Flash and pets
A few days ago I grabbed the camera and put the flash on it and went outside to try and get a picture of my cat. The cat was on the roof looking over the edge at me and it would have made a pretty good photo.
As usual, by the time I got back outside the cat was nowhere to be seen.
Well, no problem because my 7 month old puppy follwed me outside and I tried to get a few shots. I took a couple which were pretty good except that the Eyes were big yellow glowing Blobs! If you have ever tried to take a flash shot of your dog you will know exactly what I mean
Yes, the red-eye is not just a problem when taking photos of people, it is even worse when taking pictures of your pets.
So, not to be dissuaded, and as I was under the carport which has a nice 10foot high white ceiling, I simply aimed my flash at 45deg up into the ceiling. It proved mostly effective. Yes, I managed to get a few photos without the red eye (or dog yellow eye) that were acceptable, I was unable to get a shot exactly as I wanted.
Because the Dog is Mostly white with some black and brown, all the dark areas were a bit under-exposed and a bit noisy. I will try again in better light to get a decent picture. Anyway, this is the best shot from the few I took the other day.
For the technically inclined, it was taken with my 50-200 Zoom lens @ 92mm (184mm 35mm film equiv) 1/160sec, ISO 400, flash bounced off the roof. It is not a great shot with that wow factor, but it does capture her personality somewhat.
I am pretty fortunate in that in one of the forums I frequent one of the other members took the time to write up a great guide in how to get the most out of your Camera and Flash. It was written specifically for Olympus DSLR and Olympus compatible Flashes and every time I use on-camera flash I refer to the notes. They have never let me down yet, nor have they let down anyone who uses the info.
