George Ling wrote:
>
> With the OM system that I have - bellow, 50/3.5 macro and reverse
> adapter, I like to venture into macro-photography. My question is: what
> is the pro and con of a ring flash vs. a two flash setup (like two T32)?
Just my opinion but there are pros and cons for both.
I bought a T10 ring flash years ago and used it extensively at first. I then
used two
T32s mounted at 45degrees and now use a T20 and a T32. I am likely to change my
setup
again in the near future.
The T10 is great for delivering light right into the subject area;
photographing say
the workings of a watch would be ideally suited to T10 but less so to side
mounted
T32s. If you want to get light into nooks and crannies and avoid deep, harsh
shadows,
then the T10's the jobbie. I still use this when I'm underground looking for
hibernating bats. Invariably they're tucked into tiny cracks in the rock and I
need to
get light in to photograph them (also the T10 won't fry them alive). Another
plus with
the T10 is that its easy to port around and not heavy to use - well balanced.
Its
great for doing tiny insects too, especially where no background lighting is
required.
I then switched to two T32 on a special bracket which had flexible arms mounted
at 45
degrees, so I can bend the arms and point the T32s wherever I wanted them.
Occasionally too much power was delivered so I started using a T32 ND filter on
one of
them. This setup gives a better modelling effect, so you get depth and texture
in your
subject. Also I tend to have the main T32 pointing at the subject and the other
at the
background for balanced effect. Great for shooting butterflies etc. Against
this setup
is that fact that its damned heavy and cumbersome, especially when walking
around in
the field. I've snapped the shoe off two T32s while climbing over fences etc
with this
set up as the gear swings forward and whacks against a fence post or similar.
I recently acquired a T20 and now I use this and a T32 in the same set up. I
thought
this would give me better control over the background light as the T20 is
smaller. The
setup is also lighter. However, my 4Ti often quenches the juice once the
subject has
been exposed and depending on how far the background is, it can sometimes be a
little
under exposed. One disadvantage with this set up and the previous one is that I
have a
huge coil of TTL cables dangling from the flash bracket.
I am now thinking of replacing the T20 with a small manual flash so that it
will
always deliver its whack to the background regardless of the TTL operations.
Its also
one less cable as I'll use it with a slave.
In terms of light output, I think that the T32 is just right when using f/16 to
f/32
type apertures for small subjects. You definately need a lot of power to
illuminate
things properly.
I have also been reading John Shaw's book on close-up photography and admit I'm
intrigued by his methods. however, i get such consistently good results with OM
cameras and OTF TTL flash, I think I'll stick with my set up. This feature is
the one
thing that will keep me with Olympus indefinately.
Regards
John.
##################################################################
# This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List
# To receive the Olympus Digest send mail to: listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
# with subscribe olympus-digest in the message body.
#
# To unsubscribe from the current list send a message to
# listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with unsubscribe olympus in the message body.
#
# For questions email: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
##################################################################
|