randymoe

I had a bad shoot yesterday. They wanted a rock and roll band 4 member image shot in a dimly lit open to the public arcade game room.

The lighting was dim, the games had bright glowing fronts right at face level. Shooting the room tethered from a 18" high tripod 24mm effective was no problem. Adding 4 rockers who could not hold still all at once did not work. I got 3 of the 4 to hold still for individual shots. #4 could not do it. I also was shooting AF for half the time, but had to change to MF because the camera could not focus.

I was using a Nikon D7000 ISO 1600 Nikon 18-55mm f3.5 wide open.

I feel I could have done better if I knew how to use my 3 SB 800 flashes better, which I did not use. Nikon CLS is hard to configure and even then I would have had to hide them out of sight of the camera commander. I am thinking of buying the Paul C Buff Cypersync system just out of frustration.

On top of all that mess, the bands leader is a graphic designer who was on my shoulder more than on the lens. He has definite ideas, which are difficult for me to understand, for the photos are to be used for their album cover.

I guess I am just venting. This a non-paying job by a hobbiest. I would rather do fashion shoots with flash!

Does any one have any experience with the NEW Cybersync's? I have used White Lightnings in the past. If all goes well in the winter, I may buy Cybersyncs and the new Einstein's.

Thanks for reading this far!

djb663 Loc: Massachusetts

I use the nikon cls, two sb-800's and one sb-600, and they work great for me. It does take a little practice/patience to become comfortable with setting them up quickly, but once you do you'll laugh about the troubles you're having now. I do, however, use them with pocketwizards to eliminate potential distance and line of sight issues. Give them another try, you'll be glad you did.