Shooting a backyard birthday with a Nikon Z6 II & Godox flash
My wife had a big birthday recently, and decided to have a big birthday party. With caterers engaged and family stepping up, my contribution became being the photographer.
In such circumstances, a boy's mind naturally turns to gear. I toyed with the idea of doing the shoot with my Nikon D850. Those 46MP files are lush, but I knew that I'd be shooting under difficult conditions: from 4:00 in the afternoon of a Perth spring (contrasty highlights and shadows) - to the brief dusk, with low light - to an outdoor party at night, with almost no light. While the D850 would no-doubt cope, the better low light performance of the Nikon Z6 II's was clearly the way to go.
That said, the camera would need help with filling the afternoon shadows and the providing light in a nighttime backyard, so my Godox V1n speedlight with light modifier accessories was also required.
Finally, what lens? "Run and gun" photography pretty much dictates the flexibility of a zoom and although my Nikon 24 - 70mm f/4 isn't as fast as my 50mm f/1.8, I would have to stop down anyway, so the "kit" zoom was my choice.
So - how did it go?
Very well. I made about 150 images (fewer than I expected), all shot with flash. I needed to do almost nothing in Capture One to correct the images (apart from straightening my crappy framing). At the end of the night, I had used about 30% of the camera's battery, about 10% of the flash's battery and I had a total of one (1) case of red eye.
The camera worked beautifully. I set it to aperture priority, auto ISO and eye detect autofocus and with the exception of maybe half a dozen times when someone was standing in a black corner and the camera couldn't find their eyes, it worked well. Here's an example:
Ok, it's flash photography - at night - so it's not portrait photography, but it's pretty good. For the record, that was at ISO 560 using TTL flash. Also for the record, I used the Godox magnetic reflector card - which is why red eye wasn't an issue.
I continue to be impressed with Nikon mirrorless cameras (and especially, the new Z mount lenses) and Godox flash gear performs well above its pay grade.
Stay well - and good shooting.
Shane Baker
