Tuesday 26 October 2010

Mini Trip Report - Part 5 - Poor Light

Sometimes, no matter what, and no matter how the light on the subject is always going to be crap.  It is at times like that that we really (usually) do know better and should go off and do something else.  When I took my recent trip to Gigrin to the Red Kites - see previous posts here , here and here.  the light on the first day was awful.  It wasn't likely to get better and I knew the images were going to be crap.

So why did I stay for a couple of hours in the cold and miserable weather?  Many reasons

1.   It was time to experiment!!

2.    It gave me the opportunity to check out my C1, C2 and C3 settings to make sure things were still in order.

3.   Have a crack at using the flash to infill

4.   To get some practice in for the next day when I hoped the weather was better.

5.   To study my subjects behaviour - how the flew, how they fed so I was better equipped for next time.

6.   Lastly and most importantly, I just love watching the wildlife - a picture is a bonus

So here are a couple of shots to demonstrate that you cannot make a sows purse from a pigs ear when the light is shite!!




Both with 7D, ISO1600, 500 f4L, 580EX flash head plus Better Beamer giving the 'steel eye' look.  I could have edited it out - but the images would still be poor.  So here for a demonstration for you.

What was clear to me though was that the 7D AF works well in poor light, and did when against a background where there was limited contrast.

1 comment:

  1. Cheers Martin, good advice to us all, even more so as the low light levels are fast approaching (especially up here) I'll have to try using fill-in flash - something I've never used, sort of 'fear of the unknown' :)

    Robbie

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