One image 2 ways

Taken on a tripod with a cable remote release set to 10 second self timer.

This one, natural light, large pop up diffuser held over the light source (the sun!) to diffuse the light and give even non contrast lighting.

Bluebells by Gareth Williams, on Flickr

This one, camera now has a cabled off camera flash TTL lead with the Metz 44-AF1 on. Flash held aboe and just on front of flowers.

Bluebells by Gareth Williams, on Flickr

Nice shots, I prefer the first one, the stark difference between the 2 is interesting.

Regards

George

A very interesting comparison! It certainly throws into stark relief the effects of the different lighting involved. The contrast difference is quite extreme. I am sure that many will probably prefer the first, for its 'softness' and gentle tones ... I personally feel it needs a bit more bite to the contrast (which might be easily dealt with by processing).

The second has all the bite, and sharpness, that comes with the extreme contrast, although the black background is not so supportive really. On balance, I prefer the look of the flowers in the 2nd, and the quality of light thrown onto them.

Wow, cool example.

First one but agree that the difference between the two is quite interesting

Very nice...second one for me...love the deep contrast and black background.

Spot the difference
I like 2nd one best, but just wonder if the look could be achieved with a slightly more diffused light.
Maybe not.
Nice examples.

As above - interesting comparison. A blend of the two might be interesting to try! I prefer the first one overall, perhaps with a bit more 'bite'/ contrast.

Thanks all! The opening image was all about making it as soft and subtle as possible but the other was the opposite! To get the second image so different and full of contrast the flash obviously has fired to light it differently and illuminate the flower 'cones' but also the shutter speed has increased which is what controls the ambient light in the scene as the aperture just controls the flash power. I was shooting in Av and P-TTL for a change so the camera chose 1/180th where as the non flash was 1/30th from memory. To go somewhere in the middle of the two images I could of flicked over to full manual, leaving the flash in P-TTL and set a shutter and aperture somewhere in the middle of the 1/30th and 1/180th so a happy medium could of been found

Great info and explanation Gareth.

I think the idea of a layer blend of the two would be very interesting!