toxdoc42

I have a Yongnuo YN568EX for my Nikon D3400. The instructions are not exactly clear. Can I use it as an off camera slave without buying a separate trigger? Will the top of camera and one slave work well enough for some simple portrait work or do I need another flash and trigger mechanism?

AllenDpics Loc: Williamsburg Virginia

I have the same camera. I think we need to use a trigger to operate an off camera flash. I'll be watching this thread for suggestions from the HOGS.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

I have the 568ex (canon version).
It will work as an off-camera slave if you use optical triggering (ie you still need another flash firing to set it off....in your case the hotshoe flash).
In this case you will need to adjust the power manually as ETTL and radio- based manual power adjustments dont work.

You can radio trigger the flash using 2 yn603 triggers (1 in the hotshoe and one on the flash). In this case, you still need to maually set zoom and power directly on the flash as the triggers only fire the flash but dont transmit information. (But they are cheap and work flawlessly)

In ALL the above cases, HSS does not work off camera.

If you want to use ETTL or HSS off camera (which this flash does support), you will need to buy the yn622tx and rcvr...they are often sold in pairs. The yn622s will transmit info between the camera and the flash.

If you do decide to upgrade and buy the yn622 setup....then any future flashes you may consider to buy the 685 which has the HSS and ETTL capable receiver built in so the extra rcvrs are not required.


One 568ex in the hotshoe will still HSS and ettl..

Enjoy !

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

You can use the 568ex off camera and trigger it optically with the camera's pop-up flash. I just browsed the d3400 manual and it appears the pop-up only operates in ttl mode. If so, just be sure to set the yn568ex to "S2" slave mode so it ignores the ttl pre-flash. You can use flash exposure comp to limit the effect of the on board pop-up in your images. The camera does not appear to be auto-fp sync capable, so shutter speed is limited to no faster than 1/200.

If you want to be able to adjust the yn-568ex power and zoom remotely, you will need a radio controller and transceiver (like the Yongnuo yn622n-tx and yn-622n), or a Nikon CLS Master flash for optical adjustments(like the Nikon sb700 or sb910). The off-camera 568ex can also be used in TTL mode with either of these last two methods, but its HSS capability still will not work with the D3400.

It's certainly possible to create some very nice portraits using the equipment you list. It's just a matter of learning how to get the most out of what you have.

toxdoc42

I understand most of this, I am getting frightened that I do, but what is HHS and what does it offer me?

If I do use the pop-up flash to trigger the off camera, will the off camera flash off set the flatness of the "in your face" flash? Is that what you meant by flash exposure comp? Is that an option on the camera or pp?

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

HSS = High Speed Sync
You can go beyond 1/200 shutter...really needed for backlit shots when you want to keep aperture open for blur during sunny days and still fill flash the subject...

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

Flash exposure comp (FEC) allows you to tell the flash to adjust power up or down ...often in 1/3 increments from what the flash thinks it should do based on the flash metering the scene in TTL mode. ... you can also ratio the FEC to another flash so the lead flash sets the metering and the slave flash will apply the FEC value before firing...

In your case....using the popup flash you run the risk of lighting the subject where you dont want...you can lower the popup value so the offcamera flash does the lighting.

....which is why I use triggers so so I dont have to use the popup or an on-camera speedlight.

(Think about buying 2 yn603 triggers for 20-30 bucks for a pair.....worth the money and makes the process more fun...the HSS capable triggers are much more expensive but still only about 50-60 if memory serves but much larger learning curve...)

toxdoc42

The yn 603 are only about $25 for a pair, yn622 are $70-80 for a pair, but if the popup on camera flash will do what I want, I will stick to that, will experiment. if not, then the off camera flash would have to be used alone, or I would need to buy another flash and 3 triggers. I once took a course, film days, in photographing the nude. One of our exercises was to do all of the shots with only 1 lamp! So I remember how difficult it was to get the light "just right"

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

LOL! Never heard that before! Seriously, Yongnuo is well known for two things. 1) good quality low cost equipment. 2) crappy instructions.

