Flash techniques for photographing wildflowers

[Mike Lewis]

I enjoy photographing wildflowers and would enjoy it more if I could overcome this problem: the flowers wave in the slightest breeze, making it nearly impossible to stop down my lens for a proper depth of field and then get accurate exposure. It has crossed my mind that perhaps I should use a flash to illuminate the flowers, not as fill, but as primary illumination in order to "freeze" the moving plants with a fast shutter speed. My distances are close-up but not macro, say within five or six feet.

I know little about flash photography, having used a flash precisely once with my LF camera, and in a studio setting at that. All my lenses have PC connections so it should be doable. Is this a good idea? What flash should I use? Can anyone recommend techniques for LF photography outdoors with flash? I realize my background would appear darker on the film but that might look okay. Thanks.

[David A. Goldfarb]

With a leaf shutter, you can sync at any speed, so you can balance flash with daylight by using a slower speed for a brighter background or a faster speed for a darker background.

Have you tried using a device like the "plamp" (plant clamp) from Wimberley (tripodhead.com)?

[Steve Baggett]

I've been in exactly the same predicament. First, I bought some diffusion material (white, thin ripstock nylon used to make kites) and took 4 large dowels and sewed them into the material (about 3-ft in height.) I could roll this gizmo up into a compact "tube" to carry. I would wrap this around the flower by staking the dowels in the ground (I sharpened the ends of the dowels.) This worked OK in a light breeze. However, anything more than a very light breeze and the wind still caused the flowers to sway, no matter how close I wrapped the material around the subject. (Flowers are essentially a reverse "pendulum" and just love to sway back and forth with the slightest disturbance.) The wind seemed to move the material and that moved the air inside the "tent", etc. etc. OK, I went to Plan B. I bought two Vivitar 283's along with the "manual adjustment" thingys that replace the auto-exposure plugs in the front so that the power can be manually set from 1/64 to full. I mounted them on two mini-tripods (collapsible and cheap) and metered with my Sekonic 608. One flash had a peanut slave on it. This actually worked to a fair degree from 1/30 on up, depending on the amount of wind and the length of the flower stalk. (The longer the stalk the more it danced.) But I was carrying extra gear, also. To improve the background, I started carrying pieces of mat board about 2-ft x 2-ft and some "sticks" to secure them in the ground (using colors of light green, dark green, gray, and light blue.) This was somewhat better, but sometimes the mat board would be conspicuous and detract from the image. Then I started carrying the flashes *and* the diffuser "tent" and the mat boards, etc. This was OK if I was shooting a short distance from my vehicle but was a pain for longer treks. I also tried some mini soft boxes over the flashes, but they were no improvement. I even tried plan C. I bought some of that wonderful "semi-rigid" diffuser material (from Porters) and built a "fold-up" frame device that was about 3x3 (feet) and way too big to carry beyond 50 feet from my vehicle. It's now in the attic. Finally, I decided it was better just to get up *very* early and get the shot before any breeze could pick up, and I usually carry my flashes "just in case". I guess there is no good solution to this problem. If you think of something inventive, I sure would like to hear from you. Signed: Been there, done that.

[Brian Sims]

Mike, this isn't an answer...but your question reminded me of my only LF flash experience. My brother and I went to Smith Rock in Oregon during the visit of the last bright comet (Hale-Bop?). He was up on the ridge near the parking lot with the camera and I was down in the canyon with a huge battery pack and flash head. We were communicating via radio, and I was trying to "paint" the towering red rock with enough light so it would show up in the foreground with the comet above it. Afterwards, as I hiked out of the canyon, I encountered several groups of climbers. They were all discussing the "freak" lightening storm and wondering how it could happen without any clouds. I kept my flash unit in my backpack and agreed that it was the strangest thing....

[Alan Davenport]

I kept my flash unit in my backpack and agreed that it was the strangest thing....

ROFL!!! How did the picture come out?

[Dan Fromm]

Hmm. I do macro with flash, which is a somewhat different problem.

