best d200 setting for fill flash photography

I will be shooting an important event this weekend. Some of the proceedings

will take place outdoors in the middle of the day. I am not sure if I will

have a shady area or not to take some of the posed shots. I will be using my

d200 with an sb800. I have used my flash outdoors in daylight before, but as

this is a special event, I was hoping to get a few pointers on the best

settings.

 

I have, in the past, set my camera to S, selected 1/250th shutter speed, and

let the camera set the aperture and flash with very good results. Is there a

better setting?

 

Thanks in advance!

For my taste, the default is too high. I tend to dial in -.3, and usually wish I had made it -.7.

Here is what I do as a normal rule where flash is just fill light. I want ambient light to be the main light so I set rear curtain synch on the camera. I use Aperture priority on the camera. I make sure the SB-800 computer is working with the camera's computer--TTL BL shows on the flash's LCD panel. With my D 200 and SB-800 flash, I just make sure that I have set custom setting e1, the flash synch speed setting, to 1/250s (Auto FP) to select high speed synch speed. With this setting I no longer have to worry about a shutter speed higher than 1/250 of a second. If the resulting shutter speed exceeds 1/250, the flash automatically adjusts itself to the higher shutter speed. To make sure the flash does not overpower ambient light, I set minus flash comp on the flash to a minus 1.0. If I want more flash, I set it to a minus .7. I have not yet tried this with the diffuser cover over the flash. I suggest you experiment with and without the diffuser to see what results you like. Joe Smith

You can use auto FP, as mentioned, so you can use higher shutter speeds, if desired. It also allows you to use 'A' mode without having to worry about shutter speeds -- set it and forget it.

 

If 'BL' is on, the camera is making some decisions about balancing (pulling the fill exposure down about 2/3-3/4 stop) and you'll get decent fill. You may want to dial it down another 1/3 stop or more. If you can see the effect in the LCD, there's too much flash, IMO.

 

If you want to use the flash more as a key light, use regular TTL (no 'BL'). This mode can be more predictable. For people, you may want to use -1 stop on the flash (I use up to -2 stops).

 

A flash modifier, such as Joe Demb's Flip-It, can be useful. It gets the light a little higher off the camera and gives a better flash angle when shooting in portrait mode (especially compared to the flash sticking straight out to the left - yuck).

 

Make sure that you have plenty of battery power. I like NiMH cells. I use the five and carry two sets of spares. With 2500 mAh cells, you may be able to shoot all day on one or two sets.

 

If it's bright and sunny, this may limit your distance severely. The SB-800 can run out of power competing with the noonday sun.

I do pretty much exactly what Joe Smith does. Sent Custom Setting e1 ("Flash Sync Speed") to "1/250 s (Auto FP)". Then shoot in aperture priority (A) mode; selecting your aperture for depth of field.

 

I usually dial the flash down at least -1.0, sometimes as much as -1.7.

 

My recommendation would be to point the flash straight ahead, and don't use any modifiers -- while the Flip-It can get the flash source up higher, you don't really have to worry about red-eye outdoors and because this is fill, you don't have to worry much about the shadows either. The standard diffuser is completely useless outdoors -- all it will do is waste light and battery power, and reduce your shot-to-shot times while the flash recharges.

 

Keep an eye on the flash icon in the viewfinder after each shot (it's way down on the right) -- if it blinks repeatedly after the shot, then the flash fired at full power and might have needed more. If it's quiet enough, you can hear the flash recharge after a full blast. In that case, reduce the flash power (- button on the flash), open up the aperture, or bump up the ISO.

What will you be shooting, and in what light? As Thom Hogan points out time and time again, if you want REPEATABLE results, do not use any of the balanced modes. Remember there are 2 exposures going on, one for ambient lighting and one for fill flash. Put your camera in M or A mode, set the ambient exposure, dial in flash compensation (start with -1.0 and season to tastes :-), and fire away. Since you are outside I assume you will have enough light such that your shutter speed stays above 1/60 of a second (if not, put the flash mode in Rear or Slow Sync).

 

See here: http://www.bythom.com/flashqa.htm

 

Have fun! :-)

"You can use auto FP, ... It also allows you to use 'A' mode without having to worry about shutter speeds -- set it and forget it." - careful here!

 

One thing is that you should not forget it, but watch over it and take appropriate action if necessary, since your flash max power distance and lighting conditions can change.

 

In Aperture priority mode, when you shutter speed is below or at 1/250 sec it works as prescribed - so you could "forget it" perhaps?.

 

But when your shutter speed goes up to faster value that max sync speed of 1/250 on D200, SB-800 switches to the FP mode, and the flash maximum shooting distance is drastically reduced, and may not be enough for your shooting distance at current Aperture and ISO.

 

Putting it differently, in FP mode, due to the need for multiple contiguous adjacent flash blasts, each blast in a series is much less powerful, since the flash must dispense energy to extend the stroboscopic flash duration during entire time when the narrow focal plane slot travels across the sensor surface.

 

So always watch the shutter speed, and know the max flash range in FP mode at your F setting and ISO, for fast shutter speeds like 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000 etc.

 

This is not exactly precise measure, but at shutter 1/500 on D200 the flash must produce approx. 2 or more smaller blasts (continuous strobes not distinguishable by humen eye), at 1/1000 sec shtter, the SB-800 max range drops down more than 8 times, etc.

