Quezon City Photo Club 10th Anniversary

The Quezon City Photo Club had a photoshoot at Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife last Sunday to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

I had just joined the club back in November or December of last year, and the event was a nice opportunity to hang out with fellow photographers and try out some equipment and techniques.

Granted, I also experiment during cosplay conventions, but there are a couple of notable differences.

• Unlike in cosplay photography where the average age is in the 20s ~ 30s, there's quite a bit more white hair among members of photo clubs.
• There doesn't seem to be a lighting arms race either where a forest of light stands sprouts at the venue. Only 1 guy was actually using a softbox for this particular event, and he was shooting with a Pentax too.
• Also, Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife is an outdoor location and quite possibly the most photographer-friendly location in Metro Manila, so I got a chance to try shooting in the rain. Admittedly, my attempts flopped since I wasn't prepared enough, but I did learn a few things from my mistakes.

equipment notes:

2 lights, Godox MF-R76C (trigger & on-camera fill), Godox TT350 + monopod (bare off-camera main light), Canon EOS R6 II, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 STM, circular polarizing filter

I got to test the Godox MF-R76C ring light that I had received the day before the shoot.

• I had considered getting this ring flash earlier, but it only supports lenses up to 77mm in filter diameter, and I had previously been using the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 which had an 82mm filter diameter.
• The MF-R76 ring light is primarily marketed for its uses in macro and dentistry, but I bought it to serve as an on-camera fill light in conjunction with an off-camera main light.
• Compared to using a normal speedlight (ex. Godox TT350), the ring light works better as an on-camera fill light since it's aligned with the axis of the lens and it won't cast a visible shadow itself.
• I normally use the flash + monopod technique with a Rogue Flashbender to soften the off-camera main light, but I couldn't afford the light loss this time since we were shooting outdoors.
• I find this combo of [bare off-camera main light together with an on-camera fill] interesting since it offers hard light while retaining details in the shadows.

• However, the ring flash protrudes a bit in front of the lens, and this results in heavy vignetting for anything wider than 40mm on my RF 28-70mm f/2.8 STM

Note the heavy vignetting at 28mm

• It's theoretically possible to avoid the vignetting by not attaching the filter adapter in the intended manner, but it's an inelegant solution with the ring flash rattling loosely around the lens barrel.

Standard connection with heavy vignetting

Vignetting workaround