The Birds of Central Park

No Fill Flash

Fill Flash (-1/1/3 with better beamer)

Flash as Fill
I use a Canon 550EX flash with a Better Beamer attachment on my 600mm f/4 lens. Many people who see the flash on this rather large lens wonder how the light from my flash can possibly reach the subject.

The Better Beamer certainly helps but since I don't use the flash as primary illumination the light reaching my subject only needs to be bright enough to "fill" in the shadows. Above is an example of the same shot with and without flash-as-fill. The image on the top is proper exposure without flash and the image on the bottom is proper exposure with "flash-as-fill."

The image on the top was shot without a flash while the image on the right was shot with "flash as fill" with the flash dialed down to --1-1/3. The flash fills the shadows on the lower part of the bird and makes for a much more pleasing and less contrast image.

Since light falls off with the square of the distance, at longer distances I will not dial down the flash strength since the light will be greatly diminished by the time it reaches the bird.

A flash is also useful for putting a "catch light" in a bird's eye. Just like humans, birds look better when their eye shows a small "glint."

With birds in flight, the flash can illuminate the underside of the bird and help lighten shadows. This is particularly effective with darker birds. Before I started using "flash-as-fill" I would overexpose darker birds so that the sky behind them would look unnaturally bright and the image overly contrasty. Fill flash can also help with flight shots on cloudy, overcast days. Depending on the bird and the lighting I underexpose slightly and allow the flash to "fill" in the detail on the underside of the bird.

In very dark environments or on dark cloudy days I will put my camera in AE mode and shot with flash as primary illumination. Sometimes it's the only way to get the shot. The photo below was shot at the Azalea Pond in Central Park on a very cloudy day. I could not have gotten this stunning shot without using full flash.