Eliminating Red Eye

[slrnovice]

Hi everyone,

I want to be able to photograph mammals that are about between dusk and dawn which means using flash.  I only have one flashgun (the Canon 580 Ex) and cannot afford another one atm.  Obviously, I need to deal with the problem of red eye.  I'm looking at the Stofen Omnibounce (to diffuse the flash) and the Canon L bracket (to get the flash off the hotshoe).  

I want to get the Omnibounce anyway as a general purpose diffuser but my priority lies with getting rid of red eye so if the L bracket will work for that and the Omnibounce won't then the Omnibounce can wait for a while.  Can anyone advise me as to which is the right tool for the job?

Many thanks,

Hollie

[Tim Gray]

At what distance will you be shooting?  The omnibounce will significantly cut down the effective range.  In general, getting the flash off the camera is the best solution for red eye - but an "L bracket" normally refers to one of the types of bracket that mounts the camera to the ball head.

I'd think of some different equipment options - shooting at a distance with flash needs something like the "better beamer"  see: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...er_beamer.shtml

For diffuser, I prefer Gary Fong's lightshpere - but the size my put you off...

[John Camp]

The biggest question here is your technique for locating the mammals you want to photograph. Since most of them are fairly wary at night -- unless you're shooting, say, cattle   -- then you might want to set up a blind (or just sit behind a bush) and wait for the mammal to enter a particular area. If you do  that, then the answer is to set up your flash near the area, and fire it remotely from an off-angle. That also takes care of the problem of being too far away. Your flash accepts remote-firing equipment, and it's not too expensive. On the other hand, if you do somehow stalk your mammal at night, you can minimize redeye with a cheap cable from your flash shoe to your flash, and simply learn to hold it in one hand while shooting with the other. The L-bracket you're talking about has had its name pirated by specially made brackets that fit tightly on your camera, and allow the camera to be shifted quickly from horizonal to vertical. Most people now call the bracket you're talking about a "flash bracket." They were quite common with film cameras, but I haven't seen much talk about them since digital came in -- I don't know why, they'd still be useful, and they do eliminate or at least minimize red eye. You can actually buy brackets to hold two small flashes, one of each side of the camera, for hand-held macro work like stalking insects.

Also, you should know that most, even simple, photography software packages have red-eye elimination processes, that removes the red-eye in software.

You can see some brackets here:

 http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?ac.ui.pn=c...racket&x=18&y=9


JC

[slrnovice]

Hi Tim,
 
Thanks for replying.  I think my shooting distance may vary a great deal depending on the subject and circumstances (cover, hide etc).  There are a fair number of local hedgehogs and squirrels for me to practice with but I'm as green as green can be with foxes and badgers for instance so I can't anticipate distances very easily.  My equipment does limit my shooting distance though.  My longest lens is the 75-300mm IS lens so I've got to rely on cover/hides and get reasonably close to the subject.  

I take your point about the diffuser cutting down the effective range.  It looks like I'll need the off-camera solution.  I've checked the L bracket again.  Warehouseexpress describes it as getting the flash off-camera but Canon describes it as designed for wedding photographers, the aim being to get rid of harsh shadows.  I will go for the off camera shoe cord instead I think and find something to fix the flash setup to (I've only got one tripod).  

With respect to diffusers: I took a peek at the lightsphere and it does look interesting.  Have you used both the Omnibounce and the Lightsphere?  I'm from the UK but it looks like they export so that shouldn't be a problem.

As for the Better Beamer.  I *think* that this is sold in the UK as the Flash X-tender.  My partner has been saying that something like this is just not necessary with the Canon 580 Ex as it has a huge range of something like 50m.  The Canon website says its range is 58m at 100 ISO and 105mm.  How this range decreases with different ISO and lens lengths I do not know.  Have you used the Better Beamer?  What kind of difference does it make?

Thanks again for taking an interest and sending a reply  

Hollie

At what distance will you be shooting?  The omnibounce will significantly cut down the effective range.  In general, getting the flash off the camera is the best solution for red eye - but an "L bracket" normally refers to one of the types of bracket that mounts the camera to the ball head.

I'd think of some different equipment options - shooting at a distance with flash needs something like the "better beamer"  see: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...er_beamer.shtml

For diffuser, I prefer Gary Fong's lightshpere - but the size my put you off...
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[slrnovice]

Hi John,

Thanks for replying to my post.  I don't know why I didn't think of a remote firing device, I'm glad you mentioned it.  This has got to be the most flexible solution I think.  With a remote firing device I could fix up the flash close by or some distance away, even around the corner if need be - and you are right, its not too expensive either, not much more than the L bracket.  As to my technique, I guess 'opportunist amateur stalker aspiring to add planned undercover operations to my repertoire of skills' is the best description .  

I had a look at the brackets you mentioned so thanks for that but I think the remote is the best way forward.  I do know about the red eye elimination techniques offered by Photoshop but my aim is to prevent the problem so that I don't have to spend more time image editing than I have to.

On a slightly different subject, one other problem I've been facing is the noise of the camera putting off my subjects.  Hedgehogs jump a mile when they hear the shutter go and birds take flight.  I thought I might be able to get around this by using mirror lockup but it makes just as much noise.  How do wildlife photographers get around this problem?  

Thanks again for your help,

Hollie

The biggest question here is your technique for locating the mammals you want to photograph. Since most of them are fairly wary at night -- unless you're shooting, say, cattle   -- then you might want to set up a blind (or just sit behind a bush) and wait for the mammal to enter a particular area. If you do  that, then the answer is to set up your flash near the area, and fire it remotely from an off-angle. That also takes care of the problem of being too far away. Your flash accepts remote-firing equipment, and it's not too expensive. On the other hand, if you do somehow stalk your mammal at night, you can minimize redeye with a cheap cable from your flash shoe to your flash, and simply learn to hold it in one hand while shooting with the other. The L-bracket you're talking about has had its name pirated by specially made brackets that fit tightly on your camera, and allow the camera to be shifted quickly from horizonal to vertical. Most people now call the bracket you're talking about a "flash bracket." They were quite common with film cameras, but I haven't seen much talk about them since digital came in -- I don't know why, they'd still be useful, and they do eliminate or at least minimize red eye. You can actually buy brackets to hold two small flashes, one of each side of the camera, for hand-held macro work like stalking insects.

Also, you should know that most, even simple, photography software packages have red-eye elimination processes, that removes the red-eye in software.

You can see some brackets here:

 http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?ac.ui.pn=c...racket&x=18&y=9
JC
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[Tim Gray]

SLRnovice: although Canon claims 58m @ 105mm I have to confess I've never tried it (actually mine is a 550ex) at anywhere near that range. I have a better beamer but have only used it a couple of times - I don't go out of my way to do wildlife.  I recall that Michael had a short segment on the BB in his Costa Rica episode on his Video Journal.  Actually, at 300m you may not need it - it's basically for 300 and up.  

I used to use a Lumiquest Promax, but it was too fussy and the velcro kept coming unglued from the hood.  General concensus on some of the Miranda threads what that the LightShpere was preferred over the Omnibounce, except where size is an issue.