Foxes and flash

[mh68]

As I mentioned on the mammal of the day thread yesterday I`ve started baiting an area for Foxes, to hopefully get some decent shots. Unfortunately the area is in a very dark bit of woodland, so using flash will be preferable most of the time.
All of my Fox pics have been taken in good light, so i`ve not had any experience of using flash with them.I know Badgers are by and large not bothered by flashes going but i`m unsure how Foxes will react...I`m going to be shooting them hopefully early mornings,after sunrise, so not in total darkness.
If anyone with any experience of flash photography with Foxes could offer any info/advice i`d be most grateful.
Ideally i`d like to set up slave flashes near to the baited area for better lighting, but if this would prove too risky a camera mounted flash would do...failing that I may have to draw them into a better lit spot by gradually moving the bait, or videoing them instead...

Mark H

[Words]

Mark, I've taken (literally) thousands of photos of foxes with flash. In my experience if they tolerate your presence, then the flash isn't a problem.

The main problem is that from a distance you'll get 'headlights' rather than eyes. So it's good to be in quite close so your idea of using slave flashes sounds good (I've not tried it, but the principle is sound). If the angle of the flash is right and the flash is with 10 feet or so there's a decent chance of no eyeshine (upward light is more likely to cause eyeshine, so angling down my be better. But experiment if you have the chance). Otherwise it varies from near-white to a lovely deep turquoise.

If the eyeshine is 'clean' (i.e. just the pupil area) it's easy to fix in photoshop. The technique I use is to mask the eye and then use the Enhance Color>replace color options. I use the eydropper to select the dominant colour and then slide the lightness control to the left. You can play around with the fuzziness settings (I tend to run between 130-180). Sometimes a couple of goes is needed if you get a multicoloured eye. Here's a recent example.

Before:

After:

[mh68]

Thanks Words I was quietly hoping you came across this thread, knowing of your experience photographing your foxes at night.
I`ll be fixing the slave flashguns to branches near to the baited area,well above the ground for a good spread of light, so hopefully as you say the chances of redeye will be reduced (I hope!!).
These are very shy animals though round here,so i`ll be very careful testing their reactions to the flashes initially(one shot per session to start with if all goes to plan).I`m hoping, as it`ll be early morning in daylight when i`ll be shooting, that the flash effect shouldnt be as noticeable to them compared to using flashes in total darkness.
Very impressive photoshop job on that eye in the pics you posted by the way.

Mark H

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Words

Mark, I've taken (literally) thousands of photos of foxes with flash. In my experience if they tolerate your presence, then the flash isn't a problem.

really!? I hadn't noticed you had experience with foxes

[Words]

Mark, good luck with it. My guess is that they'll get used to flash after it's been used a few times. A bit like the 'security' lights they set off everywhere round our way.

The photoshop technique is a heck of lot quicker than what I used to do which is repaint the eye pixel by pixel

[Words]

Yes, but Badgers are quite a different matter. Even when I've seen them here I haven't managed so much as a single blurred frame.

[mh68]

Originally Posted by Words

Mark, good luck with it. My guess is that they'll get used to flash after it's been used a few times. A bit like the 'security' lights they set off everywhere round our way.

The photoshop technique is a heck of lot quicker than what I used to do which is repaint the eye pixel by pixel

Thanks Any decent pics I get i`ll post on the mammal of the day thread. Redoing the eyes pixel by pixel must have been a soul-draining task

Mark H

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by mh68

Thanks Any decent pics I get i`ll post on the mammal of the day thread. Redoing the eyes pixel by pixel must have been a soul-draining task

Mark H

Hi mark

like we said on strippes Badgers and flash thread your best bet is to bounce the flash off a bit of white card or use a stofen diffuser or similar.

alternatively a lot of flashes have red eye reduction where they fire a pre flash to make the pupils contract before the main burst

you may also find that you need to use a narrow beamed torch like a maglite to assist with your focussing which is notoriously difficult in low light situations

[mh68]

Originally Posted by eeyore

Hi mark

like we said on strippes Badgers and flash thread your best bet is to bounce the flash off a bit of white card or use a stofen diffuser or similar.

alternatively a lot of flashes have red eye reduction where they fire a pre flash to make the pupils contract before the main burst

you may also find that you need to use a narrow beamed torch like a maglite to assist with your focussing which is notoriously difficult in low light situations

Hi Pete,
Well my initial thinking in placing the flashes close to the baited area is to allow me to turn the power down so it`s not "blasting" them...1/4 power or lower with 2 flashguns should be ample. If it turns out they`ll tolerate the flash better than I expect them to, or they become accustomed to it in time, I`ll certainly be trying diffusers/bounce cards to get better lighting.
The wood where i`m photographing is light enough to allow focussing post-dawn, when i`ll be shooting, but isnt sufficient to give decent shutter speeds to freeze movement, hence the use of flash.
It all boils down to whether the Foxes start using the baited spot regularly though, too early to tell at this stage, then I can start experimenting

Mark H