Nikon CLS and iTTL: For a while I thought I had the Nikon iTTL system figured out. While taking photos of a statue in a park on a sunny day I wanted to use my built-in flash for some...

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Nikon CLS and iTTL

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Feb 18, 2012 17:54:10 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

For a while I thought I had the Nikon iTTL system figured out. While taking photos of a statue in a park on a sunny day I wanted to use my built-in flash for some fill light to get rid of shadows. I use a Nikon D7000, I was in aperture priority mode, and metering was set to "pattern". Built-in flash control was set to TTL. Shutter speed was 1/320 of a second, iso was 200, and aperture was f/4.0. The lens was a Nikon 18-200mm set at 26mm.

The picture was way over exposed. I thought the TTL was supposed to render a "correct" flash exposure. What did I do wrong?

Overexposed Gator

Feb 18, 2012 18:04:00 #

RTR Loc: West Central Alabama

My first ideas would be to check to make sure you were set up in TTL and not manual (I made that mistake before), and also check to make sure you didn't have any flash or exposure correction dialed in (did those too :( ).

Feb 18, 2012 18:06:41 #

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

jdcalabr wrote:

For a while I thought I had the Nikon iTTL system ... (show quote)

Sunny day with the settings you listed, it would be my thought that you were overexposed even without the flash.

Feb 18, 2012 18:14:19 #

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

The pop-up flash cannot possibly light that far background, this is not a flash issue. I would guess that you have an exposure EV in there- Flash overexposing would not do it because you would see dramatic drop off in the distance. I would bet (not too much) that this is entirely a camera exposure setting and nothing to do with the flash.

Feb 18, 2012 18:59:48 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

I guess I'm still a little confused. If I'm in aperture priority mode, shouldn't the basic exposure automatically be correct? And shouldn't TTL take that into account and adjust the power of the flash accordingly?

The only thing I could think of is that the automatically chosen shutter speed was limited by the sync speed. Perhaps a much shorter shutter speed would have worked, but then I would have had to engage FP sync, no?

Feb 18, 2012 19:01:22 #

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Wouldn't this be a time for "The Sunny 16 Rule?" Or close to it?

Feb 18, 2012 19:03:18 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

Does the sunny 16 rule get rid of shadows? I guess this is where experience means a lot. Thanks for the help.

Feb 18, 2012 19:05:43 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

I see what you mean about the background. I guess the starting exposure was way off for some reason.

Feb 18, 2012 19:07:09 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

This is a great forum. Thanks for all the input.

Feb 18, 2012 19:09:56 #

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I have no idea what the flash setup did to your exposure, if anything at all. But 1/320sec exposure was way too slow for ISO 200 and F4.0 with the amount of light you obviously have reflecting off that gator statue. Maybe at F16 it would be properly exposed. The concrete slab is close to being blown out. Did you check your histogram?
This is pretty much the situation the Sunny 16 rule is all about.

Feb 18, 2012 19:11:08 #

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

jdcalabr wrote:

After my first post, I thought about this and 1/320 suddenly woke me up as being the fastest shutter without engaging HSS.

So I tried it on my 7000 and that is exactly the solution. The pop-up flash limited your shutter to 1/320.

In my case I got the overexposure with the flash up and when I closed it the shutter went to 1/800.

Feb 18, 2012 19:44:48 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

I think you guys hit on the solution. First of all my chosen aperture was way too large. I think I was going for a narrow DOF. Then the flash limited my shutter speed, it was way too slow for the aperture. Perhaps I missed what the exposure meter was telling me in the viewfinder. Next time I'll pay more attention and try not to trust everything to work automatically in spite of TTL, etc.

Thanks again for the help.

Feb 19, 2012 23:34:05 #

claire

I have a D7000 also and with it if you use the pop up flash it will only sync to 1/320 of a second- NO FASTER! so your f stop was too open for that speed. BUT You can over come this by using an "Nikon creative flash" ( I use an SB-600) on the hot shoe which will then allow you to shoot a very fast shutter speed ( something likeup to 1/6400 sec as long as you go into the menu and turn on AUTO FP high speed SYNC.I made this same mistake when I started using the D7000 because my D70 synced up to 1/500sec with my pop up flash. The D7000 was not cooperative when I tried using F3.5 in the sun at an easter egg hunt ( I wanted background out) and overexpossed most of the shots. Buying and external NIKON suitable flash solved my predicament and I now can shoot with fill flash in any light with my f stop wide open. Read page 222 of your manual. (that's how they get you!)

Feb 20, 2012 20:29:54 #

jdcalabr Loc: Orlando, FL

Thanks for the input Claire. I too have a SB600 external flash. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong by only using the built-in flash.

Live and learn.

Thanks again.

Feb 20, 2012 21:02:21 #

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

jdcalabr wrote:

For a while I thought I had the Nikon iTTL system ... (show quote)

With your flash on your shutter speed can't be faster than 1/250 anyway.

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