Flash recommendations for wildlife photography

[Ben6]

Hi everyone, I am a wildlife photographer who uses a Canon R6 MKII with a Sigma 60-600mm with a 2x teleconverter and was hoping for some recommendations for flashes. I ask as I don't know if any flash would necessarily "reach" over the length of my lens. I do use it for some macro shots and I'd like to start shooting wildlife at dusk,dawn and night. Any brands or products would be much appreciated, many thanks..

[deebatman316]

Most flashes cannot cover that focal length. The focal length is too large for an on camera flash to cover. An off camera flash and a wireless transmitter will be a better option. Most macro lenses end at 180mm. As the flash is only so powerful a large distances.

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

Many moons ago I read a Luminous Landscape article about the better beamer:

[atam1]

Based on my experience, I used a flash with zoom capability from 24mm-105mm; on-camera with a person as subject. it detected the focal length of the lens I was using automatically and successfully fired completely. the lens was set at 105mm and synced with the flash gun. that was the farthest reach, in terms of on-camera set-up that i have done. i also did the same thing, this time off-camera without modifier on a light stand as key light for my subject at a distance of 10-12 feet. for creative effect, that is, flash gun manually zoomed at 105mm produced a tight beam, fall-off effect like but contrasty and hard. again, no flash guns longer than 105mm. if you have a static wildlife subject that you want to capture with that focal length, you’re gonna need an off-camera light set-up. good luck!

[deebatman316]

The 600EX series and the EL-1 zoom all the way up to 200mm. But the lower end speedlites only zoom in to 105mm.

[atam1]

another option is for a continuos lighting set-up; a rechargeable flash light i.e. Maglite which can be tune to wide-narrow beam, a daylight bulb that you can definitely modify i.e. soft box, color filter, snoot, and grid to suit your taste. but everything needs to be done off-camera. 

[deebatman316]

Continuous lighting flickers a lot and the camera will show this. But it’s so quick that we don’t notice it at all. Some cameras have flicker detection and will delay or adjust the shutter speed automatically. To account for flicker detection.

[atam1]

continuos lighting flicker is barely noticeable in stills, more on video though. dialing up the ISO with hi-speed shooting in wildlife would help eliminate any flicker issue. 

[p4pictures]

For any flash system the key is the distance between the light, the aperture and the ISO value. 

Your Sigma 60-600mm lens varies the aperture between f/5 and f/6.3 as it zooms. When you add a 2x teleconverter you lose 2-stops of light, so the effective aperture of the lens + teleconverter is f/10 to f/12.6. 

The three most powerful models of Speedlite in the Canon system are the Speedlite 600EX, Speedlite EL-1 and Speedlite EL-5. All three have the same maximum power output, known as the guide number. For these three Speedlites the maximum guide number is 60m at ISO 100, when the flash head is zoomed to the 200mm setting. Wider settings of the zoom mean the light is spread over a wider angle and the guide number reduces, at 28mm the Speedlite EL-5 guide number is 28m at ISO 100.

If you divide the guide number by the aperture value you will get the maximum distance that the flash will correctly illuminate a subject. So for the Speedlite EL-5 zoomed to 200mm, and used with your Sigma + teleconverter you can get a maximum range of 6m at f/10 and 4.76m at f/12.6 at ISO 100. If you raise the ISO by 1-stop to ISO 200 the camera is more sensitive to light and this means that the effective power of the flash is increased, by a factor of the square root of 2, approximately 1.41x. Therefore the distance the flash can illuminate increases as the guide number is now effectively 85m, meaning you can illuminate a subject at 8.5m using f/10 and 6.7m using f/12.6. Increasing the ISO even further increases the working distance.

It is possible to use a an optical lens in front of the Speedlite - like the Better Beamer - to further narrow the angle of the light coming from the flash, and this means that the effective guide number increases by some factor similar to how it does when zooming the flash from 28mm to 200mm.

If you are photographing wildlife much further away, say 30m (100ft) you need to raise ISO significantly and or move the light source closer to the subject. It is the distance between the light and the subject that is important. In open space I have successfully managed to trigger a Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT using the RT system over 200m (600ft) distance, though it depends on the dryness of the ground and the height of the Speedlite and transmitter above the ground.

For huge distances you will need to use third party flashes and probably use focussing spot attachments to concentrate the light to a narrow beam. You can also group Speedlites together to increase the effective guide number, to gain 1-stop more you can add a second Speedlite in the same flash group. To increase another stop you need to add two more Speedlites. I have done this using 4x Speedlite 600EX-RT units when shooting motocross racing.

Note that when you say Canon Speedlites in to receiver mode for off-camera use, they automatically zoom to the 24mm setting, but you can and should zoom them in to 200mm to maximise the power output. 

[Anonymous]

I think you've first to establish if you think it's ethical to even use flash. Animals can be (very) disturbed by your actions. If you really want to use flash, check this:

10 key questions to ask before using additional lighting

1. What’s the species’ general temperament?

2. What’s the individual animal’s general temperament? A captive animal may be more used to ‘unusual’ external stimulus.

3. What’s the species’ normal sensitivity to light? Consider whether they are primarily nocturnal or diurnal.

4. What’s the species’ colour-spectrum perception and sensitivity? Diving animals may be more sensitive to blue light. 

5. Will the animal’s eyes be open or closed when you take the photograph?

6. How much additional light are you adding? A flash used during the middle of the day is probably less noticeable than at dusk or night-time, for example.

7. Will the light be harsh or soft light?

8. Will the light be directly illuminating the animal’s eyes? Consider whether it will be front-on, back or side lighting.

9. How many times and how long will you be using the additional lighting? Consider whether it be a quick, one-off, single attempt, or there will be multiple attempts over a prolonged period.

10. How significant are any potential negative consequences versus the real benefit in taking the image this way? A slight temporary stress impact might be justifiable if the image will be used for an effective conservation purpose.

Doug Gimesy is a conservation photographer based in Melbourne, Australia and a regular contributor to BBC Wildlife. You can read more about him at gimesy.com.

copy from this article: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/photography/impact-of-using-additional-lighting-when-photographing-...