Studio in the Garden

This praying mantis was hanging around the garden of my little bungalow in Bali. It was late evening so I decided to get out some flashes and get a few "portraits".

I had picked up a Nikon D300 a few months ago so I could start using the iTTL Creative Lighting System. (CLS). For the non-photo-geek, that means I can shoot with multiple wireless (infrared) Nikon flashes which I can control individually from the camera itself.

I've often used off camera flash but I have always used them manually, meaning that I physically set the power on each flash and make adjustments to eventually get it right. For each power adjustment, I had to walk over to the flash and make the change.

More shots and the lighting setup below.
With CLS I can change the settings on the flash with menus on my camera (D300) AND I can shoot using the cameras metering to control the flashes if I want to.

I considered just moving the mantis into my room where I could set up a few lights and control the scene. That wouldn't be very "Indian Jones" of me so I brought the lights to the mantis instead. I do try to live by certain standards.

The shot I had in my head was the green mantis lit nicely against a black background. Basically that meant 100% flash exposure on the bug and eliminating any ambient light with a fast shutter. And I was going to get dirty. (down in the dirt)

I placed a snooted Nikon SB800 on the left and a Nikon SB600 on the right with a small Lumedyne Softbox attached. I didn't have a "proper" snoot on hand so I cut the bottom out of a Pringles and placed it over the flash. A Pringles can fits perfectly over most Nikon speedlights which kept the light from spilling out all over the scene and they come in many flavors too!

I decide to let the camera decide how much flash was necessary by using the iTTL metering. (my first time) The flash on the left was set to group A and the flash on the right: group B.

After playing a bit with light angles and various perspectives, I found my shot. I assessed the exposure by reviewing the histogram and image on the camera's LCD. Based on that, I adjusted the output of the snooted flash to overexpose +1 stop and the softbox flash under -1 stop to keep it subtle, all controlled from the menus on the camera. I like this iTTL , infrared, CLS stuff.

Laying in the rocks after eating a whole can of Pringles is another story.

Gear: Nikon D300 / Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 lens / Nikon Sb800 and Sb600 speedlights / Pringles can ( I ate them all in about 3 minutes) / Lumiquest softbox

Exposure: ISO 200 / F8 - F11 / 1/250th

As always, click any image for the larger version. TR