Photo Plus - UK (2020-09)

The Canon Magazine 69

EOS S.O.S

Grubs up

JEFF GUILE, NORTH WALES SAYS...

Lockdown meant the end of landscape

photography for a while. So, I decided to

photograph wildlife in my backyard by

training my lens on the bird feeder on the

shed. I spent a few days watching the

birds: seeing how they reacted, working

out the best angle to capture them as

they came to feed. I wanted to blur out the

pebble dashed wall behind. It was a

pleasant day in the deck chair, using the

remote shutter to capture my shots. I’m

pleased with my efforts and will look at

more wildlife photography after this.

BRIAN SAYS... What a great way to

keep enjoying your craft, I expect

several photographers have discovered

garden wildlife photography since

lockdown. I like the back lighting

through the birds wings and the out of

focus background. You even have a nice

catchlight in the bird’s eye. But I do

think that you may want to reduce the

brighter areas that draw the eye away

from the bird, namely the feeder and

the strip of sky at the top. If you

pre-focused on the feeder and waited

with your trigger, then the bird is a bit

behind the sharpest point of focus,

when it needs to be the sharpest

element in the shot. Choose a smaller

aperture, or focus slightly further back

in the scene to maximize depth of field.

BRIAN SAYS... When you’re

working with the camera close

to your subject, then a

hotshoe flash is not able to

light the subject in front of the

lens, as the lens blocks the

light from the flash. A flash

that fits around the lens gives

flat, even, illumination for

small subjects up close.

The Canon Macro Ring Lite

MR-14EX II has two

controllable flash tubes and

works automatically using

E-TTL, or manually.

Just like regular flash

shots, there are two kinds of

exposure happening at the

same time. The elements lit

by the flash and the elements

lit by the ambient light level.

You can control manually or

automatically. I set the

camera to Manual mode to

control the ambient light and

automatic E-TTL for the flash.

Before turning the flash on,

set the manual exposure to

give the background behind

your subject the exposure you

need. You can take a photo to

check it’s right. Then switch

on the flash in E-T TL.

For live subjects E-TTL

delivers ace results,

remember that flash duration

will freeze moving subjects at

or below your sync speed. Use

flash exposure comp if you

need to lighten or darken the

flash lit subject in frame. Many

macro shots are taken using

an aperture of around f/11 to

f/32 to maximize depth of

field, but this has the effect of

limiting the light entering the

lens. With the shutter speed

at the sync speed you may

need to increase the ISO.

I have a Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II for

my Canon 100mm Macro lens on my EOS

7D Mark II – how do I get more consistent

results photographing insects?

Luke Harrison, Kelso

RATE MY PHOTO

Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II fits on to a macro lens and works

with manual or automatic flash exposure to illuminate subjects

A ring flash mounted on the lens

provides even illumination of

macro subjects

Get

critiqued!

Email photos to

EOSSOS@

futurenet.com

with the subject

‘Rate My Photo’

Lens Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

Exposure 1/1600 sec f/5, ISO500