Dan,
I think the Pentax (for example) ring flash has two tubes, and one can
choose to fire one or both in each blink. When using both tubes, one
ends up without shadows. That usually looks quite unnatural. When
using one tube, the shadows will suffer from the small size of the
tube. It produces quite hard shadows compared to a large-headed
conventional flash fired from the same distance.
Cotty mentioned that ring flashes are too weak to illuminate the
background. In my opinion that's only half the truth, because
conventional flashes directed towards the foreground will tend to do
exactly the same thing, only that it spreads the light much broader
than a ring flash. The chance of illuminating some near background is
larger.
Besides, I don't have a ring flash, and fear the enablement powers of
this forum...:-)
Cheers,
Jostein
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel J. Matyola" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net>
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: PESO - Herding Livestock
What is wrong with ring flash for this type of shot?
Jostein wrote:
http://www.oksne.net/paw/herdingants.html
Those little critters are hard to keep in focus when working hand
held. It's pretty much hit and miss, and this is the best I've
managed so far.
One particular problem with ants is that their hide is hard and
shiny. With a bare flash, the highlights become specular and burned
out. Using a miniature softbox lessen the problem, but it's not all
gone. Does anyone know a good way to handle this without resorting
to ring flashes?
Jostein
