New speedlight now what!

[Nikon newbie]

Ok! I bit the bullet and bought a speedlight 700! No bad comments on my choice please as it is done' I have a D3100 and just wondering what next! I've been researching and learning flash as since now my photography has been natural lighting . I was wondering about the wireless trigger? I've had this comment said to me " just place the flash on your camera. I don't like the results even when diffuser on it. Unable to bounce light most of times due to ceiling height in venues. Anyone know what's compatible? I def still have a lot to learn! Thanks!

 

[weepete]

I got the yonguno wireless triggers to go with my 7D and they work a treat. Needed an extra cable to connect the trigger to the shutter release. I really rate them as s budget option!

 

[Designer]

Here are some ideas on books about learning flash photography:

Amazon.com flash photography books Books

Practically any of these will teach you something useful.

 

[Big Mike]

Learning to use flash effectively, is not necessarily an easy or quick endeavour. There are a few concepts that should be understood, and it will still take a fair bit of practice to really get good.

Two main things that I consider when deciding to use a flash...quantity and quality of light.

If there isn't enough quantity of light, then the flash can be used to add light (usually allowing you to compensate with other exposure settings). The key to good flash photos in terms of quantity, is understanding that the flash exposure is a separate entity from the ambient exposure, and every flash photo will have both. Learn how to control either one independent of the other, and learn how to balance them to get the results that you want.

As for the quality of light, that is where bouncing or getting it off camera come in. The two characteristics that we often look for are direction and softness. Bouncing off of a wall is usually preferable to bouncing off of a ceiling, as side lighting is usually preferable to top-down lighting.

As for softness, simply bouncing the flash usually softens it quite well, but if you decide to use off camera flash, then you many want to consider a modifier to help soften it...an umbrella or softbox etc.

Of course, flash has it's limitations, so it really helps to understand them so that you can avoid or work around the issues.

 

[Nikon newbie]

I got the yonguno wireless triggers to go with my 7D and they work a treat. Needed an extra cable to connect the trigger to the shutter release. I really rate them as s budget option!

What's this extra cable ??

 

[Derrel]

Neil van Niekirk's Tangents blog site has amazing lessons on using flash. Tangents - photography by Neil van Niekerk

Flash CAN be bounced off of walls and ceilings,even in very large, high-ceilinged venues, but it is tricky, and demands HIGH ISO settings most of the time, like 1600 to 6,400 ISO, and zooming the flash head to long, telephoto beam spread angles AND precise aiming of the flash beam....that is a technique originally called "foofing", popularized by famous wedding shooter Denis Reggie. That method became popular only when Canon and Nikon had introduced capable high-ISO d-slrs back in the 2007 period. The thing is this: for foofing, the camera's ISO level absolutely MUST BE ELEVATED HIGH for this to work the way it is supposed to; Neil V gave a nice talk at B&H Photo some months back, and he confronted this issue of ISO bias among the majority of amateurs, people who have this outdated, irrational fear of moving the ISO off of base-level settings like 100, or 200. In large venues, successful flash often demands very high ISO levels when using speedlight levels of flash power.

When shooting bounce flash, I begin at 400,500,or 640 ISO, and move upwards from that starting point; my camera is ISO 100 base, but I never shoot bounce flash at 100 ISO; bounce flash has a loooong way to go many times, so elevating the ISO to at least 500 to start makes sense. This is a *****critical****** secret to being able to shoot effective speedlight bounce flash shots in large venues: start with the ISO set to a value that is at least two, or three full EV levels higher than the camera's base ISO value.

Second--get a Nikon SC-28 or SC-29 TTL remote cord for the flash, which allows you to shoot flash off a flash bracket, or with an assistant holding the flash, or with the flash held in your left hand and aimed high and angled down and across the face of people for group shots and grip-and-grin stuff. Moving the flash off the camera, but connected by the Nikon TTL remote cord changes the angle the light hits the subject from. Here's a close-up shot I did using SB-800 on SC-28 TTL cord, and just moving the flash around and actually SEEING the shadows as I fired with thew flash at low power. Once I found the position to hold the flash, I shot several frames of this, with the flash at about the 1:00, and LOW in relation to the plate. This shot would have been impossible with the flash in the hotshoe.

You do not "need" a remote trigger; cheap 10-,15-,and 20-foot cords can be bought at FlashZebra.com. Multiple Nikon SC-17 or SC-28 or SC-29 cords can be successfully daisy-chained together; I sometimes use an SC-28 and an SC-17 connected together and that gets me about 8 feet of off-camera distance with somebody aiming the flash for me, and stretching the pigtail cords out fairly tautly.

