Learning to Use My Nikon SB-600
I bought my Nikon SB-600 speed flash several months ago but I have had the hardest time figuring out how to use it properly. I have had decent luck setting it up using the Nikon CLS system but I have had it off camera in those situations.
What I have really been struggling to find are the settings to use for shots taken indoors with limited light. In numerous cases I have been pointed to the Strobist site when asking questions in different forums on Flickr. While the Strobist site is great for learning about lighting, it is a step ahead of where I want to be at this time. The focus in their Lighting 101 are the tools and tricks needed to use a collection of flashes, stands, and umbrellas to achieve the desired result. While this is useful information, it is not the information that I have been looking for.
What interests me is using the SB-600 on camera so that I can be mobile with it. For example, I was just at an event with several colleagues in a social setting where I thought I had a great chance to practice using my SB-600 on camera for the night. I found myself changing the power setting on the back of the camera and fumbling between different shooting modes frequently. When taking two almost identical shots, I got results that were anything but the same.
After looking at all the shots from that night on my computer screen I realized that I may have to be more specific in the question that I ask so that I would not be pointed to the Strobist again for answers. I asked my question a little more specific this time and I received the answers that I was looking for. I have toyed around with the two “recipes” that we shared with me and immediately noticed that I was getting the exposures that I was looking for all along but in a much simpler way.
Recipe #1 (from rich_gersh)
- Manual mode on camera
- 1/15 @ f/5.6, ISO 100
- Stay within 7′ of subject (this ingredient is the key to the recipe)
- Bounce flash off ceiling in TTL mode, -1
- Flash WB (or preset with Expodisc)
Recipe #2 (from eswrite)
- Manual mode
- ISO400 to let in more ambient light
- f/5.6 for reasonable DOF
- 1/80-1/100 for non-blur
- Matrix Metering to allow TTL-BL
- bounced SB-600
Thank you both for your helpful replies !!!
Of course there will have to be some more tinkering around and setting will have to change depending on the envirnoment, but I feel much better having a better jumping off point to use in the future.
Wow, these both worked well.
Thanks for posting.