Comments for Photography Lighting & Tips

Comment on Special Effects Lighting with Speedlights by Alyn

Alyn — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:45:06 +0000

Cheryl, that’s perhaps the most common question when it comes to wireless flashes, “how do I trip the wireless flash unit?”

Both method for using wireless capabilities on your Nikon are correct, let me explain here:

Method 1 – Using the D700 as Commander
What you’re going to do here Cheryl is set your D700 as the commander, as you have already played with, and then set your SB900 to remote, that would be the right before the master setting. Once in remote mode, you will see your LCD panel show the channels and groups. Make sure that your you set the same channel and group on your SB900 as you have set on the D700. You will be able to control your mode and light output via the D700′s panel. One thing to note though, make sure that you turn your pop flash off. Well, it will not be turned off entirely, but cycle through the modes for the pop up flash until you see two dashed lines, –. By doing this, your pop-up flash will only send out the pre-flash signal to your SB900 so that it trips it to fire.

Note: You do not need to set your Flash to SU4 mode when using your D700 as the commander and your SB900 as the remote.

Method 2 – Using a PocketWizard to Trip Your SB900

Mount your PocketWizard (PW) to your cameras hotshoe as you have done. And connect the other PW to your SB900 (just in case someone else reads this and doesn’t know, you will need a PC5N Cablein order to connect the PW to the SB900).

Once you have your remote SB900 and PW attached, set that SB900 to Manual Mode. Make certain that both your PW’s are on and on the same channel, a mistake I am more often than not, guilty of not doing.

Now, you are ready to start shooting.

A few additional side notes Cheryl:

The PW’s will give you about 1600 feet of range while using Nikon’s built-in CLS is roughly 33 feet. That’s a big incentive for using PW’s, in my opinion of course.

Also, If you have multiple flash units, you really only need one set of PW’s, one for the camera and the other for the master flash. The rest, (SB900 and SB800) you can set to SU4 mode and they will be tripped by the master flash, the SB900 in your case. However, there is a downside to SU4 mode. If you are photographing a wedding, for example, and are using multiple flash units and all but the master is in SU4 mode, then any other flash will trip the units in SU4 mode. That can be a real battery drain. You would either need more PW’s or just switch to Nikon’s CLS and use your D700 (or any other commander capable Nikon) as the commander.

Hope this helps you. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Comment on Special Effects Lighting with Speedlights by cheryl

cheryl — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:42:04 +0000

Alyn,
Enjoyed your post. I have a couple of questions. I also am a Nikon shooter and I shoot with a D700 and use SB-900 strobes. I know I can use my camera’s pop up flash as well as one of the SB-900′s as the commander. If I use the camera’s pop up flash as the commander do I set my remote SB-900′s in “remote mode” and also enable SU-4? And, I also have a few Pocket Wizard’s Plus II’s. I know you have a greater coverage area using them but not sure what I set the remote SB-900′s to? My idea, place (1) Pocket Wizard in the camera’s hot shoe, connect another pocket wizard to a remote SB-900, not sure if I just have the flash set to “on”? And then what would I set the second remote SB-900 to?

Comment on Do I Need A Skylight UV Protection Filter For My Camera Lens? by Alyn

Alyn — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:43:33 +0000

Diane, it did sound as though I was lumping wedding photographers with the casual photographer. However, my point was that when I’m shooting weddings, I’m constantly moving and my attention is more on getting people together and trying to dodge things and people. Thanks for pointing that out. I certainly don’t want to dismiss wedding photographers as being unimportant or not wanting tack sharp images.

You also make two good points:

1. The lens shade is a good way to help protect the lens, but should not be the only way. (I will write more on lens shades in a future blog posting.), and
2. I agree with you, if you spend the money for good lenses, they should be insured. That’s a very good point that a lot of amateur and even prof photographers overlook.

Comment on Do I Need A Skylight UV Protection Filter For My Camera Lens? by Diane

Diane — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:08:03 +0000

Wouldn’t the argument about wanting tack sharp images apply to a wedding photographer as well as a commercial photographer? You seem to lump wedding photographers in with casual/vacation photographers as not having to be too concerned about image quality, and that only product photographers would need to remove filters.

And surely the instances of banging the camera against something would be helped by using the lens hood.

I am just starting out in the field of portrait photography, and I took the decision to remove all filters from my lenses, and the image quality has improved enormously. Possibly I should have spent more money on them, but even so…

My lenses are insured, so any damage will be covered, and I always use the lens hood – a far better option than reduced image quality, in my opinion.

Comment on Controlling Portrait Lighting with Grid Spots by How to Photograph A Corporate Portrait with Speedlights | Photography - Lighting - Tips - Templates - Design

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:44:02 +0000

[...] I could throw a Speedlight on a light stand and add a grid spot, point it toward the background as my back light and call it a day, but I wanted to go for [...]

Comment on Photographing Your Pet Dog With Nikon SB800 Flashes by Alyn

Alyn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:43:45 +0000

Susanne, I did use a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens and did use Auto Focus. My WB was set to auto as well and I made my adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.

Comment on Photographing Your Pet Dog With Nikon SB800 Flashes by Susanne Green

Susanne Green — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:14:31 +0000

Did you use autofocus? Do you set the white balance on flash mode?

Comment on Lighting a Sacagawea Dollar Coin with Nikon SB800 and SB600 Flash Units by How to Photograph A Corporate Portrait with Speedlights | Photography - Lighting - Tips - Templates - Design

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:15:48 +0000

[...] light. You can achieve this effect by using a variety of materials. In an earlier blog on lighting a coin, I discussed using fake plant leaves as background patterns. You could use almost anything that you [...]

Comment on Reflective Bounce Comparison for Portraits by How to Photograph A Corporate Portrait with Speedlights | Photography - Lighting - Tips - Templates - Design

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:15:30 +0000

[...] How to Photograph A Corporate Portrait with two Speedlights and a Few Bounces Posted by Alyn on Oct 24th, 2011 in Blog, Flash Photography, Photographic Lighting, Photography | 0 comments Getting creative results for a corporate portrait is actually quite simple. I was recently commissioned to photograph a professional IT expert for his marketing collateral. He was very eager to be photographed, which was good for me because it allowed me to capture several photos to illustrate how to photograph a corporate portrait using two Speedlights and a few reflective bounces. [...]

Comment on Basic Outdoor Location Portrait Lighting With One Speedlight (flashgun) by How High Speed Flash Sync Works on Your Speedlights | Photography - Lighting - Tips - Templates - Design

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:29:37 +0000

[...] increase the shutter speed, but I already am shooting in the shade and really want to get some fill light on to my subject so I don’t have dark shadow areas on her face. My only solution is to switch [...]