Self portrait with new flash

AdamZx3 · Jul 29, 2007

I was testing out my new SB-600 today and was trying out some of the stuff I was reading on the strobist blogspot (cross lighting). This was more of a test, I was hand holding the camera because the flash was on the tripod.

SB-600 camera left, sunlight at about 3pm to the camera right. Top photo was post processed a little, originals are below. I can share on how the post processing was done if anyones interested. (no lucis or unsharp mask!)

*edit, in safari 3 beta it shows up a little more saturated and quite a bit warmer, firefox is displaying correctly however.

Untouched originals

THORHAMMER · Jul 30, 2007

this reminds me of the fashion shoots where they use such powerful strobes that they shoot in the daytime and it looks like night...

awesome look !!!

Garbz · Jul 30, 2007

Very very nice. You seem to have understood the strobist guides well. It's amazing how many people own a flash and don't realise that they have more than 1 light with them at daytime.

LaFoto · Jul 30, 2007

Cool photos ... they make we wish I finally had a flash at all ... and I feel I will have to learn SO MUCH MORE then!!! Whoa! I have seen the manual that goes with that flash ... it is a TOME!

kundalini · Jul 30, 2007

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.

ShootHoops · Jul 30, 2007

Very nicely done.

AdamZx3 · Jul 30, 2007

Thanks Guys

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

kundalini said:
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 :lol:

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)

kundalini · Jul 30, 2007

Cheers for the info AdamZx3. It looks like I'm gonna have to give it a go tomorrow. Apparantly too many distractions tonight. Between all the Cuervos's and trying to get laid, I didn't fully engage the recharger (for the batteries only dammit!)....Ooops!