Reducing Glare

I'm not sure if this should go in here or Flash.

I've got a 550EX attached to my 30D (on camera) with an omnibounce thingy but when I take pictures of bugs there is a reflection on the body see ladybird below.

What is the best thing to use to try and reduce it and make it look more natural. Or can it be done via the flash atm I'm just using Av on camera and falsh mode ETTL

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It's virtually impossible to prevent reflection glare from something like a ladybird when in bright light (natural or flash). I used to worry about but now accept that it shows the insect has a shiny carapace.
I'd say that's an excellent ladybird shot as is.
You may be able to get a slight improvement using a softbox type diffuser rather than an omnibounce but not much.

One point on your use of flash in AV mode is that you are only using the flash in "fill mode" and will be getting I guess fairly slow shutter speeds unless you are using high ISO. Although there is a reason for doing this if you are going for a natural light look, it is far easier to put the camera into manual mode and use say 1/200th F11 and let the ETTL flash make up the difference.
Brian V.

I agree with the last part that Brian mentioned, I get a bit of camera shake near the brighter parts of bugs reflecting daylight when I use slower shutter speeds/balancing with fill, it's alot easier to use 90% flash lighting and you can get creative with the angle's number of sources and filtering the source for some interesting effects.

HI MAH, If You don't like the reflections, clone them 0ut. EW.

I know you asked about relfections, but I find the out of focus leaf on the right of the photo more distracting than the reflection. my $.02

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a stab at using manual with fill in flash.

theague... hadn't even noticed that; it was one of about 20 shots all with glare and I picked one at random

Hi Mark,

I've made a diffuser/soft box for my 550EX and it has helped reduce glare somewhat. I can post more details if this ladybird is more to your liking

Regards,
John.

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Cheers john that would be great if you would.

(Apologies for the delay, shift work can be fun!)

Okay, here it is (don't laugh, it's a prototype!)

The box is made from cereal packets and lined with tinfoil. Attached at the front is a sheet of thin A4 paper. With the 550EX tilted down an extra 7° the bottom edge of the paper rests nicely on the end of my 100mm lens.

Examples below...

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...examples.

"Direct" - Flash titled down 7°. The light seems to cast an orange shadow on the ladybird's head.

"Wide Panel" - Flash tilted down 7°, built-in wide panel deployed.

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...last one.

"Softbox" - With softbox fitted, the glare is spread over a large area of the ladybird and the shadows are much softer. The image needs some levels/curves adjustment, but that's par for the course I think.

All images were cropped, resized, and sharpened. No levels/curves were adjusted. N.B., the ladybird wasn't the usual bright red colour, perhaps the rain washed its makeup off!

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That's brilliant thanks..... Now to have crunchy nut cornflakes for tea

I like how it softens everything, does it tend to scare things away any more than usual though.

I'm glad you like it

I haven't noticed it scaring away anything so far, although I've yet to approach larger creatures such as dragonflies. I imagine approaching an insect from above it resembles bright sky and helps disguise my outline. Further experimentation is required!