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11/29/2011 09:17:54 PM · #1 |
Well folks, I am very excited... I can now provide light... when needed :-) my new SB-700 just came in today thanks to amazon, I have taken some practice snaps with it getting a feel for the modes and settings so far it is hand, fist, head, and arse better than the pop-up built in flash... I am able to take evenly lit photos in dark situations, at good ISO and shutter speed!!! Dream come true. I look forward to incorporating it into some challenges in the near future! It feels very solid, and seems to be very professional in quality any current/previous owners feel free to fire away with the tips/tricks :-)
Only sad face so far is I was hoping my D300s would remote fire the flash if it was off the camera (w/o having to slave) for some creative lighting and that doesn't seem to be the case, oh well :-) |
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11/29/2011 09:40:35 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by ShutterRev:
Only sad face so far is I was hoping my D300s would remote fire the flash if it was off the camera (w/o having to slave) for some creative lighting and that doesn't seem to be the case, oh well :-) |
It does. Put your 700 in the remote position. Put up your pop-up flash, go into your menus, go to flash, set it as commander. Once commander is selected, you will need to choose whether you want to manually select the flash power or leave it on TTL. There are some limitations so far as the flash seeing the pulses when you use the CLS system. If you find that it is not firing consistently due to how well it can see the commander pulses, put your flash in remote mode, but turn on SU-4 mode (SU-4 is a dumb slave mode, which is more sensitive but does not support TTL and will be triggered by any other flashes going off, so is not suitable for events with other photographers). Your camera flash will then be set to manual and whatever power you want to use. If you don't want it to effect your scene, set it to 1/128 and it will have little effect other than to fire the slave and maybe create a catchlight.
If you have any questions, shoot them my way. The interface on the SB700 is pretty close to the SB900's that I have, and the D300s is ostensibly the same interface as well.
ETA: When using CLS, also ensure that your groups and channels are set the same on the flash and the camera. You can do multiple groups at different powers but channels sorta dictate the "frequency" you communicate on, in case there's another CLS user around who is using the other. If you need more groups or channels, the SU800 can be bought, which also has stronger triggering. I THINK but can't recall that using an SB900 or 800 as commander on camera will also give you another group but I can't recall.
Hope you enjoy it!
Message edited by author 2011-11-29 21:45:25. |
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11/29/2011 10:05:22 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by spiritualspatula:
Originally posted by ShutterRev:
Only sad face so far is I was hoping my D300s would remote fire the flash if it was off the camera (w/o having to slave) for some creative lighting and that doesn't seem to be the case, oh well :-) |
It does. Put your 700 in the remote position. Put up your pop-up flash, go into your menus, go to flash, set it as commander. Once commander is selected, you will need to choose whether you want to manually select the flash power or leave it on TTL. There are some limitations so far as the flash seeing the pulses when you use the CLS system. If you find that it is not firing consistently due to how well it can see the commander pulses, put your flash in remote mode, but turn on SU-4 mode (SU-4 is a dumb slave mode, which is more sensitive but does not support TTL and will be triggered by any other flashes going off, so is not suitable for events with other photographers). Your camera flash will then be set to manual and whatever power you want to use. If you don't want it to effect your scene, set it to 1/128 and it will have little effect other than to fire the slave and maybe create a catchlight.
If you have any questions, shoot them my way. The interface on the SB700 is pretty close to the SB900's that I have, and the D300s is ostensibly the same interface as well.
ETA: When using CLS, also ensure that your groups and channels are set the same on the flash and the camera. You can do multiple groups at different powers but channels sorta dictate the "frequency" you communicate on, in case there's another CLS user around who is using the other. If you need more groups or channels, the SU800 can be bought, which also has stronger triggering. I THINK but can't recall that using an SB900 or 800 as commander on camera will also give you another group but I can't recall.
Hope you enjoy it! |
Very good details sharing, thx. I like to share my setting. In commander mode, I normally select the built-in flash by this ---, so the d300s will be able to shoot shutter speed above 1/320s in FP mode. This is a benefit I pay heavy price for it :) |
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12/08/2011 06:28:22 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by spiritualspatula:
Originally posted by ShutterRev:
Only sad face so far is I was hoping my D300s would remote fire the flash if it was off the camera (w/o having to slave) for some creative lighting and that doesn't seem to be the case, oh well :-) |
It does. Put your 700 in the remote position. Put up your pop-up flash, go into your menus, go to flash, set it as commander. Once commander is selected, you will need to choose whether you want to manually select the flash power or leave it on TTL. There are some limitations so far as the flash seeing the pulses when you use the CLS system. If you find that it is not firing consistently due to how well it can see the commander pulses, put your flash in remote mode, but turn on SU-4 mode (SU-4 is a dumb slave mode, which is more sensitive but does not support TTL and will be triggered by any other flashes going off, so is not suitable for events with other photographers). Your camera flash will then be set to manual and whatever power you want to use. If you don't want it to effect your scene, set it to 1/128 and it will have little effect other than to fire the slave and maybe create a catchlight.
If you have any questions, shoot them my way. The interface on the SB700 is pretty close to the SB900's that I have, and the D300s is ostensibly the same interface as well.
ETA: When using CLS, also ensure that your groups and channels are set the same on the flash and the camera. You can do multiple groups at different powers but channels sorta dictate the "frequency" you communicate on, in case there's another CLS user around who is using the other. If you need more groups or channels, the SU800 can be bought, which also has stronger triggering. I THINK but can't recall that using an SB900 or 800 as commander on camera will also give you another group but I can't recall.
Hope you enjoy it! |
Thanks for the great tips and advise, I will be trying this out tomorrow and this weekend looking forward to it! |
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12/08/2011 07:10:16 PM · #5 |
| Check out the hot shoe diaries by McNally. There is so much you can do with flashes |
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12/08/2011 08:36:27 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by MinsoPhoto:
Check out the hot shoe diaries by McNally. There is so much you can do with flashes |
Agreed. It has lots of good ideas and a general rundown of lighting schemes and Nikon tech (though it's also good from a pure theory standpoint). I've heard The Moment It Clicks by Mcnally is also good, but haven't picked it up. I'd also recommend, for theory, Zack Arias's One Light field guide.
I should've noted in my initial post that reading through Strobist
will help you a lot. Specifically, I recommend you check out Lighting 101, Bootcamp, Lighting 102, and Bootcamp 3 (if you ever get another light). Strobist's Layers DVDs are also very good, but they deal with more complexity than you're ready/equipped for currently, so that's a down the road thing.
Message edited by author 2011-12-08 20:36:35. |
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12/08/2011 09:40:54 PM · #7 |
| Much appreciated, I do love this site for all the helpful folks. I have already started testing it out. It's a lot of fun, getting some cool shadows and Ive never been able to be at ISO 200 inside at night without being either way too dark or a huge flash glare until now, kick the SB700 off to the side, or on the body and use the diffuser or angle it up and walla... So many ways to use. Christmas party back at home will be a great first real test :) I regret that I have waited this long, looking through my pictures there are many times having a "real" flash would have taken the photos up a notch... and down some noise :) Thanks again! |
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12/08/2011 10:35:05 PM · #8 |
No problem :)
Flash really is fun to mess with. Don't be intimidated, light is light. You can make lots of your own modifiers and mess around with a lot of stuff pretty easily. As I said, if you've any questions, don't hesitate to throw them up- you'll usually get lots of responses here. |
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