The Newbie Learned Something New About His SB-700 Flash.

[jwbryson1]

Yesterday I solved a dilemma I was having with my Nikon D90 and SB-700 and I thought I would share it here in case others have a similar issue and might be able to take away something from this post. Those of you who are "old school" and already know this stuff, please feel free to offer comments that you think are helpful. ("JW, you are an idiot"---eh, not so helpful. :mrgreen

My issue was that I could not figure out how to get my SB-700 to fire off camera in full manual ("M") mode. I was able to get it to work in i-TTL but manual eluded me. I read the flash manual but I did not find it helpful. Now that I have figured it out (thanks primarily to Dave "Mr. Speedlight" on Strobist.com (pause here for wild applause)), it makes perfect sense.

Anyhow, the manual adjustments to the SB-700 when the speedlight is off camera are not made on the flash itself--they are made in the body of the camera. Duh! Under custom setting "e2" if you go down to Commander Mode (at the bottom--you are probably currently in i-TTL mode), and then navigate to Group "A" (or whichever group the SB-700 is part of) and "button down" until "M" appears, you are now in manual mode. (Manual flash mode, that is.) You can continue to "button down" to i-TTL or A-B, etc., but in my case, I wanted manual flash. If you then go to the right one step under the "power" column, THIS is where you make changes to the power of the flash (e.g., 1/10, 1/6.4, 1/128, etc.). So if you shoot a photo on 1/16 and the shot is underexposed, you can adjust the flash power ON THE CAMERA ITSELF (not on the off-camera flash unit), and the wireless signal from the camera to the flash will make the flash respond accordingly.

Now, I know this is basic stuff to those on this board with a lot of flash and lighting experience, but it was not basic to me. Nonetheless, I am very happy to have picked this up because now I don't have to fuss with i-TTL and I can shoot manual and make all the custom changes I want.

I feel so liberated! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Derrel]

Good post. Good explanations. Good attitude.

 

[kundalini]

For clarification, you were trying to fire the off camera flash using Nikon's CLS system, yes?

 

[shootermcgavin]

Ok this is way off topic but I saw the dave at strobist.com thing and I was like why the heck does that sound familiar? That guy emailed me because of backlinks my people were posting on his site. He said something to the affect if it happens again I will make you the laughing stock of the photography world as if that would somehow affect my business I guess. He was such an A hole about I did the exact opposite and told my people they were doing a great job and that his blog was a great place to continue to post. I'm sorry he may be knowledgeable but the guys a tool, I've had other places email me and be polite and I immediately tell my SEO girls to stop using their site. Great example of you get more bees with honey. Even if I were a true professional photographer what I would lose in business from him I make up in advertising revenue from my site so his threat was as empty as it could be.

 

[jwbryson1]

Ok this is way off topic but I saw the dave at strobist.com thing and I was like why the heck does that sound familiar? That guy emailed me because of backlinks my people were posting on his site. He said something to the affect if it happens again I will make you the laughing stock of the photography world as if that would somehow affect my business I guess. He was such an A hole about I did the exact opposite and told my people they were doing a great job and that his blog was a great place to continue to post. I'm sorry he may be knowledgeable but the guys a tool, I've had other places email me and be polite and I immediately tell my SEO girls to stop using their site. Great example of you get more bees with honey. Even if I were a true professional photographer what I would lose in business from him I make up in advertising revenue from my site so his threat was as empty as it could be.

Good to know. He helped me with a simple question and was cool about it, but point noted.

 

[jwbryson1]

For clarification, you were trying to fire the off camera flash using Nikon's CLS system, yes?

That is correct. In hindsight, it seems so simple. But I tried to figure it out reading the manuals and they didn't get me where I needed to be, and the videos I found on Youtube and the Google articles I found got me close, but again not where I needed to be.

Now that I **think** I get it, I wanted to share some knowledge.