scott_foster Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Here�s my background: I have over 9 years of photographic experience both in a commercial lab (color, b/w, e-6) and shooting clients for products, modeling, musical group�s cds etc. I�m not an amateur but am not exactly a high-end professional either. I would rate myself as an entry professional. I understand the value of lighting, composition and technical f-stops/shutter speeds, quality film/lab. I strive for natural lighting as I feel this is the best lighting for my situations. I�m currently looking into wedding photography and flash photography in general. I shoot with a n90s and various D lenses. I borrowed a friend�s sb-28 and was sickened by the harshness of the light. I used the setup indoors with 9 ft. ceilings and shot straight on candid group shots with nps film. I was using this as a test to see what to expect from flash units. As I�ve been reading up on flashes I notice many people use a bracket and some type of diffuser over the head and tilt it. So, I�m building my set up and have just purchased a stroboframe and sc-17 cord and am now looking at what flash unit I should get. I�ve heard of wedding photographers using two units: one to light the subject and the other for background. This seems like a reasonable setup, but I would imagine you could use a smaller flash like the sb22 for the subject flash and a stronger one for the background? This is something I was thinking about, and may not work at all but here goes: taking a couple of lightstands with diffused bba bulbs to light the general area. Then flashing with the tilted head on the flash and some sort of diffuser on the head of the strobe. This may be much more trouble of set-up/tear-down than it�s worth in a wedding situation. Although, it would only be used in the pre-wedding shots that involved group pictures.. and not in the reception. I�ve seen the omnibounce and was told this will diffuse the flash while restricting the coverage depth to about +/-15 ft. Now, looking at flashes.. the sb-26 looks very similar to the 28 and can purchase one second hand for around $175. I�m not restricting myself from any flash set-up or combination of several flash units. I'm mostly concerned with price and would like to keep the flash unit (s) to about $200-275 second hand. If anyone has some suggestions on this matter I would really appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_gifford Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 The SB-26 is as perfect a match for the N90s as the SB-28 is. It's a little heavier than the SB-28, and it includes a wireless slave function if you want that. If you think you might wander into Nikon's digital SLRs sometime in the next couple of years, the truly inexpensive move would be to get an SB-80DX instead paying half as much for a used SB-26. But if digital isn't on the radar, and if $175 will get you a nice SB-26 today, go for it. It's a fine unit. I have an SB-28 for my N90s and like it a lot, but if I had seen a nice clean used SB-26 for $175 at the time, I'd have saved $100 and chosen the -26 without hesitation. If you found the SB-28 too harsh the SB-26 will also be too harsh in the same setup. Using an Omnibounce will help some if ceilings are low enough for bounce flash. It won't help much when the flash head is aimed directly ahead at your subjects, and in fact I find it tends to create significant underexposure in that straight-ahead mode (on my SB-28). Probably screws up the camera's fancy 3D matrix metering preflash algorithms. In bounce mode or 45-degree mode preflash isn't a factor so the Omnibounce is your buddy in those situations. Brackets are a good thing for better control of shadows. If you really could get nice soft light from 4 AA batteries and a 10 cm reflector, nobody would be using $1,500 kits of monolights with umbrellas and softboxes, right? So don't be too unkind in your assessment of hot shoe speedlights. They do work well within the limits that are designed into 'em. Have fun, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_cochran Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 You pay for two things in Nikon flashes: durability and meteringoptions. Neither of these things gets you soft lighting. Put the best Nikon flash on your hot shoe, aim it directlyat the subject, and you'll get the harsh flat light ofa (perfectly exposed) P&S snapshot. Toget soft, high quality light, at a minimum, you've got to get the flash off camera, and bounce or diffuse it with umbrellas of softboxes. Often you should use multiple lights.<p>When you use multiple lights off camera, you lose most of thebenefits of the fancy metering options on the Nikon flashes.So you'll be ahead of the game if you get any durable, reliable flash units, put them in manual, and use a flash meter. Vivitar 283s are old standards, Sunpak 383s offerbetter manual controllability, and Metz/Quantum/Lumedyne make flash units with more power. You'll want more powerfor group shots with umbrellas, because most batteryflashes don't have enough oomph to get a reasonable aperture for a medium sized group once you use a modifierto soften the light. A small studio lightingsystem would be ideal, if you're willing to cart it aroundand set it up. For $200-$275 per flash, you can get someAlien Bees monolights brand new. They'll have more powerthan any battery operated flash, they'll recycle quicker,and they'll have modelling lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawn_rahman Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 Scott, Great advice posted here so far, but if you find a used SB-26 in great shape for around $175, it is a bargain. Both Adorama and B&H charge $275+ for a 9+ or mint used one. This is more than it cost new when it first came out, I think. I purchased a new SB-80 for the same price that Adorama wanted for a mint-used SB-26. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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