Macro Ring Flash advice

[lfc1892]

Hello folks. Now that spring seems to be here, I will be getting the macro lens back out and venturing in to the garden with a ring flash. It's a budget one that does allow TTL metering.

The problem I have is that I would like to use the flash to allow fast shutter speed and small aperture to freeze movement and allow greater DOF. But, I would also like to have an attractive background to insect shots. In most cases the background will not be at the same working distance as the object of attention. So, if I use sunlight, both object and background are nicely illuminated, but then I get shadows from the strong direct sunlight.
If I use the ring flash to fill in shadows, it will do so but then surely the background will be dark and under exposed, or possibly won't fire at all if there is enough light on it anyway.
Finally, I could use some fill in flash by working out manually how much flash to use, but then surely again, the object would be well exposed but the background dark again..

Any idea how to get both well exposed with a short shutter time and small aperture, please?

 

[Mike Jackson]

I would say your only hope is to look at using off camera flash. One flash, possibly your ring flash, lighting the insect and another lighting the background.

 

[awp]

It's a question of balance - the shutter speed controls the amount of ambient light - and the aperture the flash exposure. It can be done - and with a ring flash too. Often you want the background to be a little darker to add emphasis to your main subject.

Here's an example of daylight balanced with ring flash.

 

[lfc1892]

That's nice. Would you have used TTL metering for that or just manual settings and experimentation? Or do you calculate using GN values etc.

 

[awp]

TTL

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