Yackers' Photography Tips and Tricks: Using a speed light for dragonfly photography

Photographing dragonflies is something I have always enjoyed doing, however up until recently I never used a speed light, and I really don’t know why. There are many times a burst of artificial light improves the photo, I knew that, but I never applied it to dragonfly photography. Well not until recently.

Arguably, you can use any speed light or external flash for dragonfly photography however the big speed lights are heavy and can be unwieldy when used in the camera’s hot shoe, and on camera flash is the only thing you can do when taking photos of dragonflies – off camera flash is not an option if you want to take photos of dragonflies. So, what are the alternatives to the big speed lights?

Fortunately, there is a new breed of speed lights that are small, powerful (less powerful than the large speed lights but plenty powerful enough to take photos of dragonflies) and have all the bells and whistles the top end speed lights have, including manual mode, TTL mode, high speed sync, first curtain sync, and stroboscopic mode etc. These speed lights are lightweight, feel balanced on the camera and are nice to use. If you want to improve you dragonfly photos I strongly suggest using one of these speed lights.

There are a few models of these small speed lights around however the ones that consistently get rave reviews and write ups include:-

Nissin i40 (Full review here)

Guide number (35mm @ ISO 100) – 27m / Focal length coverage – 24mm – 105mm / Recycling time – 0.1 – 4 secs/ ETTL - Yes / EV compensation on flash - +/- 2EV / Slave - Yes / Vertical tilt – 0 – 90 degrees/ Horizontal tilt – 0 – 180 degrees/ Dimensions – 100mm x 50mm x 50mm/ Approx price $USD/£GBP - $230/£155/ Power – 4xAA batteries

Metz 26 (Full review here)

Guide number (35mm @ ISO 100) – 26m/ Focal length coverage – 24mm – 85mm/ Recycling time – 0.3 – 8 secs/ ETTL - Yes/ EV compensation on flash - +/- 3EV/ Slave - Yes/ Vertical tilt – 0 – 890 degrees/ Horizontal tilt - None/ Dimensions – 63mm x 85mm x 85mm/ Approx price $USD/£GBP - $140/£75/ Power – 2xAAA batteries

Canon 270 EX (Full review here)

Guide number (35mm @ ISO 100) – 27m/ Focal length coverage – 28mm – 50mm/ Recycling time – 0.1 – 4 secs/ eEtl - Yes/ EV compensation on flash - No/ Slave - Yes/ Vertical tilt – 0 – 90 degrees/ Horizontal tilt - no/ Dimensions – 77mm x 66mm x 65mm/ Approx price $USD/£GBP - $170/£180/ Power – 2xAA batteries

Godox TT350 (Full review here)

Guide number (35mm @ ISO 100) – 36m/ Focal length coverage – 24mm – 105mm/ Recycling time – 0.1 – 2.2 secs/ Ettl - Yes/ EV compensation on flash - +/- 3ev/ Slave - Yes/ Vertical tilt – 0 – 90 degrees/ Horizontal tilt – 0 – 90 degrees/ Dimensions – 140mm x 62mm x 38mm/ Approx price $USD/£GBP - $85/£70/ Power – 2xAA batteries

Having tried all the above the small speed light I settled on was the Godox TT350. This may or may not be the best small speed light for you, but only you can answer this. One thing I will say is that all of the above are great speed lights and all of them are ideal for dragonfly photography.

Take a look at this quick tour around the Godox TT350, courtesy of Youtube;