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok! I bit the bullet and bought a speedlight 700! No bad comments on my choice please as it is done' I have a D3100 and just wondering what next! I've been researching and learning flash as since now my photography has been natural lighting . I was wondering about the wireless trigger? I've had this comment said to me " just place the flash on your camera. I don't like the results even when diffuser on it. Unable to bounce light most of times due to ceiling height in venues. Anyone know what's compatible? I def still have a lot to learn! Thanks!

Greetings.

Some of the others have already mentioned wireless triggers, it might also be helpful to know that the SB700 has a built in bounce card, you can pull that out and it will allow you to bounce the flash even when your dealing with high ceilings.

 

[weepete]

I got the yonguno wireless triggers to go with my 7D and they work a treat. Needed an extra cable to connect the trigger to the shutter release. I really rate them as s budget option!

What's this extra cable ??

I think its called an N3 cable, and connects from the shutter release port to a jack that pluggs in to the remote trigger so it can fire your shutter.

 

[Big Mike]

Ok! I bit the bullet and bought a speedlight 700! No bad comments on my choice please as it is done' I have a D3100 and just wondering what next! I've been researching and learning flash as since now my photography has been natural lighting . I was wondering about the wireless trigger? I've had this comment said to me " just place the flash on your camera. I don't like the results even when diffuser on it. Unable to bounce light most of times due to ceiling height in venues. Anyone know what's compatible? I def still have a lot to learn! Thanks!

Greetings.

Some of the others have already mentioned wireless triggers, it might also be helpful to know that the SB700 has a built in bounce card, you can pull that out and it will allow you to bounce the flash even when your dealing with high ceilings.

The built in bounce card, a long with accessories like those plastic hats for flashes...are widely misunderstood and often used incorrectly.

For example, I see people on a regular basis, using them outdoors....which is, utterly useless. Using them in a large indoor location can also be a bad idea (unless you are using high ISO as Derrel mentioned above.

Pulling out the bounce card and tiling the flash forward a bit, really doesn't do much of anything to improve the light you get. The card is basically the same size as the flash lens, so you don't make the light any softer. And it's only an inch above the flash lens, so you don't improve the direction of the light compared to just using the flash straight forward. Light is not better simply because it's bounced.

What the bounce card actually does, is split the light. It allows most of the light to go straight out the flash lens, but it reflects some of the light forward. This means that you can create two directions of light on your subject....but only if the light going directly out the flash lens hits something and reflects back effectively.

If you are outdoors, then most of the light is just being sent into the sky...wasted. This means that the only flashed light you get on the subject, is the little bit that the bounce card put forward. This means that the flash has to use a much higher power setting to get enough light on the subject, which means longer recycle times and batteries that run dry sooner than they need to.

In a large indoor space, the light may still be wasted if the light doesn't bounce back from the ceiling.

If someone finds themselves shooting outdoors or in a room so big that bouncing off the ceiling is noneffective, then using the bounce card (or most flash accessories) would be pointless. Yet, I see people doing it all the time.

 

[Designer]

Anyone know what's compatible?

If the device in question claims to be "Nikon compatible", or "For Nikon" then it should be compatible with your camera.

I say "should" because I can't vouch for all brands of devices, so I usually depend on the reputation of the retailer to make sure they can back up the claim. I much prefer to purchase from a reputable retailer (Adorama, B&H, or Amazon (fulfilled by Amazon) so if something doesn't work, I know how to call them and get it straightened out.

Some members here have reported good results with the less expensive brands, but I was fortunate enough to find used Pocket Wizards at a reduced price.

 

[TCampbell]

So... depending on what you bought as a "diffuser" I can completely understand why you might hate it. There are so many gadgets that people refer to as "diffusers" which probably shouldn't be called diffusers.

To create "soft" light you need a light source that appears to originate from a broad source. If the light originates from a pin-point source then you get very strongly defined shadows (no gentle transition from light to shadow.) Imaging a table lamp... with and without the lamp-shade. While we might think the lamp-shade "softens" the light, it really works by "broadening" the light source.

To that end, those little caps that snap onto the front of a speedlight flash really aren't going to do much for you. You started with a fairly small light source (just a few square inches in size) and those small caps really don't make the light source significantly bigger. If the cap is a milky plastic material, it also eats some of your light (often about 1 stop worth).

