afilippides

<p>Thank you so much for the clarification Michael!<br>

It is all clear now! :)</p>

<p>Could somebody enlighten me why the photos I upload in the critique and rating forum do not appear to the gallery of photo.net?<br>

I had several pics rated quite well but I can never see them in the pictures submitted the last 24h or the last 3 days etc.<br>

Is it only me?<br>

Your help is much appreciated.<br>

Alex</p>

<p> </p>

How can I manage to get a BLACK background when shooting portraits or nudes?

Does it have to do with the positioning of the mono-lights? Is it done in

photoshop?Or is it as simple as by using a black paper backround? :) For your

info I use two mono-lghts (one brolie and one softbox)and I shoot at a blue

background.

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Well, finally got it!

I use the manual setting for flash at 1/16 with my camera set to Manual and shutter speeds from 1/60 to 1/500 (where it stops).

The performance of the flash units is impressive (for budget equipment). In order to block visible light from my built in flash, I reduced the power to -3 and also blocked the flash with a piece of simple masking tape :) it does work!

Wish me luck! :) I would attach an image of my work with the specific lighting but I am only stealing some time from work right now hehehe

Thank you so much for your input! really helpful!

My thanks to all of you for your time to read and answer my question.

Don is right :) I try to first trigger it with my built in flash. I do have an SB600 but not yet tried to shoot with it since I havent still figured out the basics.

The slave lights are triggered normally, at any setting of my camera's flash. This is what makes me wonder.

Anyway, I tried the manual setting 1/16 and works quite well. I still need to master exposure and light settings :) also try a few ideas given by all of you, for betetr results.

I appreciate your help

Vicky, I will agree with all the above.

An SB600 (or SB800)would light up your subject and would add some contrast to the sky.

Additionally, By using a flashgun you will be able to shoot in higher shutter speeds, getting sharper images in motion.

Something else to add, which may sound silly but nobody mentioned since it sounds as a common sense issue. What is the AF mode in your camera when taking this picture? Are you using AC Focus (continuous tracking of the object)? just to make sure ;-)

A couple of days ago I purchased 2 monolights for a very simple home studio

set up.

I dont know if the brand of the lighting equipment really matters but it is a

budget one (milenia).

My question may sound dump but I am really confused.

The monolights are triggered by infrared from my D70s built in flash. However,

they do not need a communication channel to be triggered as it happens with

SB600 and SB800.

What is the correct flash mode? So far in most of the cases built in flash

works as the main flash sourse. The only thing that works a bit better is the

manual mode of my flash at 1/8 but still results are not even close to good.

Please help. I am new into the lighting equipment and I have no idea how they

are supposed to be working. I am also staying and working in a small place in

Indonesia and I dont have easy access to studios and studio equipments to get

an idea.

Note: the D70s manual mentions nothing about this case.

My problem is not that I cannot go further to 1/100 or 1/500 for example.

the problem is that goes nowhere :) even under very poor lighting conditions and with the built-in flash 2 stops lower, the shutter remains at 1/60 resulting to very poor lit pictures.

It is working perfectly in all the other modes, the problem appears only at aperture priority with the built-in flash on.

I have got a D70s for under a year now and so far i did not face any serious

problems.

However, recently, when camera is set to Aperture priority and built-in flash

is on (and only under these circomstances), the shutter speed is stuck to 1/60

whatever the lighting conditions are like.

To be honest, I am not quite certain why is this happening. Lately I

was "playing" a lot with the camera settings and I do not know if I changed

something i did not realise.

The connection with the built-in flash makes me suspect that has something to

do with the settings since recently I was testing my SB-600 off the camera.

Any help would be highly appreciated!

thank u

Thank you all for your input!

Alan, I think Franklin's point is mainly Frank's reply attitude.

I am sure Frank is very smart and he knows a lot (much more than myself at least) regarding photography.

The point of the forum, however, is not to show the rest of the people how much smarter we are but to assist people who share the same interests with us (no matter the level of their knowledge)to overcome problems and become better.

Thank you all for your assistance.

A few days ago, I noticed through my D70s view-finder a mystery mark (like a

little debris, or dust) of about 1mm long.

It is positioned in the center of the view finder, inside the central circle.

First I though it is on the Lens, however even when I remove the lens the

mysterious mark is still there.

I tried to clean the sensor and the mirror by simply, very carefully, blowing

with a blower on them but no result.

The funny thing is that it does not appear in my pictures!

Where is it possibly placed on? Where could it possibly come from? Do you

think that may affect the quality of the pictures later? Should I urgently

remove it by servicing it? or as long as I have no obvious problems so far, I

should just live with it?

Thanks a lot everybody for your help.

Just two things left to complete my question :)

1. I am not very sure, but the built-in speed light looks to flash with the same intensity like the external unit. It therefore, does affect the lighting of the subject. Is there any way of keeping my D70s built-in flash at its minimum??

2. I have tried to set it with the commander mode but still needs to fire the built-in flash at the same time.. do I do something wrong??? (very possible)

Once again, thanks a lot!

Thank you very much for your help in my previous post, regarding shooting the

SB-600 apart from my camera.

Thanks to your assistance, my attempt was succesful, finally.

However, I have another one question I did not manage to figure it out myself

through the manual.

How can I make my SB-600 shoot without activating my build-in speedlight. So

far I have to pop my camera flash up and shoot from both extermal and build-in

speedlights. Is there a way that my only source of light is my external

speedlight?

Many thanks for your assistance! I am working hell a lot of hours every day

and I do not really have enough time and energy left at the end of the day to

put in looking into the manuals in so much detail (unfortunately). Also the

electronic version of the manual may be more handy but my only computer access

is at work :)

I honestly appreciate your input.

I have just purchased an SB-600 for my D70s.

I was wondering if I could use the speedlight unit apart from my camera.

To be honest, going through the insructions manual, it was not clear to me

whether I can use it wirelessly to fire from a different angle from where my

camera is or not.

If yes, how could I possibly make my D70s synchronised to the external flash

unit?

I have already set on the SB-600 the channel (A) and the group (3). However I

still cannot figure out the communication channel on my camera.

I would be glad for any response.

Thank u all very much for your immediate response!!

Im afraid I cannot post a sample at the moment cause I have a computer problem at home (I take some time from my work for this post).

Your answers are very useful and I hope I will resolve it soon :)

I guess it is a "practice practice practice" and "trial and error" case.

many thanx again.

I hope soon I will be able to post some descent photos for some strict critique!

Please Help!

Im a very recent owner of a Nikon D70s. This is my first serious

attempt with photography and obviously the first time I own an SLR

camera.

My problem is that I cannot focus properly where I want the way I

want! I usually end up with a messed up picture where either the

subject of the picture is out of focus or NOTHING is in focus!

I use the AF of my camera and although photos look good on camera

when I see them on a computer screen they are just useless!

Please help! I started blaming my short-sight for not focusing

accurately through my camera lenses!

PS When using my 70-300mm the problem gets even worse