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View Full Version : For Anyone Wondering About Ring-Flashes

Pete
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 07:09
I took a couple of shots of this little wasp, with and without the ring-flash.

With flash
http://www.the-aperture.com/EE/photos/normal/IMG_4093.jpg

With flash (WB decreased by 1000K)
http://www.the-aperture.com/EE/photos/normal/IMG_4093_WB.jpg

Natural light
http://www.the-aperture.com/EE/photos/normal/IMG_4095.jpg

You can see here that the flash gives a fairly un-natural yellowish cast to the leaf and the wasp itself has sort of washed out colours. You also see the far darker background, which sometimes can be a good thing. You can also see how the flash has frozen the motion of the waving antennae.

On the other side of the foot, using the flash makes the photography that much easier and also gives a nice shadow for the legs.

My verdict? I'll still keep using the ring-flash, but I'm aware of the changes from the natural lighting.
Dalantech
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 07:21
Odd that you'd run into a white balance problem with the flash. What ring flash are you using, and what was the white balance set to when you took the photo (or when you processed it)?

I've used both the MR-14EX and the MT-24EX and the white balance (and therefor the color) is dead on...
LordV
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 07:23
Good demo- you get the same effect with any flash. If you shoot RAW you can get rid of a lot of the colour differences by dropping the colour temperature about 1000'C on the flash pic.
Brian V.
Extirpate
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 07:30
Wow, the natural light looks 1000 times better... i was actually considering the ring flash.. but not any more. :P
Pete
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 07:35
Odd that you'd run into a white balance problem with the flash. What ring flash are you using, and what was the white balance set to when you took the photo (or when you processed it)?

I've used both the MR-14EX and the MT-24EX and the white balance (and therefor the color) is dead on...

This was with the 14EX. The colour balance issue isn't really all that apparent until you take before/after shots.

Pretty much all the recent macro shots I've taken here have been with this flash and I've had some very nice comments (thanks, chaps), so it can't be all that bad.

It's a case of time-and-place....
Cactuspic
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 09:21
Good demo Pete. You may be able to custom set your white balance for the flash and preserve the setting.

Irwin
Pete
10th of July 2007 (Tue), 10:07
Edited with flash shot adjusted as suggested by Brian (-1000K on WB).

I agree, it looks nicer....!