Magmod stuff?

Steven, the light in that image of the squirrel is from a geled Magsphere to recreate the look of sunlight and a geled magbeam. The idea is to create the look of light, not make the light look like flash. I also use a Apeture Fresnel lens which can create beautiful light. Geling flash for outdoor use is where you can be really creative, with lighting and the more you do it the better you get.
That must have been one very cooperative/tame squirrel! I still don't see any catchlights from the lights in the eye, but you could have edited that.
You don't know me from Adam, but I'm pretty well versed in lighting...
 
Steve, although the Red Squirrels are not tame, they are very used to humans, its a reserve in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK, I have been going there for about four years now, so I know what food stuffs to use, so they sit and eat rather than run off a bury everything. You can see the catch lights of the flash in their eyes, but as the image is low res you might not be able to zoom in enough to see the detail. I could email you a a few high res images and you will be able to the the lighting. I run mini lighting workshops here is a link to my blog that has some images with people very close to the reds and a Magmod in the background. https://k2photographic.com/2020/02/20/red-squirrels-off-camera-flash-workshop/
 
Last edited:
Steve, although the Red Squirrels are not tame, they are very used to humans, its a reserve in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK, I have been going there for about four years now, so I know what food stuffs to use, so they sit and eat rather than run off a bury everything. You can see the catch lights of the flash in their eyes, but as the image is low res you might not be able to zoom in enough to see the detail. I could email you a a few high res images and you will be able to the the lighting. I run mini lighting workshops here is a link to my blog that has some images with people very close to the reds and a Magmod in the background.

https://k2photographic.com/2020/02/20/red-squirrels-off-camera-flash-workshop/

Now that's my kind of wildlife photography. With a sofa, obviously.
 
I could email you a a few high res images and you will be able to the the lighting.
No need... you don't need to prove anything to me.

I run mini lighting workshops here is a link to my blog that has some images with people very close to the reds and a Magmod in the background.
That is quite close...
TBH, I would pretty much never use a dome/magsphere outdoors... it can even the light from a fresnel head out a bit, but it also wastes a lot of light/power/battery. When the light is just supplemental/fill, and when the subject/scene is natural/textured (e.g. not a white wall), the unevenness of a fresnel/speedlight doesn't really matter much IMHO.
 
Steve, although the Red Squirrels are not tame, they are very used to humans, its a reserve in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK, I have been going there for about four years now, so I know what food stuffs to use, so they sit and eat rather than run off a bury everything. You can see the catch lights of the flash in their eyes, but as the image is low res you might not be able to zoom in enough to see the detail. I could email you a a few high res images and you will be able to the the lighting. I run mini lighting workshops here is a link to my blog that has some images with people very close to the reds and a Magmod in the background. https://k2photographic.com/2020/02/20/red-squirrels-off-camera-flash-workshop/


Really struggling to see what that magmod diffuser will add at that distance other than wasting the light - nice images though

Mike
 
Really struggling to see what that magmod diffuser will add at that distance other than wasting the light - nice images though

Mike
TBF, a speedlight type fresnel head will typically have pretty uneven illumination/hot spots... any type of diffusion will help too even that out, but it will never completely correct for it.

But I generally agree, the cost in power/distance/battery isn't worth the negligible improvement in light quality/evenness when it's just fill/accent. That's why I tend to use bare fresnel heads instead; the round head (h200r) costs almost 2 stops of light compared to the AD200 fresnel (which is less than the bare bulb+reflector)... same for the V1 vs V860.

I think that we as photographers can get tied up with minutia, whereas in terms of art/audience it requires much more gross changes to make a significant impact/change. I.e. there's bad/good/great images... the steps in-between don't matter much.
 
TBF, a speedlight type fresnel head will typically have pretty uneven illumination/hot spots... any type of diffusion will help too even that out, but it will never completely correct for it.

But I generally agree, the cost in power/distance/battery isn't worth the negligible improvement in light quality/evenness when it's just fill/accent. That's why I tend to use bare fresnel heads instead; the round head (h200r) costs almost 2 stops of light compared to the AD200 fresnel (which is less than the bare bulb+reflector)... same for the V1 vs V860.

I think that we as photographers can get tied up with minutia, whereas in terms of art/audience it requires much more gross changes to make a significant impact/change. I.e. there's bad/good/great images... the steps in-between don't matter much.

Steven,

not telling me anything that I did not know already, personally I see many of the Fong type attachments as proof that marketing trumps science for 99% of users, knowing when to use what is a higher level skill

Mike
 
TBF, a speedlight type fresnel head will typically have pretty uneven illumination/hot spots... any type of diffusion will help too even that out, but it will never completely correct for it.

But I generally agree, the cost in power/distance/battery isn't worth the negligible improvement in light quality/evenness when it's just fill/accent. That's why I tend to use bare fresnel heads instead; the round head (h200r) costs almost 2 stops of light compared to the AD200 fresnel (which is less than the bare bulb+reflector)... same for the V1 vs V860.

I think that we as photographers can get tied up with minutia, whereas in terms of art/audience it requires much more gross changes to make a significant impact/change. I.e. there's bad/good/great images... the steps in-between don't matter much.

It was always thus though Steven and TBH it's what keeps forums like this going a lot of the time. And for that matter, I suppose it's one of the things that's kept me in a living as a magazine publisher for the last few decades with my pretty little lens MTF graphs and a shutter speed tester on my desk :cool:

But it's important to push back against the greater excesses of the marketeers and champion a bit of knowledge about 'how light works'. The important fundamentals are really very simple, easy to understand and apply.
 
Steven,

not telling me anything that I did not know already, personally I see many of the Fong type attachments as proof that marketing trumps science for 99% of users, knowing when to use what is a higher level skill

Mike

It was always thus though Steven and TBH it's what keeps forums like this going a lot of the time. And for that matter, I suppose it's one of the things that's kept me in a living as a magazine publisher for the last few decades with my pretty little lens MTF graphs and a shutter speed tester on my desk :cool:

But it's important to push back against the greater excesses of the marketeers and champion a bit of knowledge about 'how light works'. The important fundamentals are really very simple, easy to understand and apply.
I fully agree on both counts...
 
Back
Top