New Flash

[D40]

Well, I just got my SB-600 today! I love it and know I have a lot to learn, but am looking forward to some better pictures Here is a shot of my D40 and SB-600 taken by my D40

Any advice is you have about useing an external flash will be appreciated!

 

[Big Mike]

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

If you can bounce the light off of a ceiling or wall, it will greatly soften the light.

 

[JenR]

Another suggestion would be to check out Strobist (www.strobist.blogspot.com).

 

[Big Mike]

Good point, if you really want to take your flash photography to the next level...getting the flash off of the camera is the way to go.

 

[D40]

Thanks, When useing the flash off camera do I need some kind of cord or adapter?

 

[Big Mike]

There are different ways to go about it. Look around or search the forums, there are a few recent threads about off camera flash.

 

[kundalini]

Congratulations on the flash. Like Big Mike said, go off camera. You can do a search for "sb-600" to find threads. I haven't figured out how to link another thread in a response, but with cut 'n paste, here's something for you. It helped me.

Thanks Guys more to come soon...I convinced my sis to be the guinea pig lol

Quote:
Originally Posted by kundalini
Good work AdamZx3 ... The man in the little brown shorts brought my SB-600 just an hour or so ago. The main reason I got the 600 (after reading some of the debates here and elswhere) was the cost and the fact I could do off camera flash right out of the box. Later I hope to get the 800 as a master. Got off several "test" shots on camera before I had to recharge the batteries, but got to the flash menu to set for wireless.

I have a D80, got to the commander mode and now I'm stumped. The choices for built-in, grp A, grp B are <TTL> <M> and <--> and then there's the column for Comp. as well as Channel <1-4>.

Where to now St. Peter? I want to have the built-in to not fire and just have the 600 fire off camera. Any suggestions on the settings? I quickly browsed strobist.blog.com and it seemed these guys were much more advanced or was querying situations more than I was able to understand.

Well I had a bit of trouble as well

First you need the camera setup, your close.
once the built in flash is set to commander mode,

Set the built in flash to -- (unless you want it to light up the subject...it will still flash on --)

Then scroll right to go down and change group one to M if you want manual and then you can adjust the flash power on camera. If you want to take advantage of the camera's automatic settings set it to "TTL" that will work a lot of times, however sometimes manual mode works better.

Set the channel to "3" I believe thats the default.

Now for the flash unit...
Turn on and hold Zoom and "-" for 2 sec. the squiqqley arrow is the wireless feature used for off camera, hit zoom or mode to toggle it to "On"
This is the area to setup custom stuff like beeping, backlight, and when ttl is active you get a couple more, the instructions can explain that better than me. Now hold zoom and - again to go back to the main menu, Make sure that it says group A and CH 3, if not hit mode and use + and - to toggle channels. The zoom feature make the flash shoot at a wide angle (24mm) or at a more narrow beam (85mm). Now pop up your on camera flash and shoot away "dont look into the sb600....bad

That should get ya up and running. Just remember that the commander mode is line of sight only (I always thought it was radio) so your on camera flash has to send the IR signal to the flash. If you look on strobist they show a video review of the ebay radio flashes, pretty good value, or pocket wizzards if you can afford them. Commander mode (CCL I think) is a little limiting but for free I cant complain.

This strobist article explains more on cross lighting:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/07/simple-light.html

Also check out the bikini shoot video...he uses this technique with 2 speed lights (instead of sun and one light)
__________________
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adambrod/
Nikon D80
18-135mm
70-300vr
50mm 1.8