SB-800 bounce flash comment

[greg jansen]

More of a comment than question. I was shooting an event last night indoors,

low ceiling. I was shooting fairly close to the subjects, and when bouncing

off the ceiling (no diffuser) I was getting dark edges on the perimiter of the

pictures. I was using an 18-70 at wider settings.

 

This was because the ceiling was so low, wide angle lens, and the flash was

automatically zoomed to 28mm.

 

Then I had my "duh" moment. I flipped over the built-in clear diffuser. When

you flip over the clear diffuser, the flash zooms to 17mm. No problem with

coverage then.

 

I know I could have manually adjusted the zoom coverage on the flash, but I

don't like to do that for fear I'll forget what it's set to when I change

locations or lenses or something.

 

SO, when in tight quarters and bouncing, flip over the clear diffuser for even

bounced flash.

[frank_skomial]

Place th "Dome Diffuser" that came with your SB-800 over the flash head. This provides much more even light dispertion. The Nikon diffuser activates the micro switch in the SB=800 body, and that disables the Auto zoon function of the flash.

[juanjo_viagran]

I was very annoyed about the NIKON diffuser activating the micro switch so I did my dirty job, now the flash with the diffuser can work with the lens, no more 14mm ;)

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[Matt Laur]

I will add one cautionary note to Frank's suggestion, though. If you're using the SB pointed straight up at a ceiling, the actual light source will BE the ceiling, and in most cases, the illuminated surface of the strobe's lens won't be seen as a direct source of light that might reflect off the subject (say, their glasses) or other objects (like shiny surfaces or windows). BUT: when you put the diffusing dome on, one surface of the dome will pretty much always have a direct line of sight to the subject, and may cause some specular reflections you'd otherwise avoid.