Nikon Flash photography

Quick questiton about taking pictures with a SB80DX flash, with a

Nikon N80 camera. My settings are as follows:

<br><br><b>Camera:</b> N80 - Manual mode

<br><b>Flash:</b> SB80DX - TTL flash mode with center weighted

metering selected on camera (TTL/D-TTL auto flash)

<br>

<br><b>a.</b> Selected subject distance in the flash's LCD screen

using the 'up', 'down' arrows.

<br>The F-stop suggested by the flash can be read off the flash LCD

screen.

<br><b>b.</b> Selected the same F-Stop reading in the camera (as read

off from the flash)

<br><b>c.</b> Selected shutter speed = sync speed (1/125 for N80)

<br><b>d.</b> Snapped the picture (after ensuring that the ready

light was glowing)

<br><br><b>Question:</b> The Flash user manual does not speak about

permissible shutter speeds for this scenario -

<br>Can I select a shutter speed less than the sync speed as well? If

I do so, will the result pictures be over-exposed?

<br>More specifically, I wanted to set a shutter speed of around 1/30

second so that I could get some background clarity.

<br><br>Thanks for any help, responses and suggestions in advance,

<br>-Naveen

in TTL mode ignore the distance info on the flash --unless the subject is out of range

for that f-stop and ISO.

just choose an f-stop.

yes you can choose flash sync speedss longer than 1/125th ( like 1/60th. 1/30th, 1/

15th. etc.)

I think you're overthinking it. Just set the flash to TTL (or actually matrix TTL is better), choose a combination of aperture and shutter speed, make sure the shutter speed isn't faster than 1/125th, make sure you're not overexposing the frame with just ambient light, and fire.

Actually if you set a shutter speed faster than 1/125th, it'll revert to 1/125th so that's not a problem. And chances are if you're using a flash it's not bright outside anyway (chances are).