Not putting them down. Most of my flashes are Yongnuo. They are popular enough that between Google and YouTube you can find your answers. Good luck!

rdubreuil Loc: Dummer, NH USA

If you try to use the pop up flash to trigger the off camera slave you will not be able to prevent the pop up flash from also firing thus effecting the final exposure. The D3400 pop up flash doesn't have commander mode for triggering slave units, that would allow you to tell the pop up not to flash for the exposure but, only pre-flash to trigger the slave unit/s for the actual exposure. For off camera flash use you'll either need two flash units one mounted on the hot shoe to use as a commander or one flash unit and a trigger mounted to the hot shoe, one other option is a cabled connection from the hot shoe to the off camera flash unit. The D3400 does however support flash compensation

Flash commander mode is one of the bells/whistles missing from the entry level D3xxx series. Check your manual for details about your flash, pg. 87 thru 92 (using the pop up flash and the various modes supported) and pg. 117 (flash comp.). I hope this helps, good luck and keep shooting.

Here's the link to your on-line manual. http://download.nikonimglib.com/archive2/uUwBd00pBEMu02XTieR59PhW0E61/D3400RM_(En)01.pdf

For some reason the link isn't posting correctly, just copy paste the whole line into your browser.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

No. The flash has two optical slave modes - S1 and S2.

S1 is used when you are in manual flash mode and NOT using TTL. It responds instantly to the primary flash and will fire at the same time.

S2 is when you are using TTL. It ignores the TTL preflashes which are used to calculate the exposure, only responding to the main flash burst.

Since either way requires the use of a flash as a "Master" if you use the pop up flash, you are limiting your lighting options, and, particularly with portraiture, you could get red eye, and creating a harsh fill light, regardless of how low you keep the light level from the popup.

It's probably better to get a Yongnuo YN560 III manual flash, or a Yongnuo YN685 if you want TTL and have the 622 controller (it does not have an optical slave trigger built in) and will give you the freedom to place the flash anywhere you want, except possibly inside a softbox.

However, you can get an optical slave trigger for $20 to $35 that will work with any manual flash.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Optical-Slaves/ci/1736/N/4168864834

jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

You can also get the Cowboy Studio kit for wireless triggering of two flashes. Maybe not the highest built quality, but I've used this kit many times with good results.


https://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-NPT-04-Channel-Wireless-Receiver/dp/B002W3IXZW

lhardister Loc: Brownsville, TN

Others on this thread have, I think, answered your inquiry so I won't undertake to respond to your specific questions. However, within the past year I have also struggled with flash questions/issues and found Bryan Peterson's "Undestanding Flash Photography" to be the best material that I could find on the subject. I think it is well worth the money, even if one contemplates doing only occasional flash photography. More than any other source that I found, it helped me to overcome the "fear of flash".

toxdoc42

Thanks you all. Using all of your suggestions, I experimented tonight with the YN568EX and the pop up flash on my D3400. Voila, once I figured out how to set the flash to slave mode, had to find that on a google search, and then trying an assortment of settings, I took some very nice photos, of a bunch of flowers, will try actual portraits this weekend.

To set the flash to slave, you press zoom, not mode. That blew my mind. You then toggle between types of slave using the mode button, with your advice I set it to S2. Interestingly, the flash maintained that setting, so you have to remember to change it back from slave after using it. You are rewarded by seeing the red light on the front of the flash blink, confirming it is set to synch. I shot using the slave pointed at 45 degrees towards the ceiling with the white card extended. I used my Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.8 lens on my D3400. Setting the camera at aperture preferred I tried everything from f/1.8-22, to see the control I had of depth of field. The set up worked fine until f/11 when the system failed, that is the flash didn't fire for some reason. I shot from about 6 feet from the flowers. I then tried various flash compensation settings (in the I menu there is the compensation choice) on the camera to see if there was anything I preferred. I went all the way from -5 to +5 and found that -1.0 was my personal favorite.

There seems to be a lot of trial and error, but the results were very acceptable. I just ordered an additional inexpensive flash(Neweer 750ii ttl at $51) for use either as part of a 3 flash setup or for better control of the flash which is on the camera. The flashes did not really represent a significant investment. My local camera shop talked down the yongnuo saying the warrantee wasn't good and although they did say it was a good unit for the price, they really tried to sell me the Nikon flash. My total investment now of 2 flashes is still less than the cost of the Nikon. I think I can afford to replace one or the other if they die and I would still be ahead. So far I have been happy with the Yongnuo, except for the few shots that I screwed up, not really understanding the new paradigm and didn't do enough trial shots.

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged my trials.

toxdoc42

Just added 2 flashes to my equipment, ordered one by mistake. So now I have 3 flashes, the YN568EX and 2 Neewer 750ii. Tired them out and not for under $200, I have a nice, flexible lighting set up. The Neewer's need to be set on S1, not S2 and I use the YN568 on the camera, varying the output and angle of the light head to get the effect I wanted. So cool!