hi guys,

i needed some input on using off camera flash... whats your setting and how you go about getting the right exposure everytime even though you are not on e-ttl (nikon) i-ttl(cannon)....pocket wizards, st-e2 or su-800....thanks for the help in advance...

I am not an expert on this as I am also trying to learn the CLS concept of Nikon. I'll just give you an answer based on my limited knowledge :Grin:.

I am using an SB-800 and two SB-600s. What I do is put my SB-800 on my camera since it is my master. I set up the SB-600s to be in different groups so I can control each one from the master independently. If I want the same output for the two flashes, I just set it up in the master too. Same holds true if I want different intensities for both. My mentor told me to just set the modes of my two slaves to manual so that their effect will not change and my master to TTL. I usually have the 2 slaves at 1/8 to 1/16th of the power (saves on batteries too :Grin:).

There was one occassion where I did this setup: I use one slave as the key light in which case I have it at TTL 0.0, the other slave as hair/background light which is at manual set to 1/2 to 1/4. The master is the fill light set to manual at 1/8.

By the way, if you are working with other photographers, make sure you set the channel so that your flash won't be accidentally fired by them or you to them.

Hope this helps.

Marco

Paging Mr. Pocholo Ignacio... :)

coollll, thanks for the input marco....i'll give it a shot today.... thanks again...

why dont you just shoot your hand where your subject would be?

sir chris, didn't get your post? you mean i stand where they are supposed to be and check my exposure base on the palm of my hand? i was more referring to using the sub flash, since i putting flash on m mode is kinda hard to get consistent result (with me) cant get it right...

i've been experimenting with marco's post.......its kinda working out for me....hehehehhe

yes sir thats what i meant.

i was thinking that you already have an idea of how big an aperture you want to use due to DOF. so lets say you want to use f5.6. so you set your camera's aperture to 5.6 and then your shutter speed to how much ambient you want to include in your shot. Now the only thing missing is the flash to illuminate your subject. take a few shots of your hand as the stand in for the model and adjust the power of the strobes till you get the exposure you want.

i guess thats the ghetto way of taking flash pictures with no lightmeter :D

oh what do you mean by sub-flash?