Photo Story: A single sunflower and a bit of flash

I am so happy with this image that I had to share it and a few thoughts.  Your mileage may vary as to the attractiveness of the subject and lighting, and my chosen composition.  But what I like best is that half the light came from a flash and half from the morning sun, without looking like a flash was used. Whenever I can use a flash without the image looking like a flash image, I am happy.

The sunflower here (a cultivated hybrid Helianthus) is the only full size blossom (of three) in a single 8" plastic pot on the railing of our small wooden deck.  Laurie picked two of these pots up at the local grocery.  We were having company for lunch on Saturday and she thought (and I agree) it might brighten things up a bit.

Saturday morning while having my morning coffee on the deck, I noticed some nice morning light.  I positioned the flower so the light came in from the side.  For many people that would be enough, as the light coming across the flower created some nice texture.  But I tend to prefer my macro and closeup images to be a bit “flatter”.  That is, I like front-light as long as the light doesn’t look unnatural.  I want to avoid that “deer in the headlights” look created often with flash photography.  I realize that a flatter image has less contrast and creates more mid-tones and less dynamic range, and many people might not like that approach… But one of the nice things about being a hobbyist is that I really only need to please myself.

This image was taken hand-held. ISO was 200. I used aperture priority with EV compensation at minus 1 stop.  This increased the shutter speed from 1/80 to 1/160 thereby cutting the ambient light by half (i.e. one stop).  A flash was then used to “add back” that one stop of light.  

I do not recall what power on the flash was used.  I think the Olympus 36R flash was set up for TTL, but I don’t recall if I added or subtracted any flash exposure compensation.  With a non-moving subject it is easy to experiment. Manual flash is also very easy to use.  Just try, say, 1/16th power and adjust upward or downward from there until you get a good exposure.

"Hybrid Helianthus"

Panasonic GX85 and Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro lens

1/160, F3.5, ISO 200, -1EV, flash (Olympus 36R)

Processed with Lightroom