Speedlight question

[mullsey]

I read through a long heated debate on using a speedlight which lead to all types of funky debates about shutter speed, iso, ambient light, etc. It got me pretty confused and I had some questions. Since most of the players from that thread were worn out from the arguing, I thought I would take a shot here in getting some basic questions answered. Any help would be appreciated!

Should I start in TTL with my SB-600 so that I don't have to try to do things manually? I am looking for the simpler, quicker, easier approach to using flash for now.

I think I generally want as much ambient lighting as possible when using flash (at least for now). So when shooting (according to some of the linked articles in the thread) it sounds like I should be using a lowest possible f-stop number (wide aperture) and bump the ISO to a higher number? This will let in more ambient light quicker right?

What is the -/+ exposure button used for? Is it dealing with the Subject or simply overall exposure of the image? Is there a way to play with that to add more ambient light? If it were for the subject it would seem that you could make that - a few stops and get a lot more ambient light in. It probably doesn't work like that since that would be too easy.

Any help in clearing up some of my questions would be great. I think these might be questions that beginners who read this thread would certainly have. Thanks.

 

[Patrice]

If you are just starting with your sb600 might I suggest you start with TTL BL (balanced fill flash). Critically analyze your results and go from there.

Your camera has exposure comp (+/-), it will change ambient exposure.
Your flash has flash comp (+/-), it will change flash exposure.

 

[Big Mike]

I suggest using the flash in TTL, but putting the camera into manual mode.

The aperture, shutter speed & ISO change the ambient exposure, as usual. But the flash exposure is tied in with the aperture & ISO, so if you change those settings, the flash exposure should remain constant. To change the flash exposure, you use FEC.
The shutter speed changes the ambient exposure, but has no affect on the flash exposure, so you can use it to get the balance of flash & ambient that you want.