I was recently out with a group of photographers from a local camera club. The aim was to photograph some unusual plants – orchids, however they’d finished flowering weeks before. I chose an alternative plant and carried on shooting.
Step 1 – how does it look with ambient light only

Initial shot – no flash
Step 2 – add the flash

Setting the shutter speed to 1/200s eliminates the ambient light – this is almost totally flash lit

1/25s shutter speed lets the ambient and flash blend naturally
Step 3 – run out of hands
Since the berries were located on the side of a steep bank I had the camera on a tripod but no real place to put a light stand and have the light in the right place. I used myself as my own VAL (voice activated light stand). Then of course I couldn’t reach the camera shutter button either. Fortunately I just used the remote release feature that is possible with the Speedlite 600EX-RT. This ensures that the pictures are shake free – I didn’t touch the camera on the tripod – and the flash can be exactly where I want. Move the light too far away and the specular highlights will shrink in size as shown below.

Flash positioned further away reduces the size of the highlights on the berries
Memories! A fun lesson! Thanks!