Hoverfly with ring flash

[dorseteye]

First outing with the Sigma ring flash produced many failures, but this one I quite like:



What settings do others use with a ring flash?

Best wishes,
David

[Tobyh]

That's a nice shot.

I have a Sigma ring flash also but admit I don't use it as often as I should so can't help you there! Will be interested to see other's answers though.

TobyH

[Mike Jackson]

I set my camera to manual. Choose an aperture to suit the depth of field I'm after, normally quite a narrow aperture to give a good depth of field and a fst enough shutter speed to stop camera shake, normally 1/125. I then let the Flash work out what intensity to use using ETTL metering. Most stuff comes out slightly under exposed and just needs a slight tweak.

[acherontia]

Originally Posted by Mike Jackson

I set my camera to manual. Choose an aperture to suit the depth of field I'm after, normally quite a narrow aperture to give a good depth of field and a fst enough shutter speed to stop camera shake, normally 1/125. I then let the Flash work out what intensity to use using ETTL metering. Most stuff comes out slightly under exposed and just needs a slight tweak.

Sounds like good advice. You can certainly get a larger DOF with lighting. One reason I'd like some
OH moved on to macro twin lights as although ring flash works pretty well it tends to make things a little flat.

Acher

[Graeme Robson]

Superb picture!!

[Tringa]

Can't help on the ring flash settings, but in my opinion, if you can produce photos like this one, when you aren't sure what you are doing, then you have little to worry about - excellent pic.

[pressld2]

That's a great pic David, Episyrphus balteatus if I'm not mistaken - there's a lot of them about at the moment and they are, IMO, one of the most beautiful of hoverflies.

Originally Posted by Mike Jackson

I set my camera to manual. Choose an aperture to suit the depth of field I'm after, normally quite a narrow aperture to give a good depth of field and a fst enough shutter speed to stop camera shake, normally 1/125. I then let the Flash work out what intensity to use using ETTL metering. Most stuff comes out slightly under exposed and just needs a slight tweak.

That's almost exactly what I do Mike, except I normally use a shuuter speed of 1/160th or 1/200th. This is because I'm using the Sigma 150mm macro lens and it's usually hand-held so 1/125th would be a trifle on the slow side. I tend to keep the aperture in the range of f11 to f16 unless I'm going for an "arty" shot with shallow depth of field. I also often find the shots a little bit under-exposed but just dial in a little bit of exposure compensation.

I'm using the Nikon SB-R200 close-up flashes rather than the Sigma ringflash but the principle is the same.

Dave P.