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No, not THAT sort of flash....

I took the D200 to my work christmas do (hooray! pirate theme!!) last Friday, sadly I think I am becoming a bit of an "official photographer" at work. I don't really mind though, as I enjoy photography, and it gives me great practice at taking photos of people. Our CTO normally brings a D70 + SB600 to the work events, so at least I'm not the only photography nerd.

The practice is starting to pay off, I think. I got quite a number of decent shots during the night, mostly using the SB-800 off-camera with the help of the SC-29 cord. The only lens I brought was the Tamron 28-75, fabulous piece of value for money glass.

Apologies for posting so many pics, but I wanted to get some comments on this series as a whole - so as compensation, I've made them smaller than usual. Minor work in PS - cropping, levels, a bit of desat in a couple of the pics.

Any feedback? These are mostly candid shots, I'm still not very good at posing people - there IS one in this series that I posed, and I'm afraid she probably doesn't look very comfortable - or more likely wondering "what the hell are you doing?". Probably also not 100% happy with the colour on a couple of these.

very nice lighting des the 4th pic is great with the woman swirling her hair.

PiroStitch wrote:very nice lighting des the 4th pic is great with the woman swirling her hair.

Cheers piro. That was on the dancefloor during a particularly energetic number. One shot, one keeper

Though I have another 30-40 failed attempts (I tried a bit of flash + slow shutter speed experimenting. keeper rate in that venture.. er... a little less )

Des

losfp wrote:Though I have another 30-40 failed attempts (I tried a bit of flash + slow shutter speed experimenting. keeper rate in that venture.. er... a little less )

Funny how that goes, isn't it?

You have some great images here. The image already being discussed, as well as #3 - the lady with the skull and crossbones bandana - are particularly good, but there's nothing to complain of in any of these images.

I know what you mean when you say you're becoming the official work photographer, and while you say you don't mind, and while it can have some advantages, you also need to be wary that your skills and resources don't get abused.

That's a danger that you need to be alert to, but it's only a problem if you choose to make it so.

Be alert, not alarmed.

gstark wrote:Des

I know what you mean when you say you're becoming the official work photographer, and while you say you don't mind, and while it can have some advantages, you also need to be wary that your skills and resources don't get abused.

Absolutely, Gary. I do it because I love taking photos, and hell, I would have brought it along anyway. So far it's okay, because it hasn't interfered with my actual job yet.

It seems as though you work with a bunch of more interesting people than I do Des.

The off-centre flash courtesy of the SC-29 makes it very artistic IMO - not like the otherwise mundane deer-in-headlights look of an overhead flash. I like it!

great shots there and nice work with the flash! hmm.. body, lens, more lenses, now maybe a SC maybe on the way too!

sorry if this has already been answered before, but what is the difference between using a SC and the wireless mode? i thought they were the same because the exposure when using wireless flash is pretty much usually accurate.

-julz

Having the flash off the camera definitely makes it more interesting!

seeto.centric wrote:sorry if this has already been answered before, but what is the difference between using a SC and the wireless mode? i thought they were the same because the exposure when using wireless flash is pretty much usually accurate.

The RESULTS are pretty well identical.

However, the cord is a lot easier to use.

1) With wireless, sometimes the flash doesn't fire
2) You don't need to make sure that the flash can pick up the pre-flashes
3) There are no pre-flashes to distract teh subject
4) With wireless, you have to set your Exp Comp via menus on the camera, with the cord, you just push buttons on the flash
5) It is a pain to set the camera to wireless commander mode (inconvenient on the D200, downright aggravating on the D70/s)
6) With the SC29 (not the SC28), there is a red focus assist lamp on the hotshoe mount, which I find much better than the white lamp on-camera.

Hope that helps

losfp wrote:

seeto.centric wrote:sorry if this has already been answered before, but what is the difference between using a SC and the wireless mode? i thought they were the same because the exposure when using wireless flash is pretty much usually accurate.

The RESULTS are pretty well identical.

However, the cord is a lot easier to use.

1) With wireless, sometimes the flash doesn't fire
2) You don't need to make sure that the flash can pick up the pre-flashes
3) There are no pre-flashes to distract teh subject
4) With wireless, you have to set your Exp Comp via menus on the camera, with the cord, you just push buttons on the flash
5) It is a pain to set the camera to wireless commander mode (inconvenient on the D200, downright aggravating on the D70/s)
6) With the SC29 (not the SC28), there is a red focus assist lamp on the hotshoe mount, which I find much better than the white lamp on-camera.

