Wedding shoot in 2 weeks! Help!

[clark_crosby]

It's my son's, and I am having fits figuring out how to shut off the pre flash on my Nikon D 50. As expected, the

manual is no help. What am I doing wrong?

 

I will be using the D 50, with a SB 400 on a Stroboframe bracket/SC 17 cord, set on manual, with the power dialed

down, and a Sunpak 433AF also on manual, with an optical trigger.

 

My camera is set on manual, low power, which seems to work fine for triggering the 433, but it appears to want to

preflash, too. I can't shut it off.

 

I don't have all the equipment I need for a hard-wire sync...yet, but I figure an AS-15 hot shoe adapter /PC to 1/4

phono plug to flash hotshoe with a 1/4 jack would do it, but time is lacking, and there must be a better way.

 

It seems my only other option is to warn the subjects that a preflash will happen, and tell them to concentrate on

keeping their eyes open, which is hard with an involuntary action. HALP!

[jlharris]

What kind optical trigger are you using on the SunPak? Does it fire at the same time as your pre-flash? If so, it sounds like you might have Red Eye Reduction enabled on the D50.

 

On the D50, look at the LCD on the top and see if there's an "Eye" icon in the flash area. If there is, hold down the Flash button on the D50 and turn the Commander wheel to cycle through flash modes (Slow, Rear, Red Eye) until you're on a mode WITHOUT Red Eye Reduction. That should do it.

[Ed_Ingold]

Tilt the flash head to turn off the exposure pre-flash.

[terry_o_connor]

What about using the FV lock option ? This eliminates the pre-flash on the D70. Will this work with your kit.

[joe_rych]

There is a manual override option to disable the flash completely. First promptly pop up the flash on the D50, then with a quick motion rip it clean off the camera and throw it in the garbage can. Doing this ensure that the inluded pop up flash is disabled and should no longer be bothersome with its annoying preflashes. I am suprised more people dont do this with thier mini-nikons. If I owned one that would be the first thing I would do.

[joe_rych]

Slightly off topic but I am still curious. How many of you are giving the full res HQ images to the client? I know I never gave out nagatives (or copy negs) and still today I dont give out original files. I'm just not in the business of selling files. I am a photographer. I make and sell prints of my work.

[joe_rych]

My apologies for the last post, photo.net glitched, this post was intended for another thread.

[clark_crosby]

Joseph:

Yes, the red-eye was turned off, and my optical trigger is one from India--the Sonia. It seems to work well, as do my Konovas.

 

Edward:

Just tilt the SB 400's head? I can do that! Funny that's not mentioned in the manual, or I missed it somehow. I find that a lot.

 

Terry:

FV lock?

I have read the manuals for my previous Nikon, and the D 50 multiple times, wondering just what that feature will do for me, and I still don't know. I was shooting sports car races with another photog a couple of week ends ago, and he told me he has the same problem with that feature. Must just be a Nikon thing!

 

Joe:

Yes, I have considered that option, but it seemed a bit....uhmmmm...extreme, even at the time. And , it would destroy what little water resistant integrity the camera has when I take it into the wet. That's probably what gaffer's tape is for.

 

Thanks, guys. I have lots of things to experiment with before the big day. I WILL succeed!

[joe_rych]

"That's probably what gaffer's tape is for. "

 

Agreed!

[terry_o_connor]

Clark,

 

Basically it eliminates the pre-flash which causes some people to blink on every photo. Once you have enabled it in the menu you compose your picture and press the AE-L/AF-L button...The Flash will fire and from this the camera measures the flash exposure required. From then on any picture you take wont have the pre-flash (just the main flash) and hey presto you wont have any blinkers......Just remember that if you change subject/distance you will have to AE-L/AF-L again to re-assess the situation.

 

Mr Rockwell has a pretty good explanation here.........

 

"To lock the flash exposure and stop the preflashes which make people and pets blink, set custom function 14 to FV lock. Now tap the AE-L/AF-L button and the flash pops once to meter flash exposure, and uses that measurement instead of needing a preflash for each consecutive shot. Be sure to tap it again to turn it off when you change distance."

[terry_o_connor]

So the sequence would be....

 

 

1. Enable it via menu option 14

 

2. Set up your subjects and Compose your picture...when youre happy press the AE-L/AF-L button once. The flash

fires...

 

 

3. Take as many pictures as you want whilst maintaining the same subject / distance relationship.

 

 

4. When youre finished with your subjects and want to move on to somewhere/someone else tap the AE-L/AF-L

button once to cancel the calculated Flash Value.....

 

 

5. Repeat from step 2 once you have another set of subjects to take........

[clark_crosby]

Update: The big day happened, and I used my Sunpak 2800 on a flip flash bracket with SC-17 cord, dialed down -1 stop for fill, and window light for main. It worked just fine. Everybody is happpy with their pixes.

Worked fine, that is, till I left to go to Costco to get the CDs done, and their CD burner went out. (I seem to have that effect on electronics.) THEN the wife discovered I was gone, and organized a major manhunt to find me. Sheesh!

 

All's well, thanks for the help!