I have always thought of myself as a fairly intelligent human being, but have doubts now after trying to figure out fill flash. I have emailed Nikon and received answers, I've read the manuals for the flash(SB800) as well as the camera(D200) and I still do not know of any step by step instructions or a simple procedure to follow. That being said, my particular question is this. When dailing in negative compensation for fill flash , Do I dial in the neg compensation on the flash itself or from the camera exposure, or from the flash button that controls the output for the built in flash, even though it(the built in flash) is not being used? What exposure mode do I shoot in, Manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, or which? I'v read Moose Peterson's article on fill flash as well as Thom Hogans and others. It seems the more I read , the more confused I become. Can anyone help me by personal experience or recommending articles or books that will clear things up? All advise will be appreciated.Ray
Posted by Younes Bounhar on January 21, 2009 at 10:37 AM
To answer your first question, you have to dial exposure compensation on your SB-800.
For a really good reference on flash use, I strongly recommend a visit to strobist.com, They have a fairly lengthy but oh so useful "lighting 101" section that will certainly go a long way in helping you out.
To a large degree it depends on your subject and the setting. But I bet it's not as complicated as it has become in your mind. A case of too much information perhaps?
Dial the reduction into your flash to adjust degree of fill rather than adjust for the whole scene. Period. The only catch is that your strobe has to be set on TTL. Exposure mode won't matter unless your camera uses a shutter speed faster than the sync speed of the strobe or the expanse you're covering is large and light is so low that your strobe tries to light it all rather than fill. Shooting at a slower shutter speed doesn't hurt a thing in terms of exposure, but it can be a problem if subject movement or camera movement cause blurring.
The only times it gets a little hinky are those that can cause exposure difficulties for the camera with or without a strobe. These include when your subject is relatively small against a background of distinctly different tone, or a long ways from the background- especially in low light. Your camera is fooled and not the strobe, and tries to expose for the background and not the subject.
Examples that we deal with all the time include people standing close to a big white or black wall, standing indoors in front of a bright window, or frame-filling shots of a bride in a white dress or a groom in a black tuxedo. You adjust the camera for good face tones, dialing in a camera correction if shooting in one of the program modes, or simply metering the faces and disregarding what the meter says about the rest of the scene when shooting on manual.
When your subject is standing far from backgrounds in a low light scene be sure that your ISO is suitable for the low light so that the camera exposes for the low light scene, freeing your strobe to fill on the subject rather than trying to light the scene. That means metering the scene without the strobe and picking an ISO that allows you the shutter speeds and apertures appropriate for hand holding or subject movement in the ambient light without the strobe. If you just can't achieve those settings using ISO alone, it's necessary to light the whole scene with studio strobes or accept very low shutter speeds and wide apertures. You're just not going to light the whole scene with the strobe PLUS get the same strobe to function as a fill flash.
Without writing a book and adding cofusion, let me try to turn that into practical applications using examples. In all cases, dial the desired minus setting into your strobe and then forget about the strobe:
Bride in a white dress or a big white wall- Dial a MINUS compensation into your camera if you're shooting in one of the probram modes so the camera won't try to turn the dress to medium toned gray. DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! I'm betting your camera is going to need a -1 or -2. If shooting manual, move close and get a reading off the face and set the camera.
Groom in a black tuxedo or a subject against a big black wall- Dial a PLUS compensation into the camea if you're shooting in a program mode so the camera won't try to turn the tuxedo or black wall medium toned gray. DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! I'm betting your camera is going to need a +1 or +2. On manual, move close and get a reading off the face.
Subject in front of a bright window- You need to expose for your subject, even if everything outside the window turns glaring white. You might need a camera compensation as large as +3, but DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! If you want proper exposures for the indoor scene as well as the outdoor scene, that's a different book.
A subject in a big room or outdoors in low light- Leave your strobe OFF and meter the scene. Set your camera's ISO to give you the aperture and shutter speed you want for handholding, or just use the ISO that meets your quality needs if you're working with a tripod and the subject isn't moving. I find it much better to work with the camera on manual in such low light. Now turn on your strobe and go to work.
