Using flash in dark settings

I am having trouble creating natural looking photos using a D200 and SB800

flash. I have continually played with the EV on the SB800 dialing it either up

or down depending on how much or how little flash I thought I needed. WHat I

found was using 1/60, f8 and EV 0 TTL BL I was severly overexposing people whom

I was shooting inside of 5 feet and creating nearly black backgrounds. As a

result, I began dialing the flash to -1 to -2 EV to lighten the people up close

and dialing it up 1 to 2 when trying to throw more light. I can fix most of

these photos after the fact, but they look very orange sometimes. So..

 

1. In theatre, club or disco like setting what minimum ISO would someone

recommend to balance light versus noise?

 

2. Does -1 EV on the flash throw more light than +2 EV, and am I asking this

question correctly?

 

3. SHould I have to change the EV ont he flash quite often?

 

4. WHat is the best advice for using flash in a dark setting to make the photo

look the most natural and not make the use of flash seem so obvious?

In theatre, club and in concert I never use a flash and just use 2.8 or faster lenses. I always set my D200 in these cases on iso auto(with the specs for the rising of iso) use spot metering and A as setting. On a D200 the focussopt is the as the meteringspot and that works perfect. On the same stage and the lighting the iso goes from 120 to 1600, so I prefer that instead of using my flash. When I use my SB800 I use a lot of paper bouncer to get soft light.

In theatre, club and in concert I never use a flash and just use 2.8 or faster lenses. I always set my D200 in these cases on iso auto(with the specs of the lens for the rising of iso) use spot metering and A as setting. On a D200 the focussopt is the as the meteringspot and that works perfect. On the same stage and the lighting the iso goes from 120 to 1600, so I prefer that instead of using my flash. When I use my SB800 I use a lot of paper bouncer to get soft light.

Slow-sync flash shooting. Look it up in your D200 manual and your SB-800 manual. See

#15 of SB-800 technical guide here:

 

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/SB800_techniques.pdf

I forget to mention I am shooting moving people.

Stop using TTL-BBL; use TTL instead. Turn up ISO to 400-640 to increase ambient lighting in the exposure. Use rear-curtain flash.

 

For extremely low light dial in +2 exposure compensation (either on the flash or the camera). When possible use bounce flash, for closer subjects use a diffuser, for subjects that are farther away point the flash directly at the subject and remove diffuser.

 

For flash-fill turn off the flash and meter the EV manually (that means manually setting aperture, shutter, and ISO to obtain a correct exposure; do not use aperture or shutter priority, or auto-ISO). Then turn the flash on and set it to -1 flash compensation.

 

Shoot in RAW and use a grey card to determine correct WB (to be applied during conversion). Use gel filters on your flash to balance lighting from the flash so that it approximately matches the ambient light.

You may be expecting too much from one little Nikon speedlight, James. There is only so

much a single SB-800 can do.

You should probably use TTL not TTL-BL indoors. F/8 may have been too wide of an aperture if you were close. -EV gives less flash output. It may be difficult in dark situations to get a natural look because exposing for the ambient light will give you long shutter speeds which won't work with moving people or hand held shots.

James, you are asking a lot from one flash given the shooting conditions. Flash light follows the laws of physics, the inverse square law. That is one reason why your faces are over exposed and your backgrounds are too dark.

 

To begin to understand what the other posters have posted, you need to fully understand the difference between Balanced TTL (TTL BL) and Standard TTL (TTL). Read this link about 5-10 times, paying attention to those sections that are relevant to your shooting situation: http://www.moosepeterson.com/techtips/flash.html.

 

There is also a Magic Lantern Guide written by Simon Stafford that gives basic info on Nikon digital flashes with digital bodies entitled "Nikon AF Speedlight Flash System."

 

You have to get the ambient exposure right to avoid the dark backgrounds and you have to get the flash exp right to avoid the white faces. I would use Aperture priority on the camera, a wide opening of f 2.8, ISO 400 and slow shutter speed, slow synch on the camera and TTL on the flash with flash exp comp set at about minus .7 for my first shot. Of course I do not know how dark it is, so this is just a guess. In TTL BL you will always have a greater chance of creating a dark background because the computers in the flash and camera are coopperating on exposing the face in front of the lens and the background will suffer.

 

Joe Smith

Your flash has different white balance than indoor lighting. So you would want to match the indoor lighting by "gelling" the flash and set your white balance to whatever the ambient was.

The SB-800 is plenty powerful enough to *adequately* light up a large, dimly lit indoor area. Don't expect miracles. But I've used mine on my F3HP in manual and A mode to photograph a large group of people in an auditorium. The only trick was to get at least some light out as far as possible to the falloff limit while not burning out the foreground. Using a flash bracket and getting the flash up as high as practical helps.

 

It should be possible to get good results using the SB-800 in a dark or nearly dark theatre. I've gotten good results using mine for a candlelight ceremony. The effect wasn't subtle - I didn't try to balance ambient light and flash. But the illumination was even and all the participants could be seen, which is what they wanted.

 

As others have advised, don't use the BL mode. It's intended for daylight or very bright indoor use. For example, if you need to set your camera to ISO 1600 to expose at 1/30 sec. and f/1.4, the indoor illumination ain't bright enough to use TTL-BL successfully.

 

If the D200 includes the FV Lock feature try it. You'll need to experiment with it a bit but it can be very useful in some difficult indoor situations with poor illumination.

 

When I want to photograph moving people in a theatre I'll use a fast lens, a reasonable shutter speed (1/30 sec. is usually good - actors don't move that fast, tho' dancers do), set the SB-800 to M and use a blip of flash to brighten the eyes. I always try to estimate my exposures before the performance, which usually is not a problem. As the stage lights change some adjustments need to be made.

Just make sure red eye reduction is NOT selected as part of your sych setting. It will delay your shutter from going off and you will miss your shot. Shoot RAW so you can fix any white balance problems. Joe Smith