 

In FP flash setting and A mode - never forget monitoring the shtter speed and your shooting distance, aspecially important when you use a longer lens or longer tele setting, and may tend to move back farther from the subject.

Not on the D200 subject, but just related.

 

D70 and D50 does not have FP mode, since it has a different than D200 electronic shutter, that allows single flash full frame synchronization at all speeds, above the camera specs of 1/500. 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, etc.

 

With non-Nikon, (or Nikon made unrecognizable as Nikon), D70 shutter speed use full power of your flash (or whatever fraction is allowed at that shutter speed in your flash model), without the need to produce multiple smaller blasts to sustain flash duration for FP mode.

 

Needless to say D70 has far superior fast flash synchronization, when comparing to D200 flash sync capability.

 

With D70 in A mode and a pro-level strong flash in Auto thyristor mode (preferably high-voltage capacitor flash type providing fast discharge of full power), you can truly "forget it" in most shooting distances.

 

You need to be carefull with D200 and understand the limitations of FP and the shutter sync available, as well as reduced max range of SB-800 in FP mode.

Good points, Frank. Nothing truly is "set and forget." I'm a bit surprised that Nikon didn't use a high-speed flash scheme on the D200 that is more like the D70. Maybe it has something to do with the specific sensor.

 

FWIW, I perceive that I get more shooting distance out of the D200 and SB-800 with FP synch than I did with my D100 and SB-80 (FP synch not possible). This is with the shutter in the range of 1/320 - 1/640, 'S' mode. I shot a few hundred images with FP fill flash at a bicycle stage race over the weekend, and have done similar work in the past with the D100/SB-80. Maybe a formal test will prove my perceptions wrong -- there are lots of variables here.

 

Finally, why should FP cause a drastic reduction in flash distance? If a single full-power pop is required for a proper exposure, and the shutter speed dictates four pops, wouldn't these be 25% pops -- at least ideally? Is it some inefficiency in producing multiple pops, along with the inverse-square law, that might bring the distance down?

When you conceptualize flash exposure, it�s best to ignore the ambient light exposure. So, for multiple pop FP flash think of the shutter slit exposes a portion of the sensor (or film) and the flash is only exposing that portion. There aren't multiple flash pops exposing the same portion of the sensor. With the much lower power of the flash, in this mode, it has a low effective guide number. The flash power has to be low so that flash can produce multiple pops in a very short period of time.

Use some wisdom from other people, for deeper understanding of FP.

 

http://webs.lanset.com/rcochran/flash/hss.html

 

http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/10531/

 

http://www.photozone.de/3Technology/flashtec5.htm

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Fynw

Excellent comments here especially about FP. You never can learn enough about Nikon flash. If I want to really want controlled fill flash, I delink the camera and flash head computers by making sure that just TTL shows on the flash LCD (and not TTL BL) and then set the minus flash comp appropriate for the situation. Nikon calls this Standard TTL. Rear curtain synch is set on the camera and ambient light determines the camera exposure. When I do this, I usually set minus 1.7 or minus 2.0 on the flash. This approach works best when the subjects are pretty much in the same lighting situations. If the subjects are in varying lighting situations, like an outdoor party, I usually set TTL BL and let the two computers work together. As pointed out above, with this approach you never know exactly what exposure and fill output you will be getting from image to image.

 

Check your D 200 and SB-800 manuals carefully about rear curtain. I think the SB-800 manual says that the pre flash does not work when rear curtain synch is set so if you need the pre flash, another synch option might be needed.

 

For my nature photography work, I use the TTL setting on the flash and not the TTL BL.

 

Joe Smith

To digress somewhat....

I am fairly new to this forum and have had more of my questions answered by reading some of the thoughtful and knowledgeable answers in the past two weeks. I also appreciate the "tone" of this board. Too many times in the past it seems that people enjoy flaming for the sake of flames. No one is made to feel stupid... Thanks!

Thanks for posting the links, Frank. I found the first and third to be especially interesting. Maybe one reason that I'm getting fairly good results is that I'm shooting at 1/640 sec. or less, usually 1/320 or 1/400 for bike racers.

 

FP aside, I typically use the flash as per Joseph, just above. I have not found much use for rear sync. Be careful when setting slow sync parameters on the D200. Once I set the D200 to a low limit 2 sec. for special effects. I forgot to reset it before shooting action, and I didn't get what I wanted!

 

If you want to use only one (nearly foolproof) technique, here's what Thom Hogan recommends (http://www.bythom.com/flashqa.htm#simplefill):

 

==========

 

Here's what I teach students as a base in my workshops (you can get more elaborate, but this addresses the main issues you face with fill flash on Nikon bodies):

 

1. Camera set to Aperture-preferred exposure mode. Gets rid of aperture limitations in Program mode.

 

2. Camera set to Slow Sync or Rear Sync. Gets rid of the bottom end shutter speed limitation at 1/60.

 

3. Flash set to Standard TTL (press Mode button on flash until only TTL shows on flash LCD). Gets rid of camera-induced flash compensation level, which is unknown.

 

4. Flash set to the fill level you want via flash exposure compensation, typically -1.0 stop for people, or Galen Rowell's "magic" -1.7 value for outdoor scenic fill. Allows you to control the fill level rather than the camera.

Thanks to all for your wonderfull suggestions. I tested some of them today, and have had great results. I look forward to experimenting with all of them. Again, thank you!