I'm not far into my first cup of coffee, so I hope that clarifies the situation. In a nutshelll, you only use the strobe settings to adjust for the degree of fill, but that only works with the strobe on TTL. You use your CAMERA controls to adjust for ambient light and overcome metering and exposure challenges.
Posted by Terry Sohl on January 22, 2009 at 1:29 AM
I was in the same boat as you Ray a couple of years ago, trying to figure out how to integrate fill-flash. What it all boils down to...it can actually be very simple.
I shoot avian 90% of the time, and the flash never leaves my camera body (Canon 50D). I probably actually use it on ~50% of my shots, and find it most valuable for evening out a high contrast shot, bringing out some detail in the shaded portion of a brightly lit subject. Someone out here once posted a general rule of thumb for avian fill-flash (in combination with a better beamer)...start out with -1 2/3rds exp. comp. on the flash and adjust from there.
And for me, it truly is that simple. All exposure compensation is done on my flash unit. The first time I went out and tried it, I did indeed just set FEC to -1 2/3rds on the flash unit, and took a few dozen photos in varied conditions. Once you've been out with it a few times, you really become accustomed to just how much FEC you may need, based on the situation.
I still rarely do much else with fill-flash other than simple adjustments to FEC, based on conditions. It really can be quite simple to start getting into the use of fill-flash for nature photography.
Thanks to all who offered advice.One other question, as far as shooting TTL with flash, the SB800 has a TTL mode as well as a TTL BL mode for balanced fill flash, which one? I will be leaving tomorrow for SW Florida for bird photography and hopefully some chances to try the advice offered. Thanks again. Ray
If I am not mistaken, the TTL BL is the most advance TTL system from nikon. From what I seem to remember, the flash exposes for the subject you focus on without being affected by background. This is particularly useful when your subject is in front of a dark background, without the TTL BL, the flash would try to overcompensate for the dark background, with the TTL BL, your subject would be properly exposed. The manual goes into some details on this...
Posted by Rod Barbee on January 30, 2009 at 6:23 PM
TTL BL is the automatic balanced fill flash mode. I've had better luck by simply using TTL and dialing in about -1.7 in compensation(on the flash). -1.7 is a starting point and mainly depends on the tonality and size of what I'm trying to fill. Mind you, I use it mainly for filling dark areas in the foreground of a landscape image. If you're doing people, then Hank's posting is the one to heed.
When using fill flash for landscapes, I usually spot meter to get the base manual exposure. I then switch over to matrix for the flash (don't change the exposure). In addition, if it's near sunrise or sunset, I'll put a warming gel (or just a warming filter) in front of the flash to help balance color temperature.
Posted by John Reed on January 31, 2009 at 7:31 AM
Something above seems out of whack. I've read it a couple times and maybe I need my cup of coffee but something seems wrong to me. Everything I've learned has been that for a very light subject, like the bride or white wall, the camera meter does indeed attemp to "make it gray" because meters are designed to render proper exposure for a neutral subject. So, one would ADD compensation, NOT subtract. The meter tells the camera to get to neutral by REDUCING light and so you must override that by adding compensation. Dark the opposite. Hank, can you explain why you state otherwise? Thanks.
John Reed
Discussion
8 repliesFor a really good reference on flash use, I strongly recommend a visit to strobist.com, They have a fairly lengthy but oh so useful "lighting 101" section that will certainly go a long way in helping you out.
Dial the reduction into your flash to adjust degree of fill rather than adjust for the whole scene. Period. The only catch is that your strobe has to be set on TTL. Exposure mode won't matter unless your camera uses a shutter speed faster than the sync speed of the strobe or the expanse you're covering is large and light is so low that your strobe tries to light it all rather than fill. Shooting at a slower shutter speed doesn't hurt a thing in terms of exposure, but it can be a problem if subject movement or camera movement cause blurring.
