These beautiful angel's trumpet flowers are difficult to shoot because the centers of the blossoms are often in shadow. For this shot I used two off camera strobe units (Nikon SB-800's) plus the built in flash on my Nikon D200. I set the two SB-800 strobes below and on either side of the blossom.
The top of the upper blossom was well illuminated with natural cloudy bright light plus that from the built in flash on the camera - I reduced its output by - 2/3 EV . My goal was to illuminate the interior of the blossom to more closely match the illumination on the top of the blossom without it appearing too obvious that flash was used.I think I largely achieved that goal except for the small shadow just below the top edge of the center pedal of the top blossom - this tips you off to the use of the built in flash on the camera.
The effectiveness of this technique is well illustrated by the shadows seen on the lower blossom, especially on the right hand pedal. The off camera flashes were positioned in a way so that they did not illuminate the interior of this blossom as much as the top blossom.
Bill Tan put me on to this technique and referred me to a very useful blogspot, Strobist, that details these techniques and lists the equipment needed for them. Bill wrote an article for his camera club showing how to apply these techniques to a scenic shot.
Location/Date: Fragrance Garden, Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, MD, August 22, 2007
[Nikon D200, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR, 1/200, f/8, iso 400, built in flash plus two off camera SB-800 strobes]
Name:: Luke
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
masterful shot! awesome detail!
Name:: bill
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
Bud this is very nice. Your D200 is more versatile than my D70. It would really be fun to see what happens if you vary the light ratio between the 3 strobes. Increase the intensity of the right relative to the left or vice versa. Maybe even decrease the EV of the camera flash to -3, essentially turning it off. (this is the only option on D70) Playing with strobe position to to trasilluminate the petals might be dramatic. The possibilities are endless because you control the light. Glad you are having fun with it.
About me
I work for a public Botanical Gardens in the Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit. Since my passion is nature photography, this is a fun job for me. Images posted on this blog are © 2002-2008 by Bud Cline (dba, images by buddell) and all rights are reserved. No image may be used in any way without written permission.
I work for a public Botanical Gardens in the Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit. Since my passion is nature photography, this is a fun job for me. Images posted on this blog are © 2002-2008 by Bud Cline (dba, images by buddell) and all rights are reserved. No image may be used in any way without written permission.
Currently, I am...
Having fun: with my new Nikon D700 camera!
Having fun: with my new Nikon D700 camera!