Hope that helps

Few other points,

7) You can position the flash behind you, aming backwards (yes, aim backwards)
8 ) You can use the whole lot of modes with the SC (like iTTL-BL)
9) You can point the flash anywhere you want without futher adjustments. Great plus vs setting angles and visual reception for wireless
10) With a D70, you can 'cheat' sync to exceed 1/500th

Now those are 10 reason to get a SC... who coming up with 10 to counter those?

Technically you can still aim the flash backwards in wireless mode. You can rotate the head while still having the IR facing the subject. Pain in the butt and slower, but it can still be done

Yi-P wrote:

losfp wrote:

seeto.centric wrote:sorry if this has already been answered before, but what is the difference between using a SC and the wireless mode? i thought they were the same because the exposure when using wireless flash is pretty much usually accurate.

The RESULTS are pretty well identical.

However, the cord is a lot easier to use.

1) With wireless, sometimes the flash doesn't fire
2) You don't need to make sure that the flash can pick up the pre-flashes
3) There are no pre-flashes to distract teh subject
4) With wireless, you have to set your Exp Comp via menus on the camera, with the cord, you just push buttons on the flash
5) It is a pain to set the camera to wireless commander mode (inconvenient on the D200, downright aggravating on the D70/s)
6) With the SC29 (not the SC28), there is a red focus assist lamp on the hotshoe mount, which I find much better than the white lamp on-camera.

Hope that helps

Few other points,

7) You can position the flash behind you, aming backwards (yes, aim backwards)
8 ) You can use the whole lot of modes with the SC (like iTTL-BL)
9) You can point the flash anywhere you want without futher adjustments. Great plus vs setting angles and visual reception for wireless
10) With a D70, you can 'cheat' sync to exceed 1/500th

Now those are 10 reason to get a SC... who coming up with 10 to counter those?

Just 1:

The drunk guy at the Xmas party trips over the cord and topples over $3k worth of equipment.

phillipb wrote:Just 1:

The drunk guy at the Xmas party trips over the cord and topples over $3k worth of equipment.

I'd use my Manfrotto Camera bracket, with the SC, it holds the flash at about arms length away, and I just curl the SC-28 cord around it.

Its adjustable in most directions, if not all, and can have flash any position around the camera at about arms length.

makes sense now, thanks for the replies folks
much appreciated!

although one slight problem... now ive got the urge to try an SC!

heh- i reckon the preflashes are mad! talk about SPEEDlight...

-julz

issue with using a bracket is that it's not conveniently flexible. If it's handheld, you can do whatever you want nice and quickly. Point it at the person's face for direct flash, bounce it off the ceiling, bounce it off the wall with a quick flick of the wrist Takes some getting used to but it's ace!

PiroStitch wrote:issue with using a bracket is that it's not conveniently flexible. If it's handheld, you can do whatever you want nice and quickly.

I never found that to be a problem, speaking from years' of experience using various Metz ghetto blasters.

To start with, the flash is already positioned well away from the lens axis - a great start in the minimisation of red-eye.

And the Metz head was rotable through 90 degrees vertical, and 180 horizontal, which is less than what the SB800 (and similar) offers, but it was enough topermit me to do probably 90% of the work I needed it to do.

For the other 10% there was a simple release mechanism - thumb screw plus button - that took less than a couple of seconds to operate, and that permitted me to use the flash off bracket.

I see the Metz's release mechanism as being slightly more complex than that of the SB800, and therefore I don't really see this as an impediment either.

That said, I have no issues with using the flash in wireless mode, set to a more traditional A, and manually setting aperture on the camera and flash. In many of the sorts of situations where you're going to be shooting in this sort of mode, the conditions and subject style will be of a static nature in that once you have your exposure set for the conditions, there will be no need to make any changes, so why not dumb the process down?

you have prooven that this off camera flash technique can work on anybody not just people with strong structured facial features

good work

PiroStitch wrote:issue with using a bracket is that it's not conveniently flexible. If it's handheld, you can do whatever you want nice and quickly. Point it at the person's face for direct flash, bounce it off the ceiling, bounce it off the wall with a quick flick of the wrist Takes some getting used to but it's ace!

The manfrotto bracket, the 233B , has a knob to tighten, and you can adjust. At times, it can be tight, so the flash is always in the same position, or back it off, and it can be rotated in a completed hemisphere, on either side of the camera.

Very flexible, but most importantly for me, leaves my hands free to use the zoom.

Note, you do have a bit of canterlever happening if its off to the side, at full extension, but its great.

This one...




DONT KNOW IF ITS OK TO POST THOSE IMAGES, maybe the URL is more appropriate, admin please let me know for future?

Its not a glamourous bracket, but very functional for me