I feel you're making things hard for yourself if intending on shooting telephoto portraits at F2.8 and wider. Great for special effects, but needs patience and a very still model.

I think that for the real world then F5.6 through to F9.5 are more realistic settings to render a nice looking portrait with good depth. So I just wouldn't aim so much for a very wide aperture lens exclusively. The blurred background will come from the focal length plus background / subject separation anyway, even at smaller apertures.

Also, if you are needing very wide apertures in order to get enough light into the camera then you are pushing things in terms of steadiness and that can reduce clarity as well.

Just an update to this ..... I was reading an article at PentaxForums about the Godox V850 flash , and I was surprised to see the following information .....

"The second advantage of a lithium-ion battery concerns recharge times between pops. They are both very fast and very consistent even when the battery is running low. At full power, recharge time is about 1.5 second, which is very fast, even though not quite as fast as a regular flash boosted by a battery pack. At 1/2 power, recharge time drops to less than a half second. At 1/4, it is nearly instant, and actually becomes instant below that power.

Recharge times are so fast that, using a K-3, a photographer can use the burst mode at medium speed with the power at 1/4, and FULL speed is available at 1/8 power. That’s more than 8 pops per second, with the flash carrying on without missing a beat or a pop. If more power is needed, two flashes operating at 1/8 will give you a net power of 1/4 and still be cheaper than a more powerful system".

Clearly this conflicts with some things said here in this thread. I am not in a position to refute one way or the other, but I am assuming this reviewer performed this test with the Godox flash and K3 ...

Here is a link to the article page ..... link

As I said earlier in this thread, my own tests, with K7 and AF-540FGZII, gave a rate of around 2.5 FPS, which seemed in line with the expected recycling capabilities of the flash, using standard alkaline batteries.

ok, I'll take a look, thanks I am assuming that this sort of flash photography is best carried out safely in a bonded warehouse

I'm afraid none of it .... I am just not understanding what I'm seeing ....is it the nail varnish coming out slowly? It looks like the bottle is closed, but is it a little bit open? I'm thinking now that its actually all very slow, but the capture makes it look like a sudden splash of action.

A great effect! It was interesting to see the equipment set-up, but I couldn't relate it to the actual image at all ....not even sure If I get it after your explanation either I was surprised to see the flashes pointed bare straight at the glass ....I thought that might create all sorts of distracting glare or flare, but no, it looks very clear. Great work !

Hi David, I think I know the sort of thing you mean, having browsed around Amazon a fair bit ! I haven't used one with an on-camera flash, mainly because it's another thing to handle and fall off (!) , plus I figure that to make a real difference it would have to be too big to be practical .....but if it's effective as you say then it sounds like it's worth trying , thanks .

It's always good to have another item of gear to think about!

I've seen photos of them in flash books, but my own Rogue set doesn't have them, just the 3 tones of orange. I generally use the weak 1/4 CTO, and as mentioned earlier, outdoors I often go for the warmer look on the WB setting. But I'd love to try a bit of CTS! So I'll send you a message, thanks

A 1:1 macro lens PLUS tubes?? So you've got more than 1:1 magnification, perhaps quite a bit more!

There's good focus on the very centre of the flower, and the colour version has a gentle, pastel sort of hue. I struggle to see the point of mono flower photos, so the colour is my obvious choice ..... your mono one here lacks a range of tonal levels I feel , but we know that others will think differently

The water drop looks like some mysterious sci-fi moon base science station (there's some imagination for you!), but I guess that response points to the way that extreme macro can transport us into a different world.

The second one seems to have rather stray lighting, with little hotspots in odd places ....maybe it's the shape and depth of the subject that challenges there. I'm wondering if just a single big soft light source off in a typical portrait sort of position, say 45deg to one side, would do better with that one .....

Its good to see those tubes working and thanks for the peak into another little world

Thanks Papa and Maria ....

The colour correction type of gel is used for mixed lighting situations, where different light sources have different colour temperatures. The classis case is indoors with dim, very warm tungsten lighting (like our houses, or a pub, or even many event venues). If we want to allow some of that ambient light to register, then we need to set the 'Tungsten' white balance setting on the camera. This will 'correct' the warm lighting by adding plenty of blue into the image, making it look more natural, as our eyes do automatically.

However, if you then add flash light into that mix, there is a problem .... because flash light is coloured very similar to 'Daylight', with the Tungsten WB setting this will make the flash light look very blue .... so peoples faces will look bluish and strange. So the solution is to add a 'correction to the correction ' .... by placing an orange gel onto the flash head, the colour of the flash light is brought into line with the warm tungsten of the room lights .... and because this has already been corrected by the camera WB setting, so then the same setting deals with the flash light too, making both the room lights and the flash look natural

The gel for this situation is a 'Full CTO ('Colour Temperature Orange')' . There are different strengths available in packs of gels, usually a 1/2 CTO and 1/4 CTO. These are for times when the tungseten lighting is not that warm .... or as I find, they are very helpful as in my portraits here, where I like the warmth of the low sun to record .... so I will tweak my Daylight WB setting towards the warm position. In order to correct the colder flash light and balance the skins tones with this warmer background, then I use the 1/2 or 1/4 CTO gels on the flash.