I was scrolling through my wife’s photographs and came across this image that she took last May.
MP-E65mm flash in the field. Two Stofen diffusers plus foam sheet.
We were at the Opal Natural Area that day, but couldn’t remember what I was photographing at the time, so I looked through my own collection and found the photo of this little hopping Salticid. Judging by the lack of shots, he didn’t hang around long for a better portrait!
This Habronattus doesn’t care how many flashes I use, they’re all annoying…
No, that’s not a freshly uprooted carrot – that’s my finger, looking a bit grimy after a morning scratching in the undergrowth. And look at the spider eyes — twin catch-lights, which is unnatural and annoying. I could have cloned these out, but it is an example of the problem that comes with using twin-flash units like the Canon MT-24EX macro flash or the Nikon R1 flash system. In normal outdoor situations, eyes have one catch-light, and that is from the sun or the sky. Using twin-flashes, even when well diffused, creates two. Now the original reason for using twin flashes is so that, by controlling the output of each flash, you can obtain a modeling effect — subtle nuances of light and shade. Yet, if you want to avoid the twin hi-light problem caused by twin flashes, you must make them them behave like a single flash… !
What do you think of twin hi-lights in the eyes? Do you live with it? Do you clone one hi-light out? Or have you chucked your twin-flashes and gone back to a single flash system?
3 Comments
I am inspired by Piotr Naskrecki’s work, similar to your setup but perhaps the flashes are not as close to the diffuser. He is using a custom flash bracket and white plastic from a file folder.
I sometimes remove one highlight or even merge two together. Here is an example of the latter where I used four flashes. The two overhead were in softboxes spaced a couple of inches apart. It still doesn’t seem ideal but don’t know what else to do. http://www.pbase.com/stuartwilson/image/143221484
Naskrecki is also one of my gurus. I will be adding some extension to my flashes this season, and trying more multi-flash photographs when possible. Looking forward to a new season with (hopefully) willing subjects!
I have been trying using a single diffused flash on the subject, and a bare speedlight to light the background. I too do not favour the unnatural catchlights. That being said, There are a lot of other things I would like to improve as well!