First Attempts of getting flash Off-camera (with pics)

[Tbini87]

Hey guys,
my wife and I did a few shoots this last week and have been trying to get our SB-600 off-camera. We are total newbs to flash and are using the CLS optical system for now until we get some radio triggers. I am still confused on how to know what camera settings to use when using flash. We used M for both camera and flash I think. We were just metering to what the camera said was correct and then firing the flash. I don't know any tricks or anything on knowing what settings to use, and still don't full understand how shutter speed and things work. I have seen a lot of talk about flash recently and hope some of you guys can critique the pictures and offer better ways of utilizing off camera flash. Also any common tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

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This is practically the same shot, but one with and one without OCF. Does the flash enhance the image for you guys?

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These images haven't been edited yet but may have been cropped. Mostly just trying to see if we are using flash correctly... or find out what we can do better. Thanks.

 

[Tbini87]

The background seems super overexposed in the first few images since the sky is totally blown out. Is this something you just do trial and error with by checking the display in camera during the shoot, then adjusting the shutter speed or something to underexpose the sky a little? Most of the tips I have gotten so far have been to just practice and do trial and error, but that seems really vague to me and it seems like there would be some more standard rules to use when utilizing ocf.

 

[Robin Usagani]

If you dont want the background to be blown then point your camera to the background and meter that instead. Then look at the screen and adjust. The most noticible mistakes are the last two with WB issue.

Also based on the shadow it looks like you put the flash too low. You want the flash to be higher so it is almost like the sun.

 

[Tbini87]

Thanks Schwetty. So metering on the sky doesn't seem too complicated... I guess where I get intimidated is knowing where to place the flash along with what power setting it should be at. Trial and error just seems scary when working with clients if it takes us 10 tries to get it right... but maybe that is normal when we are just starting with flash. Putting flash higher makes a lot of sense also.
We just leave WB on auto and adjust in pp when it is wrong. Is this a terrible approach? There just seems to much to worry about already shooting in manual and adjusting iso and trying to use ocf. Thanks for the help.

 

[bigtwinky]

When shooting with flash, remember these two things:

Aperture will control the flash exposure
Shutter will control the ambient light exposure

So... you are shooting at ISO 100, 1/60, f/8 and 1/4 power on your flash and you are getting an exposure you are happy with. But the background is too bright. If you drop the shutter to 1/125 and keep all other settings the same, the exposure of the flashed subject will be the same but the background will be darker.

Shutter controls ambient light exposure.


You have to start somewhere for flash power. You either have a light meter and take a reading or two, or you take your best guess (which gets better with experience) and start somewhere and adjust.

If you shoot f/5.6, 1/125 and 1/4 power on the flash and everything is blown out, then you can slow the shutter, close the aperture and try again. Still blown out? Drop the flash power.

Tip: you dont aim at using full flash power. If you have to, go for it, but try not to as this will impact battery life (using speedlights) and recycle time.

 

[Tbini87]

When shooting with flash, remember these two things:

Aperture will control the flash exposure
Shutter will control the ambient light exposure

So... you are shooting at ISO 100, 1/60, f/8 and 1/4 power on your flash and you are getting an exposure you are happy with. But the background is too bright. If you drop the shutter to 1/125 and keep all other settings the same, the exposure of the flashed subject will be the same but the background will be darker.

Shutter controls ambient light exposure.

You have to start somewhere for flash power. You either have a light meter and take a reading or two, or you take your best guess (which gets better with experience) and start somewhere and adjust.

If you shoot f/5.6, 1/125 and 1/4 power on the flash and everything is blown out, then you can slow the shutter, close the aperture and try again. Still blown out? Drop the flash power.

Tip: you dont aim at using full flash power. If you have to, go for it, but try not to as this will impact battery life (using speedlights) and recycle time.

Thanks Twinky. We will have to chew on this and get to know these basics better. We actually weren't going for using full power... but are still newbs enough to not know how to control how much power the flash was emitting (haha but not very funny). I think it was just last week I learned how to get the camera and flash into commander and slave mode. Reading around here and learning from you guys has really helped quicken our understanding of using ocf.

 

[mrpink]

Watch this








p!nK

 

[Tbini87]

Watch this








p!nK

Awesome video thanks so much.

 

[Tbini87]

Do you guys generally shoot at the max shutter speed? In the video it sounds like he always shoots at his max sync speed, which I don't think we have been doing at all. We also don't have any gear to meter our flash... so is this where the trial and error comes in?

 

[Tbini87]

One other question I have is if an SB-600 with a diffuser is going to give quality light? We don't have a softbox or umbrella or anything like that. Does a diffuser (just the cheap $12 sto-fen that covers the head of the SB-600) do enough like an umbrella or softbox? It seems more convenient and efficient to only have the SB-600 powered by batteries... do you guys think this will become limiting in the near future for doing shoots like the one above?

 

[Showzo]

is one of those your wife? lol

 

[Robin Usagani]

Tbini, by adjusting the speed to max shutter speed you will:
1. Keep shake or motion blur to minimum
2. You now only have to mess with aperture and flash power

If you go to your custom function, there is a way to automatically set the shutter speed to at least no faster than 1/200 when you are on aperture priority with flash detected.

 

[Tbini87]

Tbini, by adjusting the speed to max shutter speed you will:
1. Keep shake or motion blur to minimum
2. You now only have to mess with aperture and flash power

If you go to your custom function, there is a way to automatically set the shutter speed to at least no faster than 1/200 when you are on aperture priority with flash detected.

For some reason ever since I started shooting people I have assumed that shooting at the smallest aperture would give the best results (bokeh and background). I was just thinking that I wouldn't really want to be shooting at f/16 or something for portraits, but maybe it isn't as bad as I think. We are only using a 50mm 1.8 right now and that might make a small difference as well (compared to a 70-200 or 85mm 1.8).

We will definitely start working with keeping the sync speed at 200 (I think that's the max for a D90 and SB-600). I noticed that when we were just using the popup flash it seemed like the max was 1/60. Is this just because the poopup flash is less powerful or something?

 

[Robin Usagani]

You got it right! Smallest aperture number means bigger aperture size. So if you keep your shutter speed to the max snyc shutter, then you would not need to open up the aperture as much (you may still able to blur the background). If you are shooting in a day light, more than likely there is sooo much light that you will need to be shooting the fastest snyc speed.

 

[KmH]

..keeping the sync speed at 200 (I think that's the max for a D90 and SB-600). I noticed that when we were just using the popup flash it seemed like the max was 1/60. Is this just because the poopup flash is less powerful or something?

No. Actually both of your statements are not true.

I recommend you read your camera and SB-600 users manuals, multiple times.

The D90 and SB-600 can sync to 1/4000, but you have to use Auto FP high-speed sync mode above 1/200, instead of the regular sync mode. See page 195 of the D90 Users Manual (e5: Auto FP) and page 48 of the SB-600 Users Manual (Auto FP high-speed sync mode).

The 1/60 shutter speed is just the default, See page 185 of your D90 Users Manual (e1: Flash shutter Speed)