Last week we looked at a single remote off camera flash. This was a step up for the single on camera flash but introduced issues of its own with contrast ratios and inflexibility regarding the pose of the bird. The next step was to introduce another flash to reduce contrast by filling the shadows. This was done with another Godox X1R N receiver attached to a Nikon SB800, again mounted to a Justin Clamp. The flash was manually set to 1/128 power giving a 2.5:1 ratio between main and fill lights (SB900 guide number is 48 and SB800 is 38)

As shown in the top image the main light lights the bird well and the fill light opens the shadows under the belly without obliterating them so retains the rounded contour of the bird. The day I did this was a brighter day with some sun which in the afternoon can peep though the leaves and dapple the perch creating high contrast ratios. The dual flash set-up showed another advantage in being able to deal with this situation as shown below. The bird is lit by directional sun and the flash adequately exposes the areas that are otherwise in deep shade.

The other issue addressed is the ability to photograph the same bird successfully in different poses. There are so many uncontrollable variables in bird photography it is nice to be able to control as much as possible in this type of set-up to maximise opportunities.

Bird photos with Nikon D850 and Nikon 500mm f4VR. Set-up photo with Fuji X100F