Photographing Australian Plants
Flash — some thoughts for flower photography
Using natural light or flash
Natural light, either sun or diffuse (as above) gives a more natural look. Often there is less depth-of-field because a larger apperture is used. |
Flash lighting allows a very small apperture to be used, this results in greater depth-of-field, giving the photo a 'sharper' though less natural look. Light coloured flowers stand out against the darker background. (this particular flash set-up is explained here) |
Pros and cons for using flash or natural light for flower photography
Bright sunshine
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Overcast or cloudy
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Flash lighting
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Types of flash (or LED ring-lights)
A genuine 'ring-flash' with the strobe-light in a circle around the lens, this one is produced by SunPak. |
The Nikon 'ring-flash' is actually two strobe-lights, one on each side of the lens. |
This is a home-made macro flash system, diffusing the light from the camera's built-in strobe, reducing its intensity for close-up work and avoiding the shadow of the lens for extreme close-ups. (see here for more information) |
The ring-light on the left consists of 8 LED lights configured in a ring around the camera lens. While is was made for the Nikon Coolpix range of small cameras, it can be adapted for others. Indeed it is quite easy to attach it to a mobile phone camera or an iPad to get light on the subject without the shadow of the iPad. |
Oh! Wow. Ring LightThe Oh! Wow. Ring Light (left) is a ring flash and constant light that fits a Canon or Nikon DSLR. Simply plug it into your hot shoe and pop it onto the front of your lens for even lighting with 3 brightness options. At the time of original writing (Sept. 2014) this product had only been seen as an advertisement on the Photojojo website with a selling price of $99. The website no longer appears online as of August 2021 but a review of the light in PCMag Australia on 9 April 2014 indicates that the Gisteq Flashmate LED RingFlash is the same product. |