But at six feet with ISO 100 film -- what do you use? -- a pair of Vivitar 283s at full power just might do it. The 283's rated full output GN is 120, ISO 100, feet but according to my flash meter, true GN is 80-90. That is, at 10' from the flash and metering incident the meter recommends f/8 - f/9. It makes the same recommendation when the flash is fitted with a VP-1 set to half power. Oddly, at half power the flash recycles faster than at full.

Anyway, with a pair of 283s at 6', you'll be shooting around f/22. Fire one from the shutter, the other by slave. Mount 'em on tripods, on a bracket attached to the camera, ... FWIW, my macro flash rig attaches to my little Graphic's tripod socket, has its own tripod socket so the assembly can be mounted on a focusing rail on a tripod.

Good luck, have fun,

[Daniel Geiger]

I have done that with my Arca F-line and a Contax TLA 360 flash connected via PC cord. I meter with a Sekonik 558L and adjust for bellows extension the usual way. I just have one flash, so tape a single or two layers of lens cleaning paper over it as a makeshift diffuser and use a white card board to balance the directional light. I also use a long-lens leg clamp to reduce movement of the plant, being careful not to have the clamp intrude into the picture (stop down to really see what's going to be on film).

I don't like ring flashes, but that is rather a matter of taste. I've been toying with the idea of two flashes, but usually I hold my flash with my hand in a well-defined position, and press the shutter with the other hand. With two flashes I'd require an other hand, or some bracket contraption. As I do all this while hiking, weight eventually becomes a consideration, so I prefer the single flash option. Hoding cardboard while also pressing the shutter is enough of a challenge for me.

Hope that helps.

[Frank Petronio]

You'd probably find more info about flowers and flash from a hardcore nature-loving macro-using 35mm group, like the devotees of George Lepp or Thom Hogan. There are numerous ring and lens mounted rigs for 35mm SLRs, all of which would be perfectly fine to use with LF if you find an adapter cable to convert hot shoe flash connections to the PC socket on your lens (and investing hundreds of dollars into rigging a trunkload of Bogen and Really Right Stuff "magic arms" clamps, and brackets). Personally I dislike all those lighting approaches and would try to approach it as a still life product photo, with more directional and controlled lighting from professional strobes. However, it takes a lot of practice and experimentation to make artificial lighting appear natural, even though softboxes and diffusion takes the "edge" off, the last 5% it requires to get to perfection is really hard to achieve...

Vivitar 283 shoe mount flashes are inexpensive and there are numerous modifications and adapters available so you can mount them on light stands and use Chimera type softboxes. You might need two of them synced together to get f/16 at 5 feet. A 400 watt sec AC or battery powered monolite, like a Lumedyne system, would give you around f/16 or f/22 at 5 feet (@ISO 160). Professional AC strobes (some with more expensive battery options) offer modelling lights, which allow you to somewhat predict the lighting effects before testing with Polaroids or a digital camera.

Regardless, the best starting point and source of improvement to your photos might come from building a wind blind. Large sheets of foamcore or plywood held by clamps and light stands to shield the plants from the wind may ultimately give you the images you want without adding complexity to the lighting. The second best improvement may come from a white fill card, strategically placed to fill or boost. It is far more subtle than hanging a strobe over the subject but you can accomplish a lot with a lowly piece of foamcore board.

[Nick_3536]

Used Metz 45s are pretty cheap today. Stick the wide angle diffusor on it. Without the wide angle it's rated at 150 feet. If you're fairly close then you can't count on the flash sensor seeing the the same light the lens will. So that rules out using the auto mode. But the older CT-3s [I guess the CT-4s to] have quite a range of manual settings.I could check if anybody cares. The newer CL-3/CL-4 have less manual control. I guess they were mostly intended for TTL mode. If you want more power the Metz 60s are out there. More expensive. Heavier. Even more power is the Agfa 643 if you can find it. Not light either.

[Frank Petronio]

Of course you could do what they do at Martha Stewarts and the gardening catalogs. Harvest the plants and bring them into a proper studio!