Need advice Nikon SB600

[Mdel]

Hi Everyone,
Pretty new to the forums, I hope I'm posting in the correct place.
I'm doing a photo session at someone's home this evening, indoors. My experience is mostly outdoor work, natural light. I'm using my Nikon D5000 and have just rec'd my new purchase of the SB-600 speedlight. I've been trying it out and have been through the manual, but I'm not having much luck. I thought it'd be easier to figure out. I definately intend to bounce the light off the ceiling. Got alot of blur when practicing. Also, something as simple as WB, when indoors but using flash, which WB would be best.. Tungsten or flash? Can someone give me any direction, it would be so much appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Maureen

[angevin1]

Hi Everyone,
Pretty new to the forums, I hope I'm posting in the correct place.
I'm doing a photo session at someone's home this evening, indoors. My experience is mostly outdoor work, natural light. I'm using my Nikon D5000 and have just rec'd my new purchase of the SB-600 speedlight. I've been trying it out and have been through the manual, but I'm not having much luck. I thought it'd be easier to figure out. I definately intend to bounce the light off the ceiling. Got alot of blur when practicing. Also, something as simple as WB, when indoors but using flash, which WB would be best.. Tungsten or flash? Can someone give me any direction, it would be so much appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Maureen


There are myriad ways to shoot and Balance WB. You didn't leave yourself much room for practice, so I hope you have time to practice today!

1. WB, I'd Choose AWB, Auto-White-Balance for my Nikon's. And make certain to shoot in Raw so you can adjust that later. When using ambient light AND flash, it can get a bit more difficult to Choose your Wb and to Balance it too. Tungsten is cooler than flash and can show up s an unwelcome yellowish-ness in your photos. You solve that by using a gel over the flash to balance with Tungsten.
Bottom line, try and use more flash than tungsten. Or use flash and natural light (from outside) together. They match better.

2. SB600. You don't say whether you're wanting to commander-it and use it off-cam or on-cam. Using it on cam, tonight you'd do better using iTTL and letting the camera/flash decide for you!

Mount the flash, go into menu's ensure it is on iTTL, And shoot. Flash should come ready to mount and shoot from it's settings.

The manual takes some getting used to!

Questions?

[angevin1]

You'd also probably do well to use a pre-programmed mode tonight until you get into it more! Like the little green setting for "auto".

Shutter speed may be why your experiencing blur. Shutter is going to need to be upwards in the 100-125th second range..higher is better for controlling blur.

[captain78]

2. SB600. You don't say whether you're wanting to commander-it and use it off-cam or on-cam. Using it on cam, tonight you'd do better using iTTL and letting the camera/flash decide for you!

Mount the flash, go into menu's ensure it is on iTTL, And shoot. Flash should come ready to mount and shoot from it's settings.

The manual takes some getting used to!

Questions?

Does the D5000 have commander mode?

[Mdel]

Thank you for the guidance. I'm intending to use on camera and... I shoot in JPEG, no experience in RAW either yet.. :(

I know, I didn't leave myself much time, unfortunately. Someone is in a jam and asked for quick help. Not sure the D5000 has a commander mode.. (I apologize for allllll my ignorance here, i'm learning!)

As previously mentioned, I'm not getting alout of the manual for the SB600, when i go into MODE, only options I have as options is "M" and "TTL".

[Mitchell]

TTL is your friend. Set your camera to aperture priority at f8, ISO 400 and let the SB600 on TTL decide how much power you need. If the ceilings are white, I'd angle the flash head up 45 degrees.

[Mdel]

Thanks so much for all the input! SO MUCH APPRECIATED!!!
Maureen

[Z6I]

Next I would buy Joe McNally's "Hot Shoe Diaries" or something similar. MUCH more informative on how to use the flash than the manual and is essentially a human guide to Nikon flash.
I was reading it with one hand and the camera in the other while laughing and running ideas through my head constantly.
Manual=dry

[angevin1]

Thank you for the guidance. I'm intending to use on camera and... I shoot in JPEG, no experience in RAW either yet.. :(

I know, I didn't leave myself much time, unfortunately. Someone is in a jam and asked for quick help. Not sure the D5000 has a commander mode.. (I apologize for allllll my ignorance here, i'm learning!)

As previously mentioned, I'm not getting alout of the manual for the SB600, when i go into MODE, only options I have as options is "M" and "TTL".


At least choose RAW and JPEG....You can thank me later!

[angevin1]

TTL is your friend. Set your camera to aperture priority at f8, ISO 400 and let the SB600 on TTL decide how much power you need. If the ceilings are white, I'd angle the flash head up 45 degrees.


Straight-up suggestion, just don't let that Shutter speed get too low!

[RcCola]

Amen...f8 and be there.

[time2smile]

Welcome, and i hope all went well....

Use AWB to start

i dont believe you have the CLS (commander) in that model

When you press mode you select between three settings, ttl bl, ttl, m
consider bl (balanced light) as back light, use it if you have a strong light sourse behind or on the side of your subject.

Make sure your have the flash camera setup on normal, no redeye, rear curtain. rear curtain or slow sync will give you that blur because it meters as if the flash was not installed.

read this when you can
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/

also note that someone on the fleemarket (Nikon) is selling SC-17 cords, they work well to move the flash off camera, and if you deside to use a bracket, and get yourself a piece of foan to build a bounce card...

good luck and enjoy

[Art Scott]

another suggestion even tho the time has come and went and I hope all turned out well.....
The book: The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB-800, SB-900, and R1C1 Flashes .....
long title but great book .............it is a $35 book retail price...but can be had new off amaxzon for $22+ shipping.

Hot Shoe Diaries as mention in a post above is also really good.......

There is also several books on the D5000 that have got to be better than the manual included with the camera....also
they are easier to read...her is a host of books on amazon: http://tinyurl.com/29p8qm9

For my D300 I have David Busch's book.......he seems to be a very good instruction manual writer........

[InsuredDisaster]

How did your shots turn out?

For future flash work, you might try setting the camera to fully manual. Dial in an aperture and shutter speed that work for you, and then use the flash's TTL mode to fill in the rest.

Face in a cave or really bad shadows? reduce shutter speed a bit(note: too much and you've got blur again)
Flash is not bright enough? increase flash exposure value on flash head.
Flash has gone to full power but still not bright enough? Open aperture (say, f4 instead of F8)


Good luck with your future flash fun.

[Mdel]

Again, many many thanks to everyone for such great info! So far, DGRIN has been my best resource for advice. I will be checking out the books suggested above, and that's pretty much what I do, book in one hand, camera in the other, notebook & pen in close reach. Oh, and shoot anything and everything I possibly can!

These pics were for a senior who missed the opportunity to have his portraits taken when the school was offering them and he was in a deadline to get a photo submitted for the yearbook, he had just a couple of days, so his mom was scrambling. This was a huge learning experience for me. Since it was evening and there was no ambient light I had to depend on the incandescent table lamps, compact fluorescent downlights, and my flash. Thankfully, I did catch some posts above before i left for the session, which helped HUGE. I did go with F8, 1/125, TTL, AWB, and bounce. I had a reflector which really helped. Obviously, they came out just ok, not like I would have preferred with some good outdoor natural light, but he was able to have a couple of good ones to choose from for submission. They had this chandelier over the kitchen table where the shots were taken that just wreaked havoc! :) I did get to see how this affects not only the subject but what it does to the background - light vs. dark, etc. We did have to move around the house a bit. I learned alot from this one.

[InsuredDisaster]

Sounds great! do you have anything you can show us?