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Carla by G16 and 270EX

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
A few years ago, Carla and I were in San Diego (she for the Red Hat Society international convention), and Will Thompson drove down to have lunch with us.

He showed off his new Canon Speedlite 270EX, a lovely small flash unit. We thought it was very nice.

Shortly after, we bought one, expecting to use it on our Canon EOS 40D when we wanted an eternal flash but not one so bulky as our Speedlite 580EX II.

When we recently bought our Canon PowerShot G16, we were glad that we would be able to use the 270EX on it for work that was beyond the capabilities of the rather nice onboard flash unit. Its size does not overpower the diminutive G16.

Of course, for impromptu portraits, I like to use bounce flash (assuming that the venue supports it), and the 270EX has a nice tilting head for that. On the other hand, I often want a little forward illumination (in particular because I am so often shooting Carla and her friends wearing wide-brimmed hats).

But the 270EX has no built-in "bounce card". So I made one out of white cover stock. It tucks nicely behind the elevated head.

I'll post pix of the setup shortly.​
Here is a grab shot I made to test it:

Carla_G00316-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Carla at World Headquarters

Canon PowerShot G16, Canon Speedlite 270EX in bounce mode,
equipped with a homemade bounce card.

Full frame, ex camera, downsized to 800 px wide, with some post-sizing sharpening.​

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
........When we recently bought our Canon PowerShot G16, we were glad that we would be able to use the 270EX on it for work that was beyond the capabilities of the rather nice onboard flash unit. Its size does not overpower the diminutive G16.

Of course, for impromptu portraits, I like to use bounce flash (assuming that the venue supports it), and the 270EX has a nice tilting head for that. On the other hand, I often want a little forward illumination (in particular because I am so often shooting Carla and her friends wearing wide-brimmed hats).

But the 270EX has no built-in "bounce card". So I made one out of white cover stock. It tucks nicely behind the elevated head.

I'll post pix of the setup shortly.​
Here is a grab shot I made to test it:


Carla_G00316-01-S800.jpg


Douglas A. Kerr: Carla at World Headquarters

Canon PowerShot G16, Canon Speedlite 270EX in bounce mode,
equipped with a homemade bounce card.

Full frame, ex camera, downsized to 800 px wide, with some post-sizing sharpening.

Doug,

The little flash unit works admirably. What are you doing about color balance? Do you take a reference shot? Anyway, if this is on AUTO the camera has done well for her! Of course, with Carla as the model, you're cheating as most any setup will look great! She's that impressive! Now here, the little Canon has some bokeh in the b.g. but it's minimal and that viewable detail is somewhat distracting. When you sharpen, do you do so on a layer or are you using Picture Perfect, or some program without layers?

I'd love to see some vignetting and deemphasis of the b.g. You're 20% there already with those black area in the lower corners. The upper b.g. is just too bright, colorful and well imaged! While Carla still wins out, the picture can be improved by simple edits.

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Doug,

The little flash unit works admirably. What are you doing about color balance?

AWB

Of course, with Carla as the model, you're cheating as most any setup will look great! She's that impressive! Now here, the little Canon has some bokeh in the b.g. but it's minimal and that viewable detail is somewhat distracting.

Yes, I just shot in P mode with flash, and the machine chose f/2.5 (but I think that was "wide open" at the focal length involved, 16.6 mm).

When you sharpen, do you do so on a layer or are you using Picture Perfect, or some program without layers?

Picture Perfect 10, no layers.

My downsampling procedure is:

• Apply Gaussian blur
• Downsample
• Apply USM

I'd love to see some vignetting and deemphasis of the b.g. You're 20% there already with those black area in the lower corners. The upper b.g. is just too bright, colorful and well imaged! While Carla still wins out, the picture can be improved by simple edits.

Sure. This was not intended to be a deliverable art work, but rather a demonstration of what the camera did. (This, as usual, is Kerr the camera engineer, not Kerr the photographer, at work.) Thus I did not crop it or anything else.

Thanks for your comments.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Regarding out-of-focus blur performance, at a focal length of 16.6 mm, assuming focus at a distance of 4 meters (on the actual subject) and considering a background object at a distance of 6 meters, for an aperture of f/2.5, the theoretical diameter of the circle of confusion* is about 1/1000 the frame diagonal dimension (9.3 mm). That is of course not much blurring at all.

* Note that I do not mean the circle of confusion diameter limit.​
We ordinarily consider a circle of confusion diameter of 1/1400 the frame diagonal to be "negligible" (under the classical model of certain viewing conditions).

Best regards,

Doug
 
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