Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

I have a D7000 and a Nikon SB 700 flash I have a great grasp of exposure settings in S A and M with ambient light both indoors and out i use mostly manual setting so hear is my dilemma
In manual mode on cam
I set my flash at TTL then i set my desired aperture then use my meter to check on the speed setting .... so how do i determine this if using flash ???
it seems to me the camera's meter is telling me the correct exposure without flash ??? what am i missing here or do i set my exposure just the same way ??

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

i just tried looking at the meter with the flash on and off - meter readings are identical i thought using ttl the cam would accomodate for the flash

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Depends on what you're shooting, where you're shooting it and if you're using the flash as fill light or a main light.

One example: I shoot several events every year, some in really dark venues. For that I use an ambient exposure that's maybe a stop or stop & 1/2 under-exposed. The proper exposure for the available light might be 1/30th sec @ f 5.6 at iso 800.
I set the shutter for 1/60th or so and use the flash as the main light on ttl. The under-exposure of the background keeps some of the ambience of the venue without influencing the flash exposure as much and being so light that it's a distraction. This is a technique called drag shutter. The flash freezes the subject movement. If you used a shorter shutter speed, the rest of the photo would look like a black hole. To make it look nicer you can balance the flash to the ambient lighting- use an amber filter in the flash if the ambient light is tungsten, light green if the ambient is fluorescent....I have used the Gary Fong Light Sphere but I like the LightScoop better in some situatuons.

Just found a great tutorial on drag shutter- but I usually use ttl, not manual. Nikon's TTL flash system works great for me:
http://www.ephotozine.tv/video/dragging-the-shutter-with-michael-bielat-995

Photo below shot at 1/60th @ f/5.6 at ISO 800.
If I had used 1/125 or 1/250 the background would have been too dark. Any longer and the ambient would have been too bright.

Outisde: using the flash as a fill-light?
Set the camera for the normal exposure and adjust the flash to underexpose about one and a half to two stops, so the fill is very subtile. Adjust to your taste.

Ode to a Haggis

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

I'm not understanding something. Do you mean you want to meter for shutter speed? The TTL DOES take care of flash exposure, but for flash, shutter duration is immaterial.

For flash outside, camera in manual, you set aperture with two things in mind: the DOF you want and how much work do you want the flash to do. So at f2.8 you get a shallow DOF and the flash does not have to work hard. At f11, you get more DOF, but the flash has to put out 4 stops (16 times) more light.

The shutter is used to balance the ambient, so if you shoot at 1/60, you would get quite a bit of ambient, but at 1/250 you would get only 1/4 as much ambient.

Now to the metering - we cannot flash meter TTL as the meter reads the pre-flash, not the exposure flash. That is what your camera meter is doing for us.

However, if you use the flash in manual (the flash, not the camera), then if you have a good flash meter, you will get a flash reading and it will tell you the mix of ambient and flash.

Is this addressing what you asked?

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

Captain following what you have said plus others and some research on my own i think i have a little better understanding of - for lack of better terms "general flash usage" am i correct in saying the following ( assuming exposure to be balanced as opposed to "over or under" for creative purposes)

1- if using "TTL" on flash I would use my cameras meter to set my correct exposure for "ambient light" (based on what portion of the scene i choose to meter from) via ISO ,Aperture and Speed?? the flash would then act as a fill light in a sense automatically.

2 If I use "Manual" on Flash I would use my cameras meter to set my correct exposure for "ambient light" (based on what portion of the scene i choose to meter from) via ISO ,Aperture and Speed?? the flash would then have to be set my me for power almost a trial and error type of situation until desired results are found ?

If the above assumptions by me are correct using TTL is almost like using P on your camera- it decides flash not you. ??

Using manual is obviously manual - I would choose power ??

This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to flash - I am just starting with my SB700 but need this general understanding to get me going. Any simple tips or thoughts to give me that AH HAA moment would be greatly appreciated.

Any recomendation on Vids or books relating directly to My SB700 ??

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

1 last thing using a flash is basically an additional set up to your normal settings - set up the camera as you usually would- S A ISO then add the flash to the equation ??

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

i must be off on this though for indoor photography seems indoors at night if i try to set for ambient light i need crazy high ISO or very very slow Speed that being said i just did an expieriment in my fairly dark kitchen with only a couple of small bulbs on set my cam at F8 s 125 iso 1000 meter showed it was out to lunch but with the flash set on TTL gave me an awesome pic what gives ?? for this situation do i pick my desired Aperture then basic speed and iso and let the cam do the rest ???

Please help me simplify this

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Unless you live in a mansion, your kitchen is a relatively small room. At those settings, your SB700 will easily light the place up, even at ISO 400.

Aperture affects depth of field and how hard the flash will have to work- that's what I usually set first. For an example: If I have a lot of of awards to shoot and there are only a couple of people in the shots, I'll pick a wider aperture (being really careful about focus), so I don't kill the battery before it's over. (yes, I use a Quantum Turbo)

Your shutter speed is the only thing you can control which will not normally affect the flash exposure. Use it to control the available (ambient) light only if you feel the need. It's not a requirement. If there is a wall close behind the subject, the ambient light isn't going to be an issue, so use a shorter shutter speed and don't worry about balancing anything but the camera in your hand.

Just play with the different camera settings and see what effects you get.

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

found some good info on nikonians by russ macdonald and his blog quite interesting just scratched the surface so far

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Good, Please provide a link!

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

With respect to #1: Not quite. The flash in this case would fire at an amount to bring the exposure up to what the camera thinks is correct. That could be more or less than what you want. You would have to take an image and evaluate it to see if it is what you want. Then you can use both the flash EV and camera EV to balance them. The only thing you might expect is that it should not be WAY off. Although TTL can do strange things for no apparent reason.

For #2, Yes that is correct.


For some of the best flash information, go to the Strobist blog and START at Lighting 101 - do not just dive into where he is now as you need to get through the basics.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

Some good books on flash are from Joe McNally:
http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/#p=-1&a=-1&at=0

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

here is another couple that were quite good i thought

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.ca/2008/01/nikon-flash-two-separate-metering.html

http://neilvn.com/tangents/2010/11/04/flash-photography-essentials/