Thomas902 wrote:
Thank you so much for your thoughtful SB-700 Menu images CO...
An image is often worth more than the proverbial Thousand words.
gvarner for every scenario there are a suite of configurations that may indeed "work".
However what are you shooting gvarner? That many times can drive the decision here.
Those who shoot commercially will likely go with what pays the bills...
Thus wedding shooters gravitate toward TTL BL tweaking Back Lighting to taste on the fly.
TTL BL (which Nikon calls Balanced TTL) initially was called Back Lighting TTL, however the marketing folks switched this to BaLance TTL.
For event shooters who live by "Run and Gun" they let their Nikon Camera and Nikon Speed Light (i.e. SB-800; SB-700 SB-910 etc) do all the heavy lifting.
Note: The Camera's Metering Mode must not be in Spot Metering for this to work (that's another story altogether).
Understanding the sequence of events goes a long way toward demystifying the complexities involved.
With the Flash in TTL BL and the Camera in Matrix Metering and Focus in AF-S mode (not AF-C)
When the shutter is half pressed Focus is achieved and the entire scene is metered.
Then data from the camera metering system and the focal distance from the D or G lens are sent to the flash metering system. This is the ONLY communication that takes place between the camera metering system and the flash metering system.
When the shutter is pressed down the rest of the way, the flash fires its pre-flashes and the flash metering system measures the reflected light. This reflected energy is a secondary factor to the distance reported from the D or G lens in the TTL-BL equations. If a D or G lens is not being used, the pre-flash reflected power assumes a more important role in the TTL-BL equations. When using a D or G lens, the main purpose of the pre-flash may be to set the white balance.
The flash metering system (which actually resides in the camera) now uses the distance information from the D or G lens and the data from the camera metering system, to determine the amount of added power required to make the subject brightness equal to the overall scene brightness. In other words, it adds light from the flash to balance the brightness of the subject with the ambient.
However you still can (and actually should) use Exposure Compensation to dial in +3 to -3 on what level of Background you wish.
Note: Everyone has their own "take" on what works best for their visual statement. There are absolutely no "Best" settings here. That said the beauty of TTL BL is it's quick and easy. The reason Wedding and Event Shooters use it.
The example below was taken with a SB-700 on TTL-BL in AF-S Mode with the Background dialed down a stop to bring the talent forward in the image and fill in the shadows under her eyes. Yes the face could have been tweaked down a tad but this was at a frantic event where time to review and adjust wasn't an option.
Do I ever use full manual flash? Absolutely all the time especially with a "Dumb" SU-4 Remote where I know exactly what I'll get for a given distance, aperture and ISO. Nikon's Speed Light system is rather complex gvarner and precious few (like CO) actually invest the time/effort to use it's potential to their maximum.
Hope this help gvarner or is at least food for thought.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful SB-700 Menu ... (
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