Thomas902 wrote:
""...take some mini (15 min session) holiday family portraits, on-site... ...holiday picture of her, her husband and baby... ...has to be nighttime and she would like if outdoors, in front of their new house, with Christmas lights... ...I don’t ever shoot at night. I have a speed light but am not even sure how to use it.... I have a Nikon d7200. The speed light I own (Altura) cannot not be set-up for TTL? (just learning about off-camera flash) so has to be manual and I am not sure of the settings I should use. Help! ...hoping for a quick lesson so I can get a decent shot for her tonight..."
Etram you should not have accepted this assignment... especially if you've never attempted nighttime outdoor portraiture... Sorry to be the messenger, but you have seriously exceeded your capabilities...
Since you will likely ignore my advice and attempt this shoot... The best I can suggest is to use your built in flash on the D7200 and set it's flash compensation for -1.7. Others here will try and tell you never use your built in flash... This is likely because they have yet to master this technique... See below taken with your camera model a D7200 using it's built in flash.
btw, if a commercial photographer were in your situation they might deploy a large shoot through umbrella with your (off brand) flash in manual mode using a PC Sync cord (you'll need a hot shoe converted ($2) and 20 foot PC ($15) cord to pull this off... To have the Christmas lights show up you'll need to deploy Slow Speed Flash Sycn... and let your D7200 match ambient here...
Mission impossible Etram, you're in way over your head...
And shame on those encouraging Etram to "Go for it!"
This is unlikely to end well...
.
""...take some mini (15 min session) hol... (
show quote)