If you were bouncing the flash off a white ceiling, then the "cap" means some light will be scattered forward (instead of up) and that means that at close range you might not have shadows in the eye-sockets created by the brow arch above the eyes... that's about it. You can use the bounce card (I've seen photographers use a rubber band to put a piece of white plastic (about the size of a 3x5" card) on the flash to do the same thing. It will scatter *some* light forward. It will also put a catch-light reflection in your subject's eyes.

Knowing that what I really want is a "broader" source of light, my search for light modifiers has always been with strong consideration toward just how "broad" can it get.

Lately I tested the Rogue Flashbender (the large size) and found that, of all the things I can attach to an on-camera flash, this one has been my favorite (I haven't tested every gadget in the industry... not by far... but this one seemed to get enough positive comments from respected photographers that I thought it was worth checking out... and a couple of them mentioned "you want the larger size -- not the small one."

I just shot a wedding in which the on-camera flash used the Rogue Flashbender and the off-camera flash was held by a side-lighter (a human assistant holding the flash -- mounted on a monopod). I put a Lastolite EzyBox "Speedlite" (24x24" size softbox) on the mono-pod and put that off-camera flash on that. So far that's been my favorite. I have the 30x30" version too... but I think the 24x24" is broad enough and it's much easier to move around through a wedding reception.

One note... the fabric of a softbox does eat a bit of light, so I set a flash ratio between on-camera and off-camera flash of 1:2 (off camera flash fires with twice the power of the on-camera flash).

I realize you asked about triggering an off-camera SB 700 flash... you can use the built-in pop-up flash on most Nikon cameras as a "commander" to trigger an off-camera flash like the SB 700 -- but keep in mind the flash is "optically" triggered (not radio). It must be able to "see" that on-camera flash fire.

I'm not a Nikon shooter, but for our "optical" triggering we get better reliability out of the off-camera flash if you angle the lower part of the flash unit to face the on-camera flash, and then swivel the head of the flash to put the light wherever you want it (e.g. presumable toward your subject.) This will even work outside in bright sun provided you make the pick-up face the on-camera flash.

If you want to hide the flash around a corner, behind an object, or inside a soft-box, etc. such that there's no direct line-of-sight to the camera flash and you're not in a small-enough confined area that the off-camera flash is likely to notice the reflections and fire -- then you'll want a radio trigger (and you need two components... one on-camera to transmit, the other is placed with the off-camera flash to receive.

There are MANY options for manual-only triggers, but if you want to use Nikon's iTTL system then you'll need a smarter trigger that can support iTTL (those will, of course, be more expensive.)

 

[Peeb]

Subscribed!

I'm often an idiot, but I am in PARTICULAR a flash idiot. Learning lots in this thread. Thanks to all!

 

[Derrel]

I don't own an SB700 flash. This thread has some interesting information about the SB700 when it is set to SU-4 mode, which is the optical slave triggering setting mode. SB700 has built in optical slave SU4 Mode Nikon Coolpix Talk Forum Digital Photography Review

Since the D3100 does not offer "commander" capability, the SU-4 optical slave triggering mode might come in handy for you at some time, using the D3100's built-in flash as the trigger, and the SB 700 flash acting as your remote flash.

 

[Designer]

The biggest "problem" (if it is a problem) is that the built-in flash contributes to the light in your scene. Yes, there are things you can do to minimize the effect, but just remember that using the BI flash as an optical trigger presents another "problem".

You can turn down the power of the BI flash, but again, the remote flash needs to receive the impulse, so making it too weak might mean unreliable flashing at the remote.

I've considered reflecting the BI flash with something like a white opaque card or mirror, but there will still be "light spill" that you might not want. Besides; if you've got that much time and patience to set up some kind of reflector, you probably also have enough time to figure out something else.

The "pro-sumer" level of Nikons do have "commander mode" in the built-in flash. This is the term used when referring to the Nikon CLS, which is proprietary to Nikon, and not every camera body has the capability to control several remote flash units. It is fascinating to read about it, but I have only the one flash myself, so have not gotten into it yet. Nikon makes another attachment called the SU-800 which controls the flashes without adding any white light coming from the camera position.

Nikon Creative Lighting System CLS Nikon Knowledgebase

 

[pijak]

Have you consider off camera flash? I have started my journey into digital six months ago (after 30 years of 35mn) Bought the D3200. There are some inexpensive wirless flash triggers out there.