Complete novice with manual flash

[paul_loader]

I am led to believe that once we crack the mystery of flash it is

much simpler than we first realised! I hope so. I use a Nikon F90X

and more recently an FM2N and Bronica SQAi too. I am trying to

understand fully manual flash using my Polaris ambient/flash meter

and my Nikon SB-28 at the moment. Taking the Broni and non-SCA386

i.e. full manual flash am I right that I have to:

 

"manually set up my camera, my flash and my meter. First the camera

to let say 1/125s and the lens to f5.6. I then put my flash into

manual mode and set the aperture to f5.6 also. Then I set my meter on

to its flash mode in incident and set my shutter speed to match the

lens. I hold the meter towards the camera and fire off a test flash.

The meter then tells me how much flash reached the subject and

whether to adjust the flash output. If I am correct I need to then

understand how to make that adjustment.

 

Any advice much appreciated.

Paul

[stephen_martin2]

Paul, it sound like you know what your doing. are you asking how to adjust the power output on your flash?

[paul_loader]

Stephen, thanks for replying. Unfortunately I don't know what I'm doing, these are very much first steps having painfully read my Polaris, camera manuals, dipped into one or two books and scoured the web over. So much easier if I could have looked over a pro-s shoulder for half an hour!

 

Anyway, I am looking for the nod that I have assessed things correctly, primarily, or if I have got things wrong. Secondly you are correct, I am then asking how to then make the adjustments since I can't find my SB-28 manual.

 

I appreciate that once I understand how to make the final adjustment the fun then really starts as I will naturally start reducing ouput for fill-flash, good use of reflectors etc.

 

Paul

[stephen_martin2]

Paul I dont know about the sb flash. but most flashes have a switch that can be moved from left to right. this will give you your varouis power settings. and you must also set to manule. thier are some flashes that do not have a manule setting.

[stephen_martin2]

Paul, Here is a link to nikon where you will find a pdf manual for your nikon sb-28 speedlight.

 

http://www.nikonlinks.com/resources_main.htm#instructions

[jim_gifford]

Paul, there is no need to set an aperture on the flash unit in manual mode. Aperture and film ISO speed settings are used in (A)uto mode flash.

 

For manual mode flash, all your flash needs to know is what power level to supply ("How many photons do you want, boss?") You just set full power or one of the available fractional power settings.

 

Your camera shutter speed is set to the sync speed or to any slower speed that will work for the subject you're photographing.

 

Your lens aperture is set to the appropriate value, determined by the relationship between the power of your flash and the distance from flash to subject.

 

Focus, compose, shoot.

 

Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

Be well,

[paul utkin]

you need to know your flash guide number - it will be in your flash manual in both meters and feets. lets say it`s 180ft. This number will depend of your current ISO. Shutter speed is irrelevant.

you have your subject in 10 ft away. you set your camera to appropriate exposure - if it`s outdoors your shutter speed should not exceed your max sync speed, if indoors you may set shutter as low as you can handle it, usually I would not go lower than 1/30 handheld.

 

so subject is 10 ft away. your guide number is 180. 180/10=18 so you may shoot with aperture 16 if your flash is set to full output in manual mode. Usually to do fill flash you should have your flash to be 1/2-1 stop less than your aperture was set.

 

That was manual mode work

 

If I got you right you were speaking about AUTO mode shooting - that if your flash uses its own sensor to decide if exposure was correct or not. In this mode you have to set 2 settings on flash - ISO and aperture, flash should do all the rest. Some flashes are quite consistent in this mode, others are not that good.