1300 pixel high versions of these images (and some others) in this album at Flickr.


0726 46 2015_05_20 P1740320 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0728 103 2015_05_24 P1770715 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0728 102 2015_05_24 P1770718 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0729 125 2015_05_26 P1790486 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0729 002 2015_05_26 P1780556 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0729 003 2015_05_26 P1780526 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0729 021 2015_05_26 P1780706 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0729 028 2015_05_26 P1780755 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

 

[Carlh]

Great set of in flights fella - brilliant work

 

[Tintin124]

#6/8 are my fav's

I assume you are using HSS for the fast shutter speeds, does this drain the batteries considerably. I have a flash capable of it so do wonder.

Excellently sharp and detailed as expectation

 

[GardenersHelper]

#6/8 are my fav's

I assume you are using HSS for the fast shutter speeds, does this drain the batteries considerably. I have a flash capable of it so do wonder.

Excellently sharp and detailed as expectation

Thanks Bryn. I'm not using HSS with the FZ200. I tried using HSS with the G3 and found it awkward and difficult to use because the amount of light given out is, I believe, proportional to the shutter speed. That places a somewhat restrictive envelope around the combinations of shutter speed (and ISO) that can be used depending on what you are trying to get out of the background. (It's a bit of a head-scratcher to explain that one. I'd have to think it through again if I need to provide an explanation, because just now I can't recall the details, only the result.)

My FZ200 syncs at all shutter speeds. (I believe that is because it has a leaf shutter, although I've never been able to get confirmation of that.) The flash illumination does die away from about 1/2500 sec, so that is why I have been using 1/2000. I've taken to using 1/1000 as my default (which is what I used for the red and black beetle shots), going up to 1/2000 for fast moving subjects (well, parts of subjects - wings in motion). Then if I need to (or at least try to) bring up a dark background I can simply dial down the shutter speed, sometimes to as little as 1/100, or I'll try even less sometimes. The beauty of using ordinary rather than HSS flash for this is that there are no complications, no envelope of possibilities to consider. Just dial down the shutter speed and (if using TTL) carry on. Of course, if I'm manually setting the flash output then I do have to do a compensating adjustment.

Using flash at these shutter speeds ensures that the exposure really is at most for example 1/2000 (or less, if flash is the dominant light source and the flash pulse is faster than the shutter speed). This avoids the situation where the light is bright and the flash is acting as fill so the effective shutter speed is close to the actual shutter speed. So for example when using flash at 1/250 sec in bright light, even though the flash pulse may be only ? 1/2500 sec or so, the effective shutter speed is still close to 1/250 (or 1/160 for the G3 as that is its, highly restrictive, max sync speed). For freezing motion being able to force a faster effective shutter speed no matter whether the flash is the dominant or secondary light source is obviously useful. That said, bees' and flies' wings move too fast to be frozen at 1/2000 sec, unless you happen to catch them when they are momentarily moving slower/stationary as they reverse direction.

As I use flash more and more for invertebrates, I'm finding that being able to use ordinary flash right up to 1/2000 sec with no operational complications (and without HSS battery drain and recharge times) is a significant benefit of using the FZ200.

 

[LCPete]

Great set of in flights Nick my favourite is no 5

 

[G.K.Jnr.]

A really great set of in flight images Nick, with some very fine detail.

George.