The only times it gets a little hinky are those that can cause exposure difficulties for the camera with or without a strobe. These include when your subject is relatively small against a background of distinctly different tone, or a long ways from the background- especially in low light. Your camera is fooled and not the strobe, and tries to expose for the background and not the subject.
Examples that we deal with all the time include people standing close to a big white or black wall, standing indoors in front of a bright window, or frame-filling shots of a bride in a white dress or a groom in a black tuxedo. You adjust the camera for good face tones, dialing in a camera correction if shooting in one of the program modes, or simply metering the faces and disregarding what the meter says about the rest of the scene when shooting on manual.
When your subject is standing far from backgrounds in a low light scene be sure that your ISO is suitable for the low light so that the camera exposes for the low light scene, freeing your strobe to fill on the subject rather than trying to light the scene. That means metering the scene without the strobe and picking an ISO that allows you the shutter speeds and apertures appropriate for hand holding or subject movement in the ambient light without the strobe. If you just can't achieve those settings using ISO alone, it's necessary to light the whole scene with studio strobes or accept very low shutter speeds and wide apertures. You're just not going to light the whole scene with the strobe PLUS get the same strobe to function as a fill flash.
Without writing a book and adding cofusion, let me try to turn that into practical applications using examples. In all cases, dial the desired minus setting into your strobe and then forget about the strobe:
Bride in a white dress or a big white wall- Dial a MINUS compensation into your camera if you're shooting in one of the probram modes so the camera won't try to turn the dress to medium toned gray. DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! I'm betting your camera is going to need a -1 or -2. If shooting manual, move close and get a reading off the face and set the camera.
Groom in a black tuxedo or a subject against a big black wall- Dial a PLUS compensation into the camea if you're shooting in a program mode so the camera won't try to turn the tuxedo or black wall medium toned gray. DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! I'm betting your camera is going to need a +1 or +2. On manual, move close and get a reading off the face.
Subject in front of a bright window- You need to expose for your subject, even if everything outside the window turns glaring white. You might need a camera compensation as large as +3, but DON'T TOUCH THAT STROBE!!! If you want proper exposures for the indoor scene as well as the outdoor scene, that's a different book.
A subject in a big room or outdoors in low light- Leave your strobe OFF and meter the scene. Set your camera's ISO to give you the aperture and shutter speed you want for handholding, or just use the ISO that meets your quality needs if you're working with a tripod and the subject isn't moving. I find it much better to work with the camera on manual in such low light. Now turn on your strobe and go to work.
I'm not far into my first cup of coffee, so I hope that clarifies the situation. In a nutshelll, you only use the strobe settings to adjust for the degree of fill, but that only works with the strobe on TTL. You use your CAMERA controls to adjust for ambient light and overcome metering and exposure challenges.
I shoot avian 90% of the time, and the flash never leaves my camera body (Canon 50D). I probably actually use it on ~50% of my shots, and find it most valuable for evening out a high contrast shot, bringing out some detail in the shaded portion of a brightly lit subject. Someone out here once posted a general rule of thumb for avian fill-flash (in combination with a better beamer)...start out with -1 2/3rds exp. comp. on the flash and adjust from there.
And for me, it truly is that simple. All exposure compensation is done on my flash unit. The first time I went out and tried it, I did indeed just set FEC to -1 2/3rds on the flash unit, and took a few dozen photos in varied conditions. Once you've been out with it a few times, you really become accustomed to just how much FEC you may need, based on the situation.
I still rarely do much else with fill-flash other than simple adjustments to FEC, based on conditions. It really can be quite simple to start getting into the use of fill-flash for nature photography.
Anyone else?
When using fill flash for landscapes, I usually spot meter to get the base manual exposure. I then switch over to matrix for the flash (don't change the exposure). In addition, if it's near sunrise or sunset, I'll put a warming gel (or just a warming filter) in front of the flash to help balance color temperature.
John Reed