how to catch a bat

iwols

iwols

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Hi all just wondering if this sounds possible'where I walk my dog at night for a couple of minutes at night there is a bat flying about'usually just flying above my head 'i was going to put my 35,Mm lens on with external flash focus to about 3 metres on f5 and shutter speed of 1000 and just point my camera up and shoot does this sound feasable that I might catch something thanks
 
Well I don't think you can have the pop up flash and 1/1000 shutter speed, max is about 1/250 with pop up flash, unless you have high speed sync flash gun, but if bat is close enough you might catch it at 1/250 anyway as the flash will freeze it even at 1/250 I should imagine(could be wrong)
 
Even thiugh the shutter speed needs to approx 1/250 sec, the flash duration will be much less, proably 1/1000 at most. This should freeze any motion.
 
Pre focus, smallish aperture (f/8 should give enough DoF to play with but still leave enough light gathering ability) and manual flash level (do some test shots on a dark haired model at a suitable distance to simulate a bat - iTTL or similar will try to illuminate the whole scene and a bat will only cover a tiny portion of the frame). Shoot lots and hope!

Good luck!
 
Not sure about Nikon's flash system, but with Canon firing a flash at a dark and insignificant subject with a background of nothingness is likely to fire the flash at maximum and give you a white (or grey) blob against the darkness. At least I've only tried it once and that was the result for me.

As well as setting exposure controls and focus manually I think you will also need to set the flash manually as well, varying power and aperture to suit your pre-selected shooting distance. If you want to fire a burst then obviously you can't expect the flash to fire out multiple full power pops in quick succession, so factor that into your deliberations.

Your flash may well support support FP Sync, but I think as other have said that you'd be best served by shooting within the flash sync speed and letting the flash duration freeze your subject.

I just tried an experiment with my 580EX set to 1/8 power at 35mm coverage and that required 1/250, f/5.6, 200 ISO for a 3m range to give me four well exposed shots in quick succession. I then had five black frames before the flash recovered for the tenth and final frame in the burst.

I'm sure it's possible. It just needs a bit of maths on the camera/flash settings.
 
Just wait till they stop for a rest! :D


1i0a.jpg
 
Just had a quick experiment in the back garden (no bats) but trying to go for the pitch black background and a subject at ~3m. This was with a 50mm lens on full frame (so pretty close to 35mm on a crop body) at 1/250, f/5.6, 200 ISO and my 580EX II flash on camera and manually set to 1/8 power.

20130821_232032_3681_LR.jpg


Looks about right to me. Now all I need is a bat.
 
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