Wednesday 19 August 2009

Off Camera Flash Cord

I use Flash quite a lot in my nature photography and the off camera flash cord is one of my most used accessories, It allows me to put the flash on my wimberley head totally separate from the camera body and lens so that i can switch from Landscape to portrait without moving the flashgun-staying above the lens so as not to cast any unusual shadows


The cord also allows me to handhold the flashgun away from the body/lens so i move the flash into the position that i want and give the lighting effect that i want, I find this particularly useful when shooting macro images

This was me this morning taking images of a very beautiful spider that had made its web outside my back door


I shot both sides of the spider, Here the first image has flash and the second image doesn't, Both are perfectly OK and sharp however the flash brings out extra detail in the spider and also shows the web with isn't evident in the unflashed image



You can see in the image of me that i held the flash slightly above the lens and just to the side,This gives quite an even light, I could have held it further to the side if i wanted to add shadows etc,
The Nikon cord i feel is better than the Canon one that i used to use for two reasons, Firstly its much better quality, I used to break the Canon one all the time and secondly its longer than the canon which i felt was way too short, With the Nikon i can hold the flash a meter away from the body if i need to, Of course if you have a Canon ST-E2 or Nikon SU800 remote transmitter you don't really need to use the off camera cord but every photographer should have one in their kit bag just in case and its something that doesn't break the bank

Dave

2 comments:

  1. That looks like a wasp spider - the European version is Agiope sp.
    Do like the shot where the web is visible.

    If you want a more hi-tech way - take a look at the PocketWizards - realy good for getting the flash off camera and not needing to rely on line of sight.
    Dave

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  2. Hi Dave
    You are correct with the I.D although out here its called a black and yellow spider-very inventive
    Would love some pocket wizards just need to sell a kidney

    Dave

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