Ducks at Sunset

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Nikon FM2n, 200mm f4 AI, Elite II 100, handheld.

Would it have been possible to use fill flash here without lighting up the water?? I guess I could have at least gotten a catchlight. Also, top band of lit up reeds...too distracting?

Happy holidays everyone!

-- Andrew Kim (andy_roo@mit.edu), December 19, 1998

Answers

I think you are right about both your questions. A catch light would have made a huge difference and the sunlit reeds are mutch to distracting. Other than that the composition is great!

-- Derek Ferrington (didj@worldnet.att.net), December 20, 1998.

At the angle you're shooting the flash won't affect the water at all. You're not seeing the water, after all, you're seeing the reflection of the sky and other parts of the environment (the ducks and the reed mounds they are standing on). The light from the flash will either be reflected off the surface or absorbed.

A rough water surface might reflect back some flash from your position, giving specular highlights, otherwise you'd have to be shooting almost vertically down at the surface to get a reflection of the light. Muddy water is a different story, there you would get some effect from the flash.

Note also that the reflection of the sky in the water is effectively a distant ambient light source, so you'd have the allow for that in your exposure, if you didn't want it to get too dark.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), December 20, 1998.


Thanks guys for the comments.

Frank, that's pretty clear, I'll try the fill flash next time. I would have tried it as an experiment but I didn't have a flash with me. The water was indeed a little murky, there were some storms recently and it is wetlands anyways, so maybe there would have been some flash effect.

Thanks again!

-- Andrew Y. Kim (andy_roo@mit.edu), December 20, 1998.


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