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Well I'm very new to the world of external flashes, been using one for about 15 minutes during my lunch break. I had the flash in TTL mode and the camera in the same and everything worked fine. So I thought I'd change the flash to full manual mode and see what it could do at full power. The resulting image was entirely white.

The things I were photographing were very close, but I'm wondering when do you use your flash at full power. And what settings do you use on your camera when you use your flash at this level?

Cheers,
Owen.

I use flash at full power sometimes when I'm using it remotely and firing into an Umbrella.
I then use manual settings on the camera, usually fastest sync speed and appropriate aperture.

HTH.

owen wrote:The things I were photographing were very close, but I'm wondering when do you use your flash at full power. And what settings do you use on your camera when you use your flash at this level?

All depends on distance from the flash to the subject. The intensity drops off inversly proportionally. ie, if you double the distance, the intensity drops 4 times as much. The the combo of aperature & sync also determine how much of that light hits the sensor. With 3 variables (all of which are unknown) there isn't an answer to your question.......

add a 4th variable, ISO.....

OK...when you attach the SB800 to a D70 then the shutter speed will be locked to 1/500 or lower. (Not sure if that's the case when the camera is in manual mode) If you are outdoors and its a sunny day....when you turn to manual settings maybe your shutter speed was 1/30th second and your fstop f4 which mean the camera is overexposing the outdoor light before you have even used the gun. When in manual mode use the lightmeter in the viewfinder to set correct exposure for the sunlight or ambient light first and then set the same f stop on your flash. Dial in -1 exposure compensation for flash fill when in manual mode.

Thanks for the reply guys. I'm looking forward to getting home and having a play with it to try and figure it out.

owen wrote:Thanks for the reply guys. I'm looking forward to getting home and having a play with it to try and figure it out.

Pls. don't stir Lisa up by pointing and trying to take her photos as testing

6am tomorrow morning...

"Rise and shine Honey!" *BLAST*

owen
So you guys haven't been married long?

Not too long, 3 years. 2 kids though... here's one of them (He likes the new magic light)

Great shot Owen.

Owen,
The cat is nicely capture!
Luckily for me no duck

I was thinking of you at lunchtime birdy. I could see the ducks from my window at work hehehe.

owen wrote:Well I'm very new to the world of external flashes, been using one for about 15 minutes during my lunch break. I had the flash in TTL mode and the camera in the same and everything worked fine. So I thought I'd change the flash to full manual mode and see what it could do at full power. The resulting image was entirely white.

The things I were photographing were very close, but I'm wondering when do you use your flash at full power. And what settings do you use on your camera when you use your flash at this level?

Cheers,
Owen.

Entirely white because there was way too much light and the image was massively overexposed.

Flash often works well if set to -1 / -2 stops less than the camera's exposure if it is not the primary source of light, or there is a fair bit of light, the sort of conditions you could get away with ISO800+ shooting and slow shutter speed.

Also consider bounce flash which is where you point the flash away from the subject and bounce the light off one or more walls or other reflective objects. This makes the light less harsh.

Try it too in broad daylight to reduce shadows and lighten areas that would otherwise be dark. This is known as fill-flash, and again the flash needs to be set a stop or so less than the camera otherwise it looks odd.

Owen, thanks for bring up this topic.

I have always had a hit and miss afair with the SB-800 and was gettering better fill results from the onboard.

But here is a shot from this morning playing around. I think it gets it just right . Not to sure..





I used the kit lense f8 1/500th manual , -1/3 flash sb-800 . Metered from the back ground at f8 to get the 1/500th. And a resize only..

Not sure if I'm on the right track and I hope I am not hijacking your post.

MATT

What's "just right" is entirely a personal opinion. But I'd say that photo looks pretty good to me. It would also have been interesting to see one with say 0.5 stop less flash.

rmp wrote:Flash often works well if set to -1 / -2 stops less than the camera's exposure if it is not the primary source of light, or there is a fair bit of light, the sort of conditions you could get away with ISO800+ shooting and slow shutter speed.

Here's a question for you... how do I set the flash at specific exposures? I've figured out how to set it at full power or fractions there of, but how do I know what exposure the flash is at?

Matt I think your shot is really quite good. Very even exposure and no hotspots, and even a little glint in the eyes. Did you mess with the contrast in post processing?

owen wrote:

rmp wrote:Flash often works well if set to -1 / -2 stops less than the camera's exposure if it is not the primary source of light, or there is a fair bit of light, the sort of conditions you could get away with ISO800+ shooting and slow shutter speed.

Here's a question for you... how do I set the flash at specific exposures? I've figured out how to set it at full power or fractions there of, but how do I know what exposure the flash is at?

Flash can be set in very similar ways to a camera's normal exposure, except the flash can also be set independently. That gives the photographer control over two sources of light, for best effect. Here are some examples:

- fully automatic; the camera guesses how much flash is required to light the scene

- exposure compensation; as above, but you dial in +/- stops, works just like normal exposure compensation. Handy for fill-flash.

- manual. You work out how much flash you want

There's also FEB, or Flash Exposure Bracketing and flash exposure lock which again work the same way as a normal exposure.

Second-curtain sync fires the flash at the *end* of the exposure, not the beginning. I use this with night vehicle shots of say 0.5 second+ because then you get a nice stream of light behind the vehicle.

Exactly how you'd set your flash I don't know, but that's some of what should be possible with it.

Thanks very much for your input. I'm doing my best to try and learn how to use it. My favourite thing is bounce-flash at the moment. I can't believe how much better it makes things look.

owen wrote:Thanks very much for your input. I'm doing my best to try and learn how to use it. My favourite thing is bounce-flash at the moment. I can't believe how much better it makes things look.

Try bounce-flash with a purple wall then

You can get all sorts of fancy reflectors. Or just large pieces of white cardboard.

I'm just making a white paper thingo to have on the speedlight and see what sort of catch lights I get... hehe this is fun! I'll have to try some reflectors though like you said.

owen wrote:Matt I think your shot is really quite good. Very even exposure and no hotspots, and even a little glint in the eyes. Did you mess with the contrast in post processing?

No nothing other than resize in PS..

I cant find the link I was reading earlier,It went like forget everything.

Set the D70 to 400iso, P mode , sb-800 in TTL -1/3 , point at 45 with just the white card pulled out not the defuser.Then meter for the back ground and squeeze..


I just started there.


MATT

Matt, why are you using ISO400 over the standard ISO200.

Barry