This is a macro of a Ricordia florida. It was taken with a camera shoe mounted flash. Being as I wanted to have the entire mushroom in focus and it was tilted on an angle, an f-stop of 11 was necessary. With the flash coming head on into the Ricordia, either the tips of the "bulbs" would be overexposed and washed out or the underside of the mushroom and lower portions of the “bulbs†would be underexposed resulting in loss of detail.
To solve this problem the flash was set to -2 2/3 EV. That allowed the surfaces closest to the lens and the flash head to be properly exposed with very little loss of detail in the lower portions. The look obtained was that of natural light fall off.
To me, a successful flash picture is one that doesn't look like a flash was used and the light fall off replicates what would be seen under normal daylight conditions.
To solve this problem the flash was set to -2 2/3 EV. That allowed the surfaces closest to the lens and the flash head to be properly exposed with very little loss of detail in the lower portions. The look obtained was that of natural light fall off.
To me, a successful flash picture is one that doesn't look like a flash was used and the light fall off replicates what would be seen under normal